Inside Revolut’s frighteningly competitive new internships, and how to get one

Last year, fintech titan Revolut launched its annual ‘Rev-celerator‘ internship programme. This year, it’s back… but it’s not any easier to snag a place.

Click here to sign up for our fintech newsletter 🤖

Revolut offered ten places on the programme last year but received more than 3,000 applicants, an acceptance rate of 0.33%. Hedge funds like Balyasny and Citadel accept a similar percentage of applicants. Revolut’s full-time gigs are similarly competitive, with more than 500 applicants per job.

It’s not clear exactly how many interns Revolut is accepting this year, but it expressed a desire previously to expand the program. There are four listings open currently, including London-based internships in business development and UX product ownership. Engineering internships are reserved for mainland Europe right now, with a python role available in Lithuania, Portugal and Poland. The roles are also advertised as available for remote workers.

Why get an internship at Revolut?

Revolut has a reputation for giving its younger employees a lot more responsibility than they would be used to elsewhere. The fintech has (rather contentiously) employed people in their early-20s reporting directly to CEO Nik Storonsky in the past. Revolut’s high bar to entry has given its alumni a very positive reputation in the space.

It appears that Rev-celerator can be just as fulfilling. Anousha Chowdhry, one of the 2023 cohort, called her time at Revolut “enriching” and said it gave her “countless opportunities for personal and professional growth.” She described the skills she learned in those three months as “invaluable.”

You can also translate the internship into a full-time graduate opportunity. Lucas Lawman, a Warwick university student, interned as a back end software developer and will be returning after graduation. He praised the fintech‘s “exceptional team members” who “warmly welcomed me and provided invaluable guidance.”

The internships certainly won’t be for everyone; Revolut has earned a reputation for being very demanding of its employees. Storonsky has said in the past that Revolut staff work 13-hour days and weekends when necessary, but exact hours don’t matter: what does is “getting sh*t done.”

How to get an internship at Revolut

After just one year of the program, it’s difficult to create a definitive profile of what a Rev-Celerator intern looks like. There are, however, some consistencies with 2023’s accepted applicants.

Many of the interns come from high ranking UK universities. Last year there was one intern from Durham, three from UCL, two from Warwick and two from Imperial College. There was a mixture of bachelors and masters students amongst these.

Don’t expect to get in without internship experience elsewhere. The majority of successful applicants had internships in sectors such as healthcare, banking, defense and fintech. One of the few who didn’t have an internship was instead a competitive programmer, another had experience in open-source quantum algorithm research. 

Then, of course, your personality needs to align with Revolut’s unique working environment. Reviews on jobs forum Blind say Revolut is “dynamic” and “results driven.”  You also need to be an “A+ player.” Sounds easy… right?

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)