What makes a good investment banking associate




















However, associates tend to produce much more complex financial models than analysts and bear the responsibility of more complicated challenges. On top of this, they are expected to project manage their deal teams. This includes allocating jobs set by senior bankers, and ensuring analysts meet deadlines on time. This not only means scrutinizing completed models and presentations, but also making sure that the analysts know what is expected of them in the first place.

As a general rule, associates can expect to be in the office working hours a week, however this can vary depending on the workload or the firm itself. Corporate investment bankers provide financial services to other companies and organisations.

You could be working on mergers and acquisitions, lending or bonds and shares. As you'll be providing strategic advice to your clients and working under extreme pressure, you'll need to be good at negotiation and have strong interpersonal skills. Working as an investment analyst is a common entry-level graduate role.

Employers dedicate sizeable resources to training their staff in this area, but a Bachelors degree is normally expected for most investment banking graduate jobs. A grade of or above is typically required by the top investment banks. If you're contemplating applying for university and are already set on a career in the financial markets, there are a number of options when it comes to specialist investment banker qualifications.

You can either do this Level 4 qualification through self-study and by registering for the IMC exam yourself, or through a training provider such as Kaplan. As you consider continuing professional development CPD and studying for further finance qualifications , you can enrol on to the Chartered Financial Analyst CFA - an internationally-renowned investment management qualification equivalent to a Masters.

To be eligible, you'll need a degree, four years of professional work experience or a combination of work and study totalling four years. If this is something you'd like to explore, search postgraduate courses in investment banking. Many of the top banking institutions, including Barclays, Goldman Sachs, J. For instance, J. Morgan offers a nine-week investment banking analyst programme for penultimate-year university students, where you'll learn key technical skills by working on deals and transactions for the company's clients.

On-the-job-experience and practical skills training give you the perfect grounding in investment banking. The best-performing students may receive full-time job offers upon completion. However, it's important to get the facts you need before you apply so you can make an informed decision. To do this, first learn about the different work experience opportunities and choose one that best suits your interests. If there is a logical connection between your major and banking, this is the perfect opportunity to illustrate it eloquently.

NOTE: What most candidates fail to do is to actually give real strengths and weaknesses. This might sound counter-intuitive but this is a chance for you to be honest and focus on the qualities interviewers are looking for when answering the question. When listing your weaknesses, make sure to list real weaknesses, but make sure you can demonstrate that you are aware of them and explain how you can improve upon them.

I worked in a bunch of small groups during my senior year internship within Financial Management. This helped to balance workload and work quality for the group. In the same situation, there was a person in the group that was not doing his work. I helped to solve the problem by helping him discover his strength and letting him focus on his strengths while the others helped to fill the gap. During my sophomore and junior years of college, I was juggling schoolwork while essentially working full-time and trying to balance this with internship recruiting, making phone calls, setting up meetings and doing interviews.

I was able to successfully balance all of this by keeping very organized priority sheets and setting daily goals for items to be completed. It was a difficult process, but it enhanced my overall sense of being able to do whatever was necessary to accomplish my goals. NOTE: The best way to answer this is give specific examples of times where you demonstrated attention to detail, willingness to work harder than everyone else, or a time when you helped add value to the group.

NOTE: Tell the truth here. If you did, then great. If not, then say you did not receive an offer. There are plenty of potential reasons why a company might not hire you back: Your group was simply not hiring full-time, the poor economy forced cutbacks in the hiring program, etc. It was a grueling program wherein I was going to bed at 9p. I was very thankful that I had a very considerate and patient roommate!

At some points I definitely wanted to quit, but in the end it was worth it. There were only 3 out of 10 freshmen who made it through the program, and I was one of them. NOTE: Talk about teamwork or something you are really involved with, especially if it involves working with others.

During my last internship I had to help out another intern. I taught him some concepts incorrectly because I was rushed, and I made the incorrect assumption that he would figure it out. We were very close, and it was devastating. I felt responsible. From that experience, I learned that I had to take being a leader much more seriously, and that my example was crucial for others to succeed.

I also learned that I must show better attention to detail and not assume everything is running well without my input. NOTE: Really think this one out and give a truthful answer.

Five years is a long way down the road, but I know that finance will always have a grip on me. I could see myself in investment banking for the long-term, but that would have to depend on my performance and my family situation.

Be sure, however, to mention that you are very excited about becoming an analyst and that you want to learn as much as possible, get as much transaction experience as possible, etc. NOTE: I would say no to this. What drives me the most is competition. I always want to be the best in everything I do, whether it is academics, sports, or even poker. Once I decide I want something, it becomes all I think about and strive for. NOTE: This can be a tuition answer for some people, i.

