Hayfin

The firm has placed 64 interns since the inaugural 2021 cohort, which started with eight per its diversity disclosures, and intern places are filled through partner organisations rather than an open application portal. There is no separate graduate scheme; full-time analyst-level openings appear ad-hoc on the current opportunities page. The small intake and partnership-led intake route compress the choice for an applicant: success here is mostly a function of being inside one of those partner pipelines, not of applying broadly.

First, Hayfin is a founding member of SEO London's Alternative Investment Programme, which it co-developed and launched on 11 February 2021 and which remains its main talent recruiter for the summer cohort. Second, the programme runs alongside dedicated partnerships with GAIN (Girls Are INvestors) and with St Anne's College, Oxford, all aimed at widening-participation talent rather than the generic university milk round. Third, the 10-week duration is shorter than the 12-week summer-analyst standard at the bulge-bracket banks, paired with exposure across a narrower asset-class mix (European private credit and alternative credit, with maritime and healthcare verticals). For a candidate weighing a specialist private-credit firm against a universal-bank summer-analyst seat, the trade is depth in one alternatives franchise and a non-standard application route, in exchange for far fewer total openings.