So, You Want To Work At An Investment Bank?
Choosing a Career in Investment Banking
Radha Chaurushiya '07, and Kristin Zimmerman '07
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Admit Weekend
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Well, look no further. As an admit to Chicago GSB, you have already taken the first step to finding your way to Wall Street. Whether you are a career changer or you come with a background in the industry, the GSB, and in particular the Investment Banking Group (IBG), are here to help you convert everything you wrote in the first essay of your GSB application into a rewarding career.
So what does it take to land a job at a bank? First, you have to have some clue about what it is you want to do. There are a variety of positions within an investment bank that cater to many different interests, talents, and personalities. Your goal is to identify the position that you will most enjoy and at which you will excel. For those of you who are not sure which area of investment banking provides the best fit, Career Services and the IBG provide extensive programming during your first several weeks at the GSB to help you navigate the many opportunities available to you, including corporate finance, sales & trading, research, and private wealth management.
Investment Banking/Corporate Finance. Investment bankers typically work as advisors to corporate clients and other financial institutions in dealing with mergers & acquisitions, corporate strategy and restructuring, hostile takeovers and other finance related topics. To do so, bankers analyze company and industry profitability, build financial models to determine company value, and offer strategic advice to clients of whether and how to proceed. Bankers also broker capital raising for institutions that need cash via equity offerings, debt or private placements.
Sales and Trading. Salespeople and traders make markets in a variety of fixed income and equity securities for their money manager clients. The day to day works varies depending on the product (mortgage backed securites, equity derivatives, etc.) and the role (sales, trading, structuring). Salespeople offer advice to their clients about market trends and help negotiate prices with the firm's traders on behalf of their clients. Traders are ultimately mangers of risk, determining at which prices to buy and sell the securities they trade based on a number of analytic and qualitative factors.
Research. Research people work to become industry and company experts and provide information to investors and financial institutions in order to allow them to make educated investment decisions.
Private wealth management. PWM professionals manage investment portfolios and provide advice to high net worth individuals and institutions.
A few words of advice at this stage of the game: try to do as much research on these areas as you can prior to coming to the GSB by reading The Wall Street Journal and other financial publications. Once you arrive, the recruiting process begins pretty quickly and it is best to be prepared and have an idea of where your interest lies. Also, be honest with yourself about your strengths, your likes, your dislikes and your goals. Make your recruiting decisions with an eye to who you are rather than following the bandwagon of your peers.
Once you have identified an area, or perhaps two, of interest, your next job is to network. Yes, network - it's never too early to start. In fact, you may as well start now; take this opportunity to mosey on over to the IBG table at the LPF activities fair and come talk to one of the co-chairs about your interests and any questions you may have about what we have to offer to prepare you for recruiting. It's really the only reason we're standing there.
Networking sounds intimidating to some and like meaningless jargon to others, and understandably so. But in the end, networking is just about getting to know someone, offering information about yourself, and gathering information about exactly what it is you are getting yourself into. You will find yourself reaching out to second-years, alums, and, at some point, quite senior people at the firms you are targeting as you make your way through the recruiting process next year. They will be using the time to get to know you, and hopefully you will also be using the time to get to know about them, their job, and their firm. The IBG organizes many events, but in particular the IBG Conference in Chicago (for those targeting corporate finance), the Global Markets Conference in New York (for sales, trading and research), and Bank Week that connect you with firm representatives who are there for the sole purpose of meeting you. Take advantage of these opportunities.
Step three is, quite simply, know your stuff. You can network like crazy for four months, but if you walk into your interviews in January and have no idea what WACC or a yield curve is, all the networking in the world isn't going to save you. In addition, if you can't provide concise, relevant, interesting answers to what seem like simple questions - why you want to do banking, or "walk me through your resume" - nailing every technical question won't get you very far either. The IBG provides valuation and modeling seminars, firm-sponsored workshops on topics like equity derivatives and credit derivatives, and case competitions such as the IPO Challenge that will help get you up to speed on the technical aspects of the industry. We also hold mock interviews to help you articulate your story as effectively as possible come show time.
If all goes well, this time next year you will be standing in the middle of the Winter Garden inundated by phone calls from the banks pressuring you to accept their job offers. But the work of the IBG doesn't stop there. We take very seriously our responsibility to help you celebrate all the hard work you put into the process by sponsoring IBG open bar nights that, if you have celebrated appropriately, you will have little memory of the next day other than that you had a very, very good time.
