Numis at a glance

Latest Transactions
London Stock Exchange Group PLC
£1.4bn
Co-global coordinator on the £1.4 billion sell-down of the London Stock Exchange Group PLC
March 2024
Custodian Property Income REIT
£237m
Sole financial adviser, sponsor and corporate broker
January 2024

An Interview with Freddie Barnfield

Freddie Barnfield  joined Numis as a graduate and has progressed in his career to Managing Director position. To celebrate the success of Graduates at Numis, we asked Freddie about his experiences working at Numis and what future employees can expect from a career here.

What has your experience of working at Numis been like?

I joined the firm back in 2006 shortly after leaving university, as a graduate in the Corporate Broking & Advisory department. For my first three or four years I worked across a number of industry sectors before joining the healthcare team, where I’ve been focused since.

Numis has grown a great deal since I joined the firm – both in terms of our client base, our profile and standing in the market. Whilst it might sound like a cliché, we really do have a unique position in the market place and a unique culture to match. 

Whilst Numis is large enough to have an excellent reputation and brand in the market, we’re also small enough for the firm to be a close-knit and intimate place to work where everybody, pretty much, knows everybody else. 

I definitely found that the flat management and deal team structures that we have at Numis meant that as a junior banker you work really closely with senior bankers and you’re able to learn a lot from their experiences too. You’re also able to get great exposure to clients, and the opportunity to build client relationships, at a really early stage of your career; this is often quite different from the typical experience at a large bank!

Getting the opportunity to work closely with the top execs at a number of the UK’s leading companies, helping them with ideas, strategy and the execution of interesting complex transactions is a real privilege that I never thought I would experience so early on in my career.
We’re also very joined up in our sector teams as we’re able to work closely with our colleagues in and across the business. This joined up approach is very useful when it comes to sharing ideas and coming up with solutions for clients. 

Numis is full of smart, energetic and driven people and in my view it’s arguably the people and the inclusive and collaborative culture that sets the firm apart from our competitors and make it a really great place to work!

"I definitely found that the flat management and deal team structures that we have at Numis meant that as a junior banker you work really closely with senior bankers and you’re able to learn a lot from their experiences too. You’re also able to get great exposure to clients, and the opportunity to build client relationships, at a really early stage of your career; this is often quite different from the typical experience at a large bank!"

Freddie Barnfield Managing Director, Investment Banking

Team work – is a really important part of our business. We work very closely together in our sector teams to harness the full resources of the firm to find the right solutions for clients.

Energy and drive – important to be passionate about the business and to demonstrate energy, stamina and a degree of competitiveness.

 

Motivation and Initiative – the job can be pressurised at times and so being motivated to succeed in a challenging environment is important and being able to show initiative early on in your career as you’ll sometimes be working with only limited supervision.

Relationship building - the ability to build long and lasting relationships with people is important – this includes not only clients and prospective clients but also colleagues and others in the market.

Multi-tasking and attention to detail – given you’ll be working in a fast paced environment on multiple projects at any one time, it’s important to be able to manage your time and priorities well, whilst at the same time paying close attention to detail.

Critical thinking – it’s important to be able to think critically about a range of issues impacting our clients and industry sectors.
 

What can a candidate expect from working at Numis?

A career in Corporate Broking & Advisory at Numis is dynamic and varied – you’ll get the opportunity to experience and learn new things each and every day. With the flat organisational structure that we have – you’ll work very closely and get to learn from senior bankers across the firm every day. You should also expect to get the chance to interact with clients’ right from the very start of your career.

Work will be challenging some of the time and you should expect to be stretched intellectually. There’s a friendly and inclusive culture and everyone is very approachable and very happy to take the time to answer questions.

We also run a very thorough training programme for all graduates, and you’ll be equipped with the tools and training you need to develop your career.

At Numis you’re encouraged to assume as much responsibility as your experience and abilities warrant, and in my experience your career path will then follow organically. 
Interested in joining the team?

help us BUILD the investment bank of a generation