If you are applying for Graduate Schemes or Internships in Banking, Finance or Investment Banking there are several things you will need to know.

Firstly, you will need to plan in advance in order to secure a graduate job in banking or any graduate career in finance.

If you are still a student looking for work experience and still in your first year, many of the major Investment Banks have Spring Internship programs such as Goldman Sachs.

Obviously check each institutions application deadlines, but most banking or finance spring internship application deadlines range from November to February each year.

As a second year student you can apply for banking or finance summer internship programs at most major investment Banks like Citi Group, Barclays Capital, RBS, UBS, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Bank Of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Nomura Holdings, Royal Bank of Canada amongst others.

As a final year student you will need to be ready to apply for Investment Banking Graduate Scheme deadlines starting in September onwards. This also applies to Accounting Graduate Schemes like PWC, Deloitte, Ernest & Young and KPMG to mention a few, as well as some Commercial Banks, Proprietary Trading Houses, Hedge Funds, Private Equity Institutions, Investment Institutions and other major financial institutions.

It is worth getting a list of Investment Banks and other financial institutions in order to make sure you know which of the Banks and Financial Institutions you want to apply to.

If you have missed any of the finance graduate scheme, banking graduate schemes, finance internship or banking internship application deadlines, then don't worry.

There are still hundreds of other Banks and Financial Institutions that do not have graduate scheme application deadlines.

You can make your own internship by contacting banks and financial institutions and making your own work experience opportunity.

To be successful in these applications and to make your own banking job or finance work experience, you will need to know what you are talking about.

A great site to stay up to date with the latest Banking Graduate Schemes and Finance Graduate Schemes is the news and career research section of the website of banking and finance consultancy company Benedix.

If you are applying for last minute graduate schemes or work experience opportunities and you have missed the application deadlines you will need a perfect banking CV or finance CV and a lot of creativity to influence your way in and create your own opportunity.