So what does it take to land a job at a bank? First, you have to have some clue about what it is you want to do. There are a variety of positions within an investment bank that cater to many different interests, talents, and personalities. Your goal is to identify the position that you will most enjoy and at which you will excel. For those of you who are not sure which area of investment banking provides the best fit, Career Services and the IBG provide extensive programming during your first several weeks at the GSB to help you navigate the many opportunities available to you, including corporate finance, sales & trading, research, and private wealth management.
Investment Banking/Corporate Finance. Investment bankers typically work as advisors to corporate clients and other financial institutions in dealing with mergers & acquisitions, corporate strategy and restructuring, hostile takeovers and other finance related topics. To do so, bankers analyze company and industry profitability, build financial models to determine company value, and offer strategic advice to clients of whether and how to proceed. Bankers also broker capital raising for institutions that need cash via equity offerings, debt or private placements.
Sales and Trading. Salespeople and traders make markets in a variety of fixed income and equity securities for their money manager clients. The day to day works varies depending on the product (mortgage backed securites, equity derivatives, etc.) and the role (sales, trading, structuring). Salespeople offer advice to their clients about market trends and help negotiate prices with the firm's traders on behalf of their clients. Traders are ultimately mangers of risk, determining at which prices to buy and sell the securities they trade based on a number of analytic and qualitative factors.
Research. Research people work to become industry and company experts and provide information to investors and financial institutions in order to allow them to make educated investment decisions.
Private wealth management. PWM professionals manage investment portfolios and provide advice to high net worth individuals and institutions.
A few words of advice at this stage of the game: try to do as much research on these areas as you can prior to coming to the GSB by reading The Wall Street Journal and other financial publications. Once you arrive, the recruiting process begins pretty quickly and it is best to be prepared and have an idea of where your interest lies. Also, be honest with yourself about your strengths, your likes, your dislikes and your goals. Make your recruiting decisions with an eye to who you are rather than following the bandwagon of your peers.
Once you have identified an area, or perhaps two, of interest, your next job is to network. Yes, network - it's never too early to start. In fact, you may as well start now; take this opportunity to mosey on over to the IBG table at the LPF activities fair and come talk to one of the co-chairs about your interests and any questions you may have about what we have to offer to prepare you for recruiting. It's really the only reason we're standing there.
Networking sounds intimidating to some and like meaningless jargon to others, and understandably so. But in the end, networking is just about getting to know someone, offering information about yourself, and gathering information about exactly what it is you are getting yourself into. You will find yourself reaching out to second-years, alums, and, at some point, quite senior people at the firms you are targeting as you make your way through the recruiting process next year. They will be using the time to get to know you, and hopefully you will also be using the time to get to know about them, their job, and their firm. The IBG organizes many events, but in particular the IBG Conference in Chicago (for those targeting corporate finance), the Global Markets Conference in New York (for sales, trading and research), and Bank Week that connect you with firm representatives who are there for the sole purpose of meeting you. Take advantage of these opportunities.
Step three is, quite simply, know your stuff. You can network like crazy for four months, but if you walk into your interviews in January and have no idea what WACC or a yield curve is, all the networking in the world isn't going to save you. In addition, if you can't provide concise, relevant, interesting answers to what seem like simple questions - why you want to do banking, or "walk me through your resume" - nailing every technical question won't get you very far either. The IBG provides valuation and modeling seminars, firm-sponsored workshops on topics like equity derivatives and credit derivatives, and case competitions such as the IPO Challenge that will help get you up to speed on the technical aspects of the industry. We also hold mock interviews to help you articulate your story as effectively as possible come show time.
If all goes well, this time next year you will be standing in the middle of the Winter Garden inundated by phone calls from the banks pressuring you to accept their job offers. But the work of the IBG doesn't stop there. We take very seriously our responsibility to help you celebrate all the hard work you put into the process by sponsoring IBG open bar nights that, if you have celebrated appropriately, you will have little memory of the next day other than that you had a very, very good time.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
end tables
posted 5/28/07 @ 1:37 PM CST
What can i say, choosing such a career means that you can handle big trouble. I admire that, not for me though, not because i don't like to work, and because i don't feel capable to have such a job. (Continued…)
punterpandey
Vivek Pandey
posted 10/12/07 @ 2:46 AM CST
How about hedge funds ? Do they fall within the scope of Investment Banking ? The GSB curriculum does not seem to have a course targeting this particular vertical. (Continued…)
Aquasmith
posted 10/17/07 @ 4:19 PM CST
I want break into investment banking. GSB looks like a very attractive place to start. Given its superb econ and math department where you can make your mind as rigorous as you want outside the curriculum, this gives me a good prospects on available career service group to help me to make the transition. (Continued…)
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