Investor Relations / Investment Analyst to IB?

There are a few graduate (entry-level) investor relations and investment analyst roles - if I land one of these and do it for X amount of time, would I be able to leverage this experience for IB? This is for London, not US btw. 

7 Comments
 

Thank you for your input. 

I have posted a question in another thread asking how I should go about breaking into IB as a law graduate, main context:

Got good A-levels - all A*/A - and all in STEM subjects. I then went on to study law at university in the UK and I recently graduated (class of 2022). Over my uni years, I  accumulated some legal internships ('vacation schemes' which are the equivalent of 'summer analyst' in law) at some reputable law firms. For some further context: 

  • The university I went to - a lot of students got to city law firms. Having been reading WSO recently, I would say for IB it is a semi-target, except I didn't study economics / finance / accounting etc.
  • My most recent vacation scheme was at a silver circle law firm, which I think translates to elite boutique in IB.

What is the best strategy for me to break into finance?

 
Most Helpful

Firstly, chill out bud.

You've done the ground work at school etc which is great, I didn't study anything even remotely similar to finance at college and still got my offers through at a handful of IBs so don't worry about that. You can have the most polished and water tight resume/covering letter out there but you wont get much past the initial screening.

What I learned through speaking with a lot of folks while I was working toward my first IB role was that a lot is down to you as a person, who you are, what you like to do, work ethic, how you problem solve, work with others etc -it's all about what value you bring when you walk in the door each day and sit at your desk -do you think your interviewers will to listen to you and think "this kids got the right attitude and I enjoyed the conversation we had". You can teach all the quantitative skills for IB but you can't teach qualitative skills or rather someone's personality.

Secondly, if you want to work in IB, focus on getting an IB internship if not a FT role. IR isn't a route into IB, most folks (myself included) come from IB to PE and then into IR, it's not a role that gives you the exit back onto the sell-side.

 

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