How To Get An Investment Banking Job

Investment banking jobs are where the real money is. It is recognised as one of the highest paying industries, and as such, is obviously a difficult area to break into. In this article we look at ways of making your chances of landing one of these positions much greater.

1. Qualifications. Investment banking is one of the most difficult sectors of the job market to break into, and as such, it can be hard to get on without a decent education behind you. For entry level positions in investment banking you will need a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, but to progress from that point, things will be much easier for you if you have a master’s degree. You can also look to do some slightly more specific training for and investment banking role, and you could look to an acquisition of career designations such as certified financial analyst.

2. Find an internship. This is something that you can do in the summer before you graduate, and it is a great chance to learn more about the job and also make some invaluable contacts prior to finishing your degree. It is also not unheard of for internships to lead directly to full time positions should you impress suitably. Internships can be hard to come by, but if you are at a top college in the states, there is a good chance that some of the bigger financial institutes will visit your college to hold seminars. This is a good chance to approach people directly to find out about the possibilities open to you.

3. Network and keep in touch with everyone! Investment banking is all about the hard and skilled work you can do, but it is also about who you know. There are normally three rounds of interviews that take place to get into investment banking, and the first one normally takes place on college grounds, and the companies like to send people to interview you who have been at the college in the past. If you know this person from their time with you at the college, you are going to be one step closer to your goal!

4. Prepare for you final interview. Investment bankers are not the most creative people in the world, and the questions tend to be the same no matter where you apply and who interviews you. You will have questions like how do you deal with stress, how have you learned from a mistake in the past, how did you overcome the most challenging experience in your life so far and so on. All fairly standard and broad questions which you can prepare for very effectively.

Make sure you stick to these tips if you are considering a career in investment banking. If you follow these to the letter and work very hard then there is no reason why you can’t get a job in investment banking.