While I found all of my business courses interesting, the most interesting class I took was Psychology. I believe you should hire me because as a diligent, organized, and goal-oriented person, I will work hard in any task presented no matter how difficult or time consuming it might be.

I always strive to perform the best that I can. Schoolwork is a good example— when assigned a task, I organize myself and my materials in order to work efficiently, and then set to work on the task. I perform the necessary research in order to ensure that no mistakes are made, and I check my finished work repeatedly to ensure that it is high quality.

I believe my 3. Compared to other bulge bracket firms, [bank] seems to have a better culture from my perspective. Also, over the past few years, [bank] has been one of the few continuously successful firms—it avoided most of the catastrophe that befell Wall Street in the wake of the financial crisis—and appears to have great potential for continued success and growth.

Most recently, I had to work as part of a team for my Management and Organizational Analysis class. We organized the teams at the beginning of the semester and were required to create a business idea. From there, we issued various reports on strategy, structure, and culture, and developed a presentation and final report encompassing the development plan for this business.

I discovered that working in a group can be challenging due to differences in working styles and personalities. Conflicts can arise and team dynamics are hard to manage. As a team member, I sometimes would take lead roles of organizing research assignments, meeting times, and the production of a final product.

However, I helped others and received help in return. Each member contributed in his or her own manner—someone would invariably step up when the need arose—and there was always a system of checks and balances. I am conservative and risk-averse by nature. That does not mean I do not take my chances. Any challenging situation motivates me to put forth my best effort. I want to succeed, and I enjoy accomplishing goals and overcoming difficult obstacles. When I face a challenge, I strive to overcome it by working hard and going the extra mile so that I can make good things happen.

In the short term I see myself contributing my energy, enthusiasm, hard work and willingness to learn. In the long term, if the opportunity arises, I would continue working with JPMorgan and contributing to its growth and success. I find other parts of the world very interesting from a cultural and geographic perspective, and would love to travel much more later on in my life. I also participate in club hockey. But I have met some really nice friends through the local program and I hope one day to get better at it.

I thought their argument for this was very interesting. My club hockey team in college recently won the nationwide club championship that competes with 80 other colleges. This was a big success not only for the team but also for myself, because I have been successfully balancing a tremendous amount of schoolwork with interviews and practice. The Glass-Steagall Act was a law that separated commercial and investment banks because of the belief that the two businesses created conflicts of interest.

Banks were essentially blamed for the Stock Crash of and the start of the Great Depression. A fairness opinion is an independent assessment issued from an investment bank regarding the price offered in a merger or acquisition. It is provided for a fixed fee, typically by an institution not involved in the transaction.

Because the interviews last between thirty minutes and one hour, the interviewers like to get straight to the point. Besides knowing your resume thoroughly, prepare concise answers to standard investment bank interview questions. Listed below are questions that are frequently asked in the interviews.

These questions are important because it shows the banker your interest not only in the firm, but also in the conversation with the interviewer. Investment bankers care greatly about efficiency, and they are there to interview a bunch of people quickly.

Jump straight into questions being asked. Be direct and concise, but courteous and affable. Be confident with your answers. All it means is that you need to make your answers memorable. To make your response interesting, try giving some context for what was going on that night. Maybe your colleagues were passing out at their desks but somehow you persevered. The stories need to be precise, have an introduction, and be easy to follow. But they also should be memorable, and adding just a little bit of colorful detail around the margins in the story can help make you much more interesting to the interviewer.

Update: Find a job you love at Vettery. Q: What exactly do investment bankers do? These securities can come in the form of equity IPO, secondary equity issuance or debt high-grade debt, high yield bonds, government securities, etc. Q: Why do you want to be an investment banker? Q: What qualities do you think would make you successful investment banker? Q: Why do you want to work for this Bulge Bracket Bank?

Q: Why do you want to work for Goldman Sachs? Q: How was your internship experience at Barclays? Q: Why do you believe you would be a good investment banker? Q: What is one concern you have about investment banking? Q: What do you think an analyst does on a typical day? In his spare time, he enjoys memorizing obscure Excel functions, editing resumes, obsessing over TV shows, traveling like a drug dealer, and defeating Sauron.

Free Exclusive Report: page guide with the action plan you need to break into investment banking - how to tell your story, network, craft a winning resume, and dominate your interviews. My first guess would be not by much as they spend a lot of time with clients and the emphasis is on other skills.

Hi Brian, I really enjoy this article, which is really useful for me. Personally, I could embrace the cultures of both cities. The U. Kudos to your effort. Enjoyed reading this article. Good for someone who wants to be a career banker. Are they a underrated ticket to the major players? Thanks so much! Do you have an idea why?



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