Know all about How to Get into Investment Banking

If you have tried applying for a job in an investment bank, you’ll know that getting in isn’t easy. Front office investment bankers still earn considerably more than almost anyone else, except footballers and ‘celebrities,’ and banks are accordingly inundated with applications.

If you want to accomplish a career in financial services – particularly in M&A or sales and trading, you’ll need to be good. However you’ll also need to know the processes that will get you in the door. Banks are bureaucracies. There are tried as well as tested routes into their jobs. Some involve graduate programs, but graduate programs are not all there is. Before you give up on your chances of working in banking, have a look at the following list to know how to get into investment banking:

1. Apply during your bachelor’s degree

Banks hire students with bachelors’ degrees onto their analyst programs. These programs are extremely competitive: only the preeminent of the preeminent get in.  However, 80% (or more) of the people who get hired as full time analysts will previously have worked for that bank as summer interns – meaning that the real moment for getting into an investment bank is during the summer internship in the penultimate year of a university course.

2. Apply before or during your Masters in Finance

These days, banks also like to hire juniors with Masters in Finance qualifications – especially for positions in risk or sales and trading.

If you have a Masters in Finance, you’ll still join a bank as an analyst. Therefore, you’ll still need to complete a summer internship. With most Masters in Finance courses only lasting for one year, it’s advisable to complete this internship during the summer before the Masters even begins. In other words, you’ll need to apply for internships during the final year of a bachelor’s degree.

3. Intern, intern, and intern again

It used to be the case that students completed a single summer internship during which they received an offer to join a bank full time, or they didn’t.

Not anymore.

Nowadays, some of the preeminent students applying for jobs in investment banks have completed multiple internships (spring weeks included). More importantly, some have continued to work as interns even after they’ve graduated.  Moreover, some have received offers to join full-time at the end of these internships.

4. Apply during a top MBA

If you really can’t get onto banks’ analyst programs, you could always apply for the next notch up.

Banks mostly promote existing analysts to become associates. However, they also hire associates from outside. Precisely, they hire them exclusively from the world’s top business schools. If you want to get an associate job in an investment bank, you’ll need to have completed a top MBA.

5. Apply after some time on consulting

Banks hire in outsiders to help them work on strategy. If you’re a strategy consultant who specializes in the financial sector, you may be able to get an internal strategy job in an investment bank. But, you’ll need to have a top name strategy firm on your resume.

6. Apply through your ‘network’

Okay, networking and nepotism aren’t as big as they used to be in investment banking – particularly since the Chinese ‘princelings’ scandal. But having a family, or friends, or alumni, to vouch for you still helps.

As now, you have a firm knowledge of investment banking and how to get into the career; you can easily plan your career easily. Achieve your ambition with the right career option.