How to Improve your Prospects of Breaking into Investment Banking this Summer

The summer has just begun. Many of your peers are heading to wall street for internships. Unfortunately you weren't able to land one. You're afraid your competition is getting ahead of you. So what can you do?

Pick one investment idea
Investment ideas aren't hard to come by, but picking a good one isn't easy. A quick look at the Money & Investing section in the Wall Street Journal always brings at least one result. This Friday, Heard on the Street covered Nokia (NOK). The company's shares are down 50% for the year. Is it a long or a short? What would you do at this point? Spend a few days reading up on the company, spread the financials and figure it out. Then look up alumni from your school who work at hedge funds, equity research or in wealth management. Send them a brief email asking them for a quick call and mention your idea. Attach a one page overview of your thesis. Ask them whether they would like to discuss. What do you have to lose?

If you are a finance major, most of your school work focuses on theoretical concepts. Not a lot of what you learn in school can be applied practically. Coming up with an investment idea is as practical of an exercise as you can find. It will teach you a lot. Discussing your idea with professionals who work on this stuff every day will teach you even more.

After you call up one alumni go back to the drawing board. Was your idea shit? Come up with a new one. The Wall Street Journal always has at least something. Maybe you can come up with a thesis by yourself. If your idea was decent, the alumni probably gave you some pointers to improve it. Take another hour to work on your idea. Then send it to another alumni. Mention all the things that the first call taught you. The second alumni will be impressed. How did you know all of that? He has no idea. You'll take his recommendations, improve your idea again and call up some one else. By the end of the summer you'll have a fully fleshed investment idea. Think about how that can help you in the recruiting process.

Do bankers care about your investment ideas? Probably not, but you're doing this for yourself. Working on investment ideas will teach you a great deal about corporate finance and more than anything else you will be much better prepared for private equity and hedge fund interviews than your peers. What do you plan to do this summer to improve your chances?