I've heard people say that in order to get into IB, you have to have a technical background or need to know a couple of programming languages. Is this true?
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No. I "know" a couple of languages, but they never came up in any of my interviews. I think when people say "technical background", they are more likely referring to Excel and/or general comfort with math (Ie basic algebra).
Oh, ok. Thank you!
No. I said I know VBA on my CV. But other than recording a macro manually I don’t know anything...
You do not necessarily need to excel in coding for investment banking, but with how the industry is changing in the future it will be important to be proficient in core languages. Now, everyone needs to know how to code in asset management firms and be good at it so I am sure that banking will catch up as well. I can tell you that my firm targets CS majors who know some finance as well straight out of college and they have a large advantage over the finance majors. This is coming from a VP at a large mutual fund.
What are those core languages?
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