Hello everyone,
I am trying to get into investment banking. I am graduating in June 2021 with a business administration degree concentrating in management. However, I realized that I wanted to go into Finance and make my way into investment banking. I have zero finance knowledge retained and have zero finance related internships or jobs. Matter of fact, I have no internship experience but had normal customer service jobs. I am also dead set on getting into MBA but I feel that I needed to experience a finance related job before I enter MBA and help me further in the long run if I am able to get into banking.
As I was researching about investment banking, I came across this forum and realized that there were courses available to boost my knowledge in the investment banking section. I was wondering which courses are the best to learn for investment banking and if these courses give certificate as well? So far, I found 3 courses interesting WSO Elite Modeling Package, WSO foundation package, and IB Interview Questions Course. I was wondering if there are other necessary courses that is required for the investment banking and also wondering the 3 courses I found interesting are actually needed for investment banking.
I appreciate all the help I can receive to fulfill my goal to get into investment banking.
Thank you,
Struggling Student trying to get into Investment Banking
Hey - useful to know what country you’re in? Did you go to a target ? Any particular extracurriculars that you did ?
Only speaking from the U.K. IB scene - since you don’t have any work experience the obvious first thing to do is to find a job and I think something like audit at Big4 should be attainable for majority of people since they don’t really care about work experience. But you do need items to fill your CV so doing courses you mentioned is one way, another way is to also get real work experience by coldcalling small IB firms to get any sort of internship experience (do unpaid if you can afford to otherwise don’t).
Realistically unless you go to a target your chance of entering is low and would be a long journey to get to BB IB. Your best course of action is either 1) start very small (1-10 people firm) then slowly keep upgrading 2) do the Big4 audit -> Big4 M&A -> IB
However you should also think about what other careers you would like to go into as backups because IB is tough to get in and at the moment you haven’t got enough to get past screening. MBA is a good idea and I think it is better to get into the best name firm you can get into in any sector then go via MBA so it increases your chances of going to a M7 in the US or any top ones in Europe.
I’m in the states and I went to UCR. The curricular activities I did was volunteering services and being in a social club where I was the social chair.
Sorry might not be useful for the US but here are some thoughts
Had a browse on the forum it seems UCR is a definitely non-target. What I said above still stands where you cast your net super wide for any jobs that lead you to IB and also look for IB shops that are willing to take you for any sort of contract. It also seems in the US networking is king so start arranging coffee chats
You could also do a masters at a target or aim to improve your CV for M7 if you want to work in BB/MM
Focus on finding any relevant jobs then think about MBA/masters
Do you know which courses on WSO is very helpful or are essential in investment banking?
Look, your best bet is getting a masters in finance, or MBA if you have 0 experience tangentially tied to banking related paths. You could also try and get into a BB through a MO/BO role, but even then it's extremely competitive and difficult to get front office from there.
You could also work at an F500 kill it for 1-2 years --> lateral to corp dev. Not all, but many F500's allow these kinds of transfers.
Again, make sure you actually want to do investment banking, and aren't just in it because you think it's an easy way to make money because SO so many people burnout that embody that mentality.
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