Think you might have what it takes to be an investment banker? Hear from an investment banking analyst and an associate at JP Morgan on their best tips for breaking into the field!
γπ Degree(s)
γπ¨ Skills & qualities
γπ§ Knowledge
2. What companies you can apply for
γπ Resumes
γπ
°οΈ Grades
γπ On-campus recruiting
γβ Non-target school students
γπΉ Hirevues
γπ Cover letters
γπ΄οΈ Interviews
γπ‘ Best tips
4. How to secure a return offer
Majoring in finance or something technical signals to employers that you're good with numbers and analytical thinking. This can give you a leg up especially if you're coming from a non-target school (a school that firms don't actively recruit at).
I did not personally encounter any people without technical degrees and I met a lot of people in my intern class. To play it safe, do a degree in finance or business or anything technical: engineering, economics, math.
β Investment banking analyst (from non-target school) @ JP Morgan
In general, investment banks tend to hire people with more technical backgrounds. But is this because they actually prefer people from these degrees? Or is it a reflection of the fact that more students with these degrees apply in the first place?
We don't know for sure. What is certain is that smaller banks tend to have fewer resources to train you than bigger banks, so they'll prefer someone with the background to hit the ground running.
So if you want to raise your chances of getting into any investment bank at all, a finance or technical major helps.
Top tier banks focus on top tier universities and not on your major. In fact, in the UK, for example, a finance major would fail against a classics, math, physics, econ or PPE major from the same top 5 universities. The view is that the best and the brightest can learn. They would rather have a blank slate.
Second tier and foreign investment banks would prefer finance majors though. The reason for this difference is that top tier have better (and longer) training programs and believe that this investment results in longer employee loyalty.
Good employers evaluate candidates holistically β that means they don't just filter people out based on one thing like their degree.
So if you attend an Ivy League school, have good grades, and demonstrate an interest in banking through extracurricular activities and take online courses to gain a basic knowledge of finance, your degree probably won't matter as much.
For employers, the fact that you got into a top school and have good grades shows that:
For example, Goldman Sachs is known to hire non-business majors from top schools.
While many investment banks target finance majors, Goldman Sachs (GS) mainly recruits at Ivy League and other top schools that do not even have business programs. Academic performance and demonstrated interest are more important than course of study. So is a candidate's ability to mesh with a potential team of co-workers.
β Bloomberg
However, if you attend a school that's not on a bank's radar, you'll probably want to play it safe and major in something technical.
At the end of the day, your degree is just one of many ways to signal to employers that:
These days, there are so many ways to demonstrate these two things β like through online financial modeling courses, finance-related clubs, business competitions, and other extracurricular activities.
Depending on your situation, you probably don't need to major in something to get a job β especially if it ends up lowering your GPA (another big thing that employers look at).
But if you do major in something totally unrelated to banking, make sure you have a compelling answer to "Why investment banking?"
If you have a very different background, then you need to have a concrete answer to "Why investment banking?" Firms are going to ask, "You have a degree in Psychology. Why investment banking?" [ any examples of good reasons?! ]
At the end of the day, even if you have a finance degree, you have to relearn a lot of things. So as long as you know what you're getting into and you're passionate and willing to learn, that works.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Investment banks look for the following skills and qualities.
- Willingness to learn - it's a job where you keep learning. For example, if you can prove that even if you don't know something but you'll get back to me on it, that's a good sign you're willing to learn.
- Communication β Very early on, you start communicating with clients. You don't have to be a native English speaker (I'm not one myself!). It's fine if you struggle a little bit. But can you convey your thoughts in a manner that people understand?
- Teamwork β We know everyone has different personalities and backgrounds, so we need to be able to see if you're the kind of person who just works alone or if you're able to work with different people. You'll find that when you start working, there are always going to be difficult people. That's why we ask questions like "Can you work with a difficult team member?" A bad answer would be "The person was difficult so I refused to work with them and asked to be switched to a different team."
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Ideally, also show that you learn quickly and can work hard. As we touched on above, going to a reputable school automatically shows employers that you have these traits. How might you show this side of you if you come from a non-target school?
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β Investment banking analyst (from non-target school) @ JP Morgan
Investment banking β especially at the lower levels β is a bit of a technical field, so you do want to be familiar with some basic concepts in finance.
