Maritime metaphors are unexpectedly popular when it comes to graduate recruitment. Not long ago, banking recruiters talked confidently about "widening their nets", or visiting far-flung universities in search of students not previously on their target list.

Now, however, "battening down the hatches" appears a more apt description of investment banks' attitude to graduate hiring. Difficult market conditions made graduate recruiters more guarded in 2002. Numbers were cut, nets were hauled in and presentations were made only to students at select universities.