What are the best things to do to just understand IB as a whole

I just finished my freshman year and am planning on spending this summer trying to learn about investment banking and hammer technicals. I've found it is easy to find stuff online about technical questions to study and what to know with that but I feel I am lacking on knowledge about the industry as a whole. I am planning on really networking hard for a sophomore internship and for junior internship this summer and I want to know enough that I can at least hold a decent conversation with PE and IB people when networking. Do you guys have any podcasts, news outlets, articles or YouTubers that you recommend for just getting acquainted with the space?

5 Comments
 

I go to a nontarget so more than likely (just from an odds perspective and seeing where alumni have gone in the past) I have the best chance of working for a MM bank that deals a lot with smaller private businesses doing m&a. I do want to try and do BB or EB and do M&A it's just a lot tougher to get into (my school maybe sends 2-4 kids a year to BB and EB) I am also very interested in RX and we have an office that really likes to get guys from our school so I am also keeping that on my radar.

 

peak frameworks and rare liquid are two youtube channels that helped me a ton when i was a freshman researching high finance careers. they're personable and easy to watch so i would recommend checking them out.

another thing to keep in mind is to understand the why behind the technical aspects of IB when studying.

ex: why do we use the financial statements? why debt versus equity? why this specific ratio?

 

I think networking conversations with actual people in the industry is where you fill in these gaps that technical guides and YouTube videos about concepts don’t cover 

 
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