Accounting, equity value and enterprise value, and valuation and DCF analysis ... are the most common topics, especially in entry-level interviews.
The bankers we spoke to recommend using Breaking Into Wall Street to build up your knowledge base.
Lots of online resources these days. Breaking Into Wall Street is probably a really good starting place. It's 400 questions that take you through possible technical questions they'll ask you.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
I took classes on this website called βBreaking Into Wall Street.β But donβt stress over mastering complicated concepts, at least not for interviews. What's more important is having a grasp of the fundamentals.
β Junior investment banker @ Undisclosed global investment bank
You can find plenty of internships on Prosple. We have a vast selection of internships curated for students like you. Just filter 'til you find the right fit!
These are the largest global banks that offer all products and services and operate in all regions. They work on the largest deals (usually over $1 billion USD) and have the widest brand-name recognition. Most people would say that the bulge-bracket banks consist of:
- JP Morgan (JPM)
- Goldman Sachs (GS)
- Morgan Stanley (MS)
- Bank of America (BofA)
- Citigroup (Citi)
- Barclays (BarCap)
- UBS
- Maybe Deutsche Bank (this last one is questionable).
These banks offer a variety of products and services and have a wide geographical presence, but they tend to work on smaller deals, such as those worth less than $1 billion. Exit opportunities are solid, but tend to be more limited than those offered by EB and BB banks. Examples of middle-market banks include:
- Jefferies
- Houlihan Lokey
- William Blair
- Lincoln International.
There are two kinds of boutique investment banks.
A subset of βboutique banks,β these firms are smaller than the bulge bracket banks, and they tend to specialize in areas like M&A and Restructuring rather than underwriting, though they may still work on very large deals. Their geographic reach and industry specialization varies. They are βeliteβ because they are often as prestigious as the bulge brackets and also offer top-notch exit opportunities. Examples of elite boutiques include:
- Lazard
- Evercore
- Moelis.
These firms tend to focus on narrow industries, such as healthcare or technology, or they only operate in one location and tend to work on much small deals (e.g., below $100 million). There are too many examples to mention here.
So at least at target schools, we don't cut people based on their resume. If you put a job online and get thousands of resumes, it makes sense to make cuts. But at target schools, the max you get is 100 resumes. So there's no need to cut people out at that stage.
So HR collects the resume and forwards them all to us. I mainly just go through resumes to see if there are any particularly interesting people I want to speak with at our networking events.
If I find someone particularly interesting at a networking event, I'll often go back and look at their resume to make sense of them. What do I mean by "interesting"?
- By default, I gravitate towards people who already have investment banking experience. A couple people do investment banking as analysts, get an MBA, and come back β those people are intrinsically interesting.
- I'm also interested in people with non-traditional backgrounds. For example, if they studied psychology or have work experience in clinical psychology, it makes me curious about them.
- Other people might find someone interesting if they have something in common. For example, if you went to the same undergrad as them, came from the same country, or share some common interests. I remember one of my coworkers played hockey and he found an applicant who played hockey as well and they hit it off based on that.
I think generally, I think people do check the "additional" section to see if you have a life outside of work. Paint a picture of who you are outside of the professional environment and share something interesting about you (e.g. "I was on a cooking show," "I've traveled to X number of countries.") and that might make people want to talk to you to learn more!
On the floor, we do talk about personal things, like what you're doing on the weekend. The job is stressful enough. It helps to have fun coworkers you want to have conversations with.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
I did resume screening for my business fraternity. I'd look for "investment banking-esque" experience. It's getting super competitive β maybe people wouldn't say this ten years ago, but you really need to have this on your resume now.
By "banking-esque" experience, I mean:
- Relevant organizations or clubs. Maybe you were part of an investment society where you'd invest in fictitious businesses and the society was broken up by sector like banks. This shows that you have an idea of what investment banking is.
- University endowment fund experience. Larger universities do have finance groups where university students can help manage university assets. If you can get onto the team that does that and intelligently manage assets, that shows a lot.
It's also helpful to have done some internships, even if they're not that relevant. It sounds clichΓ© but to a degree it's all about how you pitch it and how you explain what you learned. Obviously be truthful, but you can finesse it. I interned at two start-ups and I didn't do that much but I made it sound really good and made it sound like I learned a lot, which makes them think "This person can learn on the job."
β Investment banking analyst (from a non-target school) @ JP Morgan
For our best tips on writing resumes, check out How to craft a winning resume as a college student.
