How quickly, if at all, is elite young talent shifting from traditional prestige career paths (banking, consulting) toward AI companies?

Matt Clifford · Jul 1, 2024 · hedged

UK talent allocation has improved substantially over the past decade: where roughly 60% of Imperial computer science grads went into finance when EF started, the share today is likely a fraction of that.

49:23 Uk talent allocation shifted substantially away from finance over the past decade

Harry Stebbings · Jul 1, 2024 · hedged

Graduates are moving away from a pure focus on money when choosing careers.

49:40 Graduates moving away from pure money focus in career choice

Harry Stebbings · Oct 27, 2025

Career memeticism persists in the UK despite market changes — students still overwhelmingly want investment banking and consulting — and breaking that chain is a live, unfinished fight

He speaks at universities once or twice a week and finds everyone still wants to be an investment banker

55:46 Uk students still overwhelmingly choose traditional prestige careers

David Cahn · Oct 27, 2025

Elite young talent has materially shifted toward AI companies only in the last twelve months — it took roughly two years after ChatGPT for the change to flow through to career choices

He is not seeing the shift in the 24- or 36-month window, only the last 12; many of the people he now meets are investment bankers trying to move into AI companies

56:21 Shift toward ai careers happened only in the last twelve months