You need to do 3 things right to get into investment banking: win access to recruiters, get their attention with your CV / resume, and ace your interviews. If you've been failing so far, you're doing one of these wrong.
Let's address "access" first. You need to begin a dialog with banks by going to business school or college campus presentations, speaking with headhunters, or going through school alumni or others you know professionally.
This is super-important and many people never realize how recruiting really works: banks target a VERY limited set of institutions - around 10 to 20 so-called "target schools" - and focus their recruiting efforts there, nearly ignoring everything else.
So you'll have to rely on networking via referrals, informational interviews, and cold-calling, if you're not at one of these elite institutions - making it significantly harder to break in.
If you go this route, make a list of all local boutiques and small firms in your region, and don't give up until you've called all of them - and then move onto alumni, referrals from friends, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other means.
Once you have some sort of access to recruiters or bankers at these firms who will actually pay attention to you, you need a winning resume / CV to actually stand out and get interviews.
Keep your resume short and to the point - 1 page or less is appropriate in 90% of cases. Focus on the 2 or 3 experiences that "sell" you best, whether those are internships, leadership activities, or your most recent jobs for more experienced candidates.
Include as much as you can on specific results and what you actually did, using numbers wherever possible. Make your experience sound like it involved specific transactions, clients, or projects as opposed to just writing generic summary sentences.
With a solid resume in place, next you need to hone your interview skills. The most important part of any interview is your "story" - what you say when they ask you to tell them about yourself, so lock down why you want to be an investment banker and why now is the perfect time to do it for you.
Make sure you tell your story in chronological order, and explain how each experience made you more and more interested in investment banking. 90% of the interview comes down to your story.
A good grasp of technical questions on finance and accounting is also necessary, but those can be learned from reading books or interview guides - your story should get the bulk of your attention.
That should get you started with your dreams of breaking into investment banking - good luck!
Let's address "access" first. You need to begin a dialog with banks by going to business school or college campus presentations, speaking with headhunters, or going through school alumni or others you know professionally.
This is super-important and many people never realize how recruiting really works: banks target a VERY limited set of institutions - around 10 to 20 so-called "target schools" - and focus their recruiting efforts there, nearly ignoring everything else.
So you'll have to rely on networking via referrals, informational interviews, and cold-calling, if you're not at one of these elite institutions - making it significantly harder to break in.
If you go this route, make a list of all local boutiques and small firms in your region, and don't give up until you've called all of them - and then move onto alumni, referrals from friends, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other means.
Once you have some sort of access to recruiters or bankers at these firms who will actually pay attention to you, you need a winning resume / CV to actually stand out and get interviews.
Keep your resume short and to the point - 1 page or less is appropriate in 90% of cases. Focus on the 2 or 3 experiences that "sell" you best, whether those are internships, leadership activities, or your most recent jobs for more experienced candidates.
Include as much as you can on specific results and what you actually did, using numbers wherever possible. Make your experience sound like it involved specific transactions, clients, or projects as opposed to just writing generic summary sentences.
With a solid resume in place, next you need to hone your interview skills. The most important part of any interview is your "story" - what you say when they ask you to tell them about yourself, so lock down why you want to be an investment banker and why now is the perfect time to do it for you.
Make sure you tell your story in chronological order, and explain how each experience made you more and more interested in investment banking. 90% of the interview comes down to your story.
A good grasp of technical questions on finance and accounting is also necessary, but those can be learned from reading books or interview guides - your story should get the bulk of your attention.
That should get you started with your dreams of breaking into investment banking - good luck!
About the Author:
Riyan Richter is a Contributing Editor to Mergers & Inquisitions, the internet's top resource on how to get into investment banking and investment banking in general, basing his writing on his own recent triumphs getting into the industry.
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