For competitive fields like banking, you'll generally want to have good grades OR a good reason you have poor grades.
I think you do need to have a good GPA above a 3.5.
If it's below that, you'd probably need to be president of a society or an extremely difficult engineering degree. Even if you don't have a good GPA, you need to be taking on leadership positions.
For example, I was not president or leader of any finance-related student organizations but I did lead a business fraternity.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
As with other more technical fields in business (e.g. accounting), cover letters are generally not required in investment banking.
I've never looked at a cover letter before during my 2-3 years of recruiting. I think I sent in a cover letter when I applied, but I'm not sure anybody ever read it. I'd suggest spending more time on your resume.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Cover letters have never been required. The tip I was always given was that if a cover letter is not required, do not submit one. I agree with this, having seen the interview process a bit.
Every piece of information you submit takes someone time to read through. So if your cover letter isn't exponentially better than your resume, it's taking seconds away from time that they could have spent elsewhere (like on your resume) to learn about you.
Also, if a cover letter is poorly written, it's another reason for them to not like you.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
I remember sending in a Hirevue β everyone sent in a Hirevue. But I'm not sure who watches it, as personally, I've never had to watch a Hirevue. I'm guessing either HR watches it or nobody watches it. Either ways, it wouldn't make much of a difference isnce HR doesn't shortlist people.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
There was this time where a couple of our analysts quit, so we had to hire some new ones off-cycle. This was the only time someone in my group was tasked with watching Hirevues. So for off-cycle recruiting, definitely take it seriously.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Ask people who've already done Hirevue and write down the questions. Google Hirevue questions. Examples are "What are the four factors that will impact the financial sector?" "Why is your background a good fit?" and when you do the Hirevue, you'll have a good idea of what to say, you will have practiced it.
If you're not good at speaking in front of a camera, practice recording yourself and watching it. I was fiddling, I was sweating, thinking too much, not looking at the camera. You can pick up these things when you watch yourself. It's awkward and weird but it'll help you pass the Hirevue.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
At target schools, firms organize on-campus recruiting events.
HR organizes presentations for each target school. They'll then ask full-time staff from the universities to go back and do the presentation, talk to students about JP Morgan and investment banking in general.
We also do informal networking with the students. At that time, we're already noting down people who we think are good based on our conversation. (We have a shared spreadsheet for marking down our thoughts on different people.)
At this stage, we're really not trying to grill you. There's this feeling that "we went to the same school" adn we want to go easy on you since we know it may be your first conversation. We may not even ask you that many questions besides "Why JP Morgan?" (which I always ask!).
My biggest tip is to ask good questions. We can tell from the your questions if you're done your homework. If you're asking questions that don't make sense at that stage (like "How much are you getting paid?") or questions you can get the answers online for, you'll get written down as something like "Person asked questions that made no sense" β I've actually seen that on our spreadsheet.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Every bank has diversity programs and I'm not sure they'll continue that. Definitely sign up for those.
They don't want a candidate who's just applying because they felt like it. They want to know that you applied because you know their values and you actually want to work for them. I think what helped me highlight this is all the summits I attended β an "Early Investment Banking" summit, a "Woman in Investment Banking" summit, a Pride summit (since I'm in the LGBTQ community).
Some of these were virtual, some in-person. But basically before applying to an internship, I already had 3-4 things on my resume that were all tailored to JP Morgan. They probably thought, "She's serious about this. She knows what investment banking in. Yes we can bring her in for a Hirevue." Without those, it probably would have been really hard to get in.
You want to apply to all the summits at all the banks you can: Goldman, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank. My first diversity summit was actually with a bank that wasn't JP Morgan. After I got that, it was easier to get into those others.
I would suggest starting an Excel sheet and googling all the summits. Finding them is one of the hardest things. I would suggest someone to join a business society or fraternity where you'd more easily hear about this from your peers.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
The number of interviews you get can depend on the firm and the specific group you're applying for β different groups may interview candidates in different ways.
About a month and a half after the Hirevue, I did 4 back-to-back 30-45-minute interviews.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
Generally, the stronger of a candidate you are, the fewer hoops you'll need to jump through.
We rank people on their performance in the interviews and depending on your score, you could speak to as little as 3-4 people and as many as 7-8.
