My experience with Robert Walters was incredibly frustrating and, ultimately, a complete waste of time.
The application process was unnecessarily long and drawn out. After multiple stages, I was offered a place on their graduate program, where they present themselves as an “agent” that secures you a placement with a partner firm. I was explicitly told that under their new structure, training would only begin once a role had been secured, and that the training itself would be tailored to that specific role.
That turned out to be completely misleading.
I then spent nine months waiting for them to come back with a role so I could actually begin. After all that time, I was told they had no roles available — none. Instead, they suggested I should go ahead and start the training anyway: three months of unpaid, full-time (9–5) work, with absolutely no guarantee of a job at the end.
It gets worse. While being told they had no roles for me, I could clearly see them advertising externally for graduate analyst positions. When I questioned this, I was told it was a “different department.” For a recruitment agency, that is frankly absurd — one part of the business actively recruiting candidates, while another claims to be “looking” for roles but not even sharing available candidates internally. It shows a complete lack of coordination and raises serious questions about how genuine their process actually is.
When I pushed for any real clarity — past placements, upcoming opportunities, anything concrete — they couldn’t provide answers. At that point, it was obvious there was no real structure or reliability behind what they were offering, so I chose to walk away.
Speaking to candidates from previous cohorts, this doesn’t seem like an isolated issue. There’s a clear pattern of people being strung along with vague promises. Even more concerning, some who did manage to secure roles reported issues with not receiving the bonuses they were promised — which is especially unacceptable given the already low base salaries.
Overall, the entire experience felt misleading, disorganised, and deeply unprofessional. A lot of promises, very little delivery, and an enormous waste of time.
