About
IBanker Basics:
For my undergraduate degree I attended a city university with a concentration in finance and mathematics, and graduated with a GPA in the top 2% of the class. While working towards my undergraduate degree, I worked on a municipal bond desk for a bulge bracket bank, and then moved on to the operations division of a Fortune 500 company. While working in operations, I made a strong effort to step up, demonstrate enthusiasm and take on additional projects. My drive paid off as I was allowed to work on more interesting projects such as company expansion/consolidation opportunities, and cash flow projections. Through extensive networking, including reaching out to friends, contacting former colleagues, sending out emails and cold calling while searching internet employment classifieds, I landed an interview with a boutique M&A advisory shop. Leveraging the more applicable aspects of my operations experience with my accounting and finance background, I landed the internship.
After graduating, I began to work for a bulge bracket investment bank as an investment banking analyst (this same bank is my current employer – hence the anonymity). Although coming from a non-target school makes the process a bit more challenging, it is not at all impossible – just another hurdle to overcome. One of the most important things to remember is that you must not act as your own worst enemy. Stay confident, leverage your skills and scholastic aptitudes properly, display your achievements in an articulate resume and familiarize yourself with the more common types of interview questions and pitfalls.
Besides work, which does take up a healthy (or unhealthy) amount time, I have several hobbies that I enjoy including trail biking, powerlifting (I’ve won a few competitions over the past 2 years), bodybuilding, creative writing, volunteering, cross country running, racquetball, golf, and reading. I would include pitch book work and excel modeling in my list, but I figure my enthusiasm for them is pretty much implied. After all, who can possibly resist the allure of endless pitch books and boundless financial models as far as the half-closed, fuzzy, weary eye can see (I actually do enjoy financial modeling, but just as with all enjoyable activities, moderation is key).
Site Basics:
I started this site to help people from all backgrounds (read: Target and non-Target schools, previous banking experience or trading, consulting, operations, research, teaching, accounting, sales or countless other fields of work/internship experience) break into investment banking. I’ve picked up a lot of tips, strategies, and insights into the field throughout my career, and I want to share them to help other people achieve their goals. At the same time, I know how easy it is to become discouraged; to send out resume after resume with nothing to show for it; to interview in the final round, and to come so close only to not get the offer. I also know how great it feels to nail an interview and to ultimately break in and thrive in the field. It is with these lessons and experiences in mind that I started this site, and will be posting original articles and finance-related news updates on a regular basis, as well as offering many products and services including interview prep sessions, resume and cover letter review and editing, financial modeling and pitch book information packets, and much more in the very near future. Ideally, Bank on Banking will be your one stop information hub and shop regarding investment banking – even in this ultra-competitive market, with the right tools and knowledge, you can and WILL break into investment banking!
If there is anything else that you are curious to know, by all means, just ask, and, of course, sign up for the RSS and Email feeds – stay connected.
Brace yourself, it’s about to get exciting (I hope)!
Hey, first I’d like to say great website and awesome about me page! I’m just very curious on how hard or easy it was for you to find a boutique M&A firm to intern at. I currently also attend a City school here in New York and is hoping to land a BB investment bank summer analyst position next summer. I know it’s near impossible to land a summer internship at a BB firm without any previous investment bank experience. And it’s also extremely hard to find a boutique/middle market invesment internship. My question is how did you start on your path to be where you are now, working at a BB firm? How exactly were you able to land a boutique m&a firm?? When you emailed and cold called firms , were they listed as hiring or did you just find a list of investment banks and decided to just callthem and ask if they were hiring an intern? Thanks for your time, and your response will be greatly appreciated.
If the bank you work at is any good, why would you need extra income from coaching kids and how would you have time to do so?
If the bank you work at is not good, why should people come to you for advice?
I don’t necessarily think that people are going to the site for advice because I work for Bank X or Bank Y – in fact, working for the most prestigious bank does not mean that you can help other people break in or stay on path. That said, I don’t work for the best bank (GS), but it is a BB player with a sizable market share/rank in several industries and products. To your income question, I don’t need the extra money at this time, but I am trying to build a business (as it is not necessarily my end goal to move up the ranks in banking) and perform services for people as part of that business, when requested. I will offer a great deal of advice free of charge as many, if not all of you are aware, but I feel it is only right to charge for the services that I perform such as interview prep and resume revisions upon satisfactory completion. The last thing that I want is for anyone to feel cheated or feel that they are being led astray. If you have any other questions for me, please do not hesitate to shoot me an email. Thanks.
Great website! Putting in that much effort besides work is definitely impressive.
You said it’s possible to break into IB, if you really want to…having said that, I’d like to ask you if that is still realistically possible for someone that is about to graduate with any banking internship?
I am German, but instead of finishing my studies in Germany, I moved to Australia to study a Commerce degree with a major in finance and a minor in economics. As a foreigner here, it is not that easy to find any intern or defer my studies and work back in Europe due to visa restrictions. But before I moved to Australia, I worked approx. 6 months for a leading US risk management/insurance broker (branch in GER, part of a dual study system, so basically a quasi-internship).
What about previous studies which I haven’t graduated, put them in my CV? Kinda looks messy although I have explanations for most of the changes…
My marks are high, even have two certificates for achieving the highest mark in two subjects. Got some extra curricular activities. What would your advise be, what jobs i should preferably target (which might not be heavily rely on intern experience)? Is it advisable to ask for interns even though I graduate?
I’m aware of the fact that I need to start networking like a maniac, which is not easy since I am far away from Europe until the end of the year. Just curious to get some advice on entry positions that you think are “easier” to break into.
Appreciate your time and opinion. If any of my questions is “too much”, feel free to ignore them
Hope I got my point across since I’m not a native speaker.
Cheers!
Andreas
It’s me again, forgot to ask my most important question. A friend of mine worked for one of the Big4s; when two partners left to set up their own banking consultancy in Frankfurt, they took him on board. As far as I know, they do performance attribution/measurement etc for banks, hold presentations for seniors of banks in Frankfurt etc…I can join them after my graduation for a few months and potentially longer, if both parties want to.
My question now is, should I include this in my applications from now on, how? Is this something that could help me to get entry position jobs in IB/banking? Asking because I’m still looking for other (banking) jobs for the time after. Couldn’t find any information on the internet in regards to the CV issue
Have a nice day! Thanks for your input…maybe I should consider purchasing one of your services any time soon
Andreas
Regarding your candidacy, send me an email and we’ll go through that further so I can give you a more complete response. To your question, if you can’t land an job in investment banking, then this other opportunity is certainly better than pursuing nothing or something perceived by many bankers to be lower than IB such as back office or audit in a Big 4. Your “backup” opportunity sounds like it could be interesting and relevant, but I would still push hard for FT IB first – remember, the further past U Grad graduation you go without a FT gig, the harder it becomes.