If you're applying for an associate role, you might first speak with two associates (just for us to get different perspectives) and a VP.
At this point:
- If you have a good score, we might pass you directly onto the MD.
- If your score is average, then we probably will have you speak with more people, e.g. another VP or ED before passing you onto the head of the group (MD).
We don't pass someone onto the MD unless we're sure about them. The MD interview is more of a confirmation β we get the MD to speak with candidates so they can give us the green light to hire them.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
The M&A group is known for asking very technical questions compared to a coverage group like Consumer & Retail. As you progress, the questions get tougher and tougher to see who makes it to the next round.
Associates and VPs tend to be technical β they're doing a lot of the modeling, so they'll give you lots of tough questions. They're the ones who will be managing you so they want to know you know your stuff and can actually help out. Some EDs give you a hard time.
MDs are very chill since by this stage, the team already knows they want you. My MD was just telling me about himself and his experiences. And then at the end of the conversation, I finally got one question.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Absolutely prepare for your interviews. I've coached a lot of people in my business fraternity to help them get offers.
Here are the general types of questions:
- A mix of behavioral and technical questions.
- Questions about something on your resume.
- Follow-up questions on things you mention during the interview.
I'd say, create a list of interview questions separated by technical and behavioral questions. Start with the easy ones ("Tell me about yourself") and practice those a million times.
Now they might ask the questions in different ways. I've conducted a lot of mock interviews where students are like, "I don't know how to answer that" and I'm like "Yes you do!" Use questions as a framework. They're going to ask it in creative ways, and you just have to know what they're really asking.
I'm not usually stumped on behavioral, but sometimes with technical ones, they'll ask super broad questions like "Do I understand [some element of finance]?" [asdf how to respond to this?]
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
Here are our best tips for answering the most common interview questions:
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β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
For more tips, see Smart questions to ask at your next internship interview.
In general, the bankers we talked to advise you to have a good attitude β regardless of what comes your way.
People are different. Some people are just having a bad day or just mean for some reason and they'll ask tricky questions to trip you up. Some people just ask very easy, "low-hanging fruit"-type of questions. The important thing is the attitude.
Some people will ask you a question knowing you don't know the answer to it. They just want to see how you respond.
Itβs okay to say something like "Thatβs an interesting question. I havenβt really thought about that." Or if there is anything at all you know that is sort of similar, you can mention that and end with "Iβd love to research that further and come back to you."
At that point, some people will just explain the answer to you. Some may just say okay and move on. Just try your best to not let it affect the rest of the conversation.
Immediately after the chat, note it down somewhere so you donβt forget and when you get a chance, research it so that when you send your thank you note, you can include the response there. People will generally appreciate that.
β Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Everyone is going to have a different interview style. Everyone has something going on during their day. It can be very intimidating.
You absolutely want the interviewer to like you. But to calm your nerves, remember that if you've prepared up to this point, you're going to do the best that you can.
If your interviewer had a bad day and is super short, asks only a few questions, doesn't smile or have eye contact with you, push past that. Still smile and bring that energy. Go all in no matter what happens and what they ask you. Stay positive.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
My best advice is to keep your expectations low and your mind open.
- Keep your expectations low: It's a numbers game. It can be demoralizing if you get so many "no's". Keep an excel sheet, write your jobs down, keep track of them so you know how many you've applied to, who to follow up with. Honestly, apply to a minimum of 60 internships and don't expect any responses but one.
- Keep your mind open: Don't take anything personally. It's a person-by-person evaluation. Your applications goes through multiple people, like different 2nd-year analysts. Maybe they're looking at your Hirevue or giving you an interview. They're going to have completely different backgrounds and experiences from you. You can't take the process personally.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
I know we're in 2024 but face time is important.
- Definitely be on time β if not early.
- Definitely stay late. Ask, "How can I help?" even if it means staying there two hours later. (When you start full-time, you can go home and do your own work. But during your internship, you've got to go above and beyond!)
You have to be likeable. You're working so many hours and on top of that, you have to be a nice person even if you're surviving on five hours of sleep.
Find areas for improvement. If you can find a process and expedite it, you'll be a complete value-add and people will absolutely love that.
Do coffee chats with everyone. That's because at the end of your interview, everyone will be asked, "How was the intern? Were they helpful? Would you want to work with this person? Did they do anything that's off-putting?" So make sure people know you.
β Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan