Hi, I'm currently a 1st year student. Learning what skills in my free time will give me highest ROI in IB/PE/HF industry. Should I learn another language or coding? What courses should I take? What are certificates worth doing as a student?
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Great question. Step 1 is social life, get involved with group work / societies etc. It’s important to be likeable and a strong communicator / persuasive.
Coding is for quants. I am not a quant, so would recommend you read the economist business and finance sections (way more valuable than the FT to you at this stage as you will learn some real business and economics). Also read some famous investment books and biographies, no need for overkill but aim for a few this year. Finally, read some investment blogs and research on eg Morningstar. All this will help you develop business sense which can really set you apart in selling a company, developing an investment thesis and working on strategy.
If you already have this baseline, learning to model and joining an investment club is a great step. Basically do as many extra curricular deal case study programs and stock competitions as you can. I emphasise the business sense above because it’s one thing to participate in a case or pitch competition by projecting consensus forecast financials and writing some bs generic bullet points, it’s another thing to actually win it with insightful and original / pro-level takes. As Bill Ackman said, investing is a business that you can learn entirely by reading to a very deep level.
I like the wallstreetprep courses for modelling, would do accounting -> 3 statement -> dcf -> LBO, but may also be overkill and I would prioritise any training initiatives offered by school extra crurriculars.
Main thing to focus on is developing a business sense that makes you appear sophisticated in interviews and putting down bullets on your resume that demonstrate interest in finance for future applications.
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Being likeable and personable is one of the top characteristics a person should have above basically any modeling or ppt skills (which you should know as well). If you’re lacking the former you won’t get as far as your peers
100%. Also being in shape. I will hire the person I like more even if someone can do the job better.
Rightly. I think I'm pretty good at it and I'm still working on it. I also consider myself to be in very good shape (tbh maybe I'm a bit of a gym addict). However, you won't put this on your CV when applying for SA. So what other activities should I invest my time in that would improve my situation in the industry and make it easier to get SA?
General social skills, but also stuff like public speaking and networking/small talk. Pretty much everyone who is half decent at finance is good at all the technical stuff but it’s really these factors that differentiate you over a long career.
Sounds reasonable. I'm constantly trying to improve in these areas (although I wouldn't say I'm bad at it). What other activities that would improve my situation in the industry, make it easier to get SA and make my CV more attractive should I invest my time in?
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Play bloomberg the open on youtube in the background most days and after about a month you'll have a full grasp of whats going on in the markets to be able to talk sophistically in interviews
also interested
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bump, also interested
Art of bullshitting. Especially helps if you have high EQ and can really sell your ideas. Not kidding. Feel a lot of the post MBA guys I know who got great jobs are amazing at this.
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