Read Time: Quick ting

Happy Valentines Gang,

Apologies for the very late delivery! I’ve been busy doing cold outreach for business and potential baes. The streets are cold on both sides of the spectrum 🤧 

Table of Contents

• Events 🗓️

• Who’s Hiring 💼

• Headlines 🗞️

• Candid Memes 🙂

• Employer Referrals 📨

• CEO Updates 💸

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Events: #MERKYBOOKS x Banking Virtual Insights Sesssion

First event of 2025: A virtual insights session for Uni students in collaboration with a world-leading global Bank and Stormzy’s #MERKYBOOKS. Spaces are extremely limited, so register ASAP.

Who’s Hiring: £35k salary + £5k bonus 💸

Role: Commercial Banking Graduate

Location: Birmingham & Manchester

Criteria:
↳Recent graduate with a 2:1
↳Available to start in July 2025

Compensation: £35k salary + £5k bonus 💸

Application Deadline: Tuesday 17th of February 2025 🗓️

Headlines: Should you use AI for job applications? What UK hiring managers think…

Job Market 💼

• UK fintech jobs surge 44% as London leads hiring boom (FinTech Futures) - the good news before the bad

• ‘It’s nightmarish’: why 1.5m Britons are still hunting for a job (The Guardian) - new jobs soon land at Beyond Education 🫡

• Disney tweaks DEI programs to focus on business outcomes (Reuters) - whatever that means 🤷🏾‍♂️

• Burnout Britain | Half of HR leaders suffering from anxiety at work every week (HR Grapevine) - twinning :)

• Pay of Barclays CEO more than doubles to £10.5m as profits soar (The Guardian) - i wonder if they are hiring any more CEOs

• Should you use AI for job applications? Here’s what UK hiring managers think (CityAM) - just don’t make it bait

• ‘I used to be paid £1 an hour’: CEO of Tokio Marine Kiln on how he made it (CityAM) - bro was getting finessed 😭

• Barclays increased graduate hiring 46% in two years, but diversity is falling (CityAM) - gotta get a meeting booked in with these man 👀

• McKinsey sticks with DEI initiatives (LinkedIn)

• JPMorgan CEO Dimon derides in-office work pushback, demands efficiency (Reuters)

• UK job market downturn persists as hiring slows further (HR Grapevine)

• Revealed: the apprenticeship barriers limiting school leavers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (HR Grapevine)

General Shenanigans 🚨

• London is ageing twice as quickly as the rest of England (The Economist) - proof that I am not an Unc and the UK is just bad vibes

• Blanket bans on workplace relationships may seem the solution but often aren't (HR Grapevine) - let people find love man 🙄

• Lloyds partners with ‘Duolingo of money’ to target Gen Z (CityAM)

Abit Techie 👾

• Musk will withdraw OpenAI bid if ChatGPT maker stays nonprofit, lawyers say (CNBC) - is Twitter not enough? how greedy 🤮

• Musk brands Altman a ‘swindler’ after OpenAI rejects $100bn bid (CityAM) - Kendrick v Drake Tech Billionaire edition

• Musk v Altman: The battle to become king of AI (Sky News) - the lore for anyone interested

• TikTok returns to major US app stores after Trump reassures tech giants (Sky News) - yay :)

• US sovereign wealth fund could buy TikTok, Trump says (BBC News) - think i yayed too soon 😬

• Why employees smuggle AI into work (BBC News) - you what mate 😅

• Apple is reportedly exploring humanoid robots (Tech Crunch) - bruh we are actually so cooked 😭

• OpenAI lays out plans for GPT-5 (Tech Crunch) - i was having a full blown convo with ChatGPT in voice mode yesterday…chat am I cooked? 😭

• Why the UK didn't sign up to global AI agreement (Sky News)

• Britain will miss out on the AI revolution unless it recalibrates attitudes to risk (CityAM)

• How China’s DeepSeek could boost the already booming data center market (CNBC)

• The future of AI will be shaped in Paris(Morning Brew)

Investment Heads 💸

• FTSE 100 surges after Bank of England cuts interest rate (City AM)

• A private equity MD's guide to getting a junior job in the industry (efinancialcareers)

• Pound Sterling slumps after US inflation beats expectations (CityAM)

• How fast is the UK's economy growing? (BBC News)

• London named Europe’s ‘unicorn capital’ for fintechs (CityAM)

Honourable Mention 🗣️

• Rising chocolate prices linked to climate change (LinkedIn News)

• Who wants to be a manager? How different generations feel about career progression (LinkedIn News)

• Goldman Sachs ends IPO diversity policy citing legal developments (Reuters)

• Investors are not taking the Bank of England seriously (CityAM)

• GDP grows 0.1 per cent as UK economy skirts recession (City AM)

• US fashion boss Steve Madden buys Kurt Geiger for £289m (The Guardian)

• Inflation just ticked up again, startling economists (Morning Brew)

• Fundsmith: UK’s biggest fund overtaken by St James’s Place (CityAM)

• UK inflation rate: How quickly are prices rising? (BBC News)

Headlines curated by Isobel 🤝

Candid Memes 🙂

Employer Referrals 📨

A lot of people always ask: “How can I help Beyond Education”

Simply put: Introduce me to relevant contact(s) in your corporate job who are responsible for DEI & hiring.

It’s that simple!

To make this easy, I’ve created a simple 1-page summary on Notion.

With intro templates, helpful links & relevant details to help more underrepresented talent access opportunities with inclusive employers 🚀

Access the 1-pager here ⬇️

CEO Updates 💸

POV: Frantically searching for a meeting room 3 min before a big money pitch. Anxiety levels were at an all-time high ⬇️

Appreciate you for making it to the end of the newsletter Gang.

PS: Please Update this quick form so I can get to know you better 😊

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