The 3 Life Skills Investment Bankers Have That You Should Be Jealous Of

Doing your two years of banking is kind of like parents sending kids to military school. You come out a different person, ready to handle anything life will throw at you.

As the president of my school’s IB org, I’ve been lucky to spend many hours with the director of our program (30yr industry veteran).

He reflected on his successful career & shard the 3 life skills he thinks you can’t find anywhere else.

Skill 1 - Wall Street Efficiency

Banking is an endless cycle of fire drills. Constantly having urgent deadlines to meet.

You’ll learn to do everything 5x as fast without sacrificing quality.

My director mentions how when people give him tasks post-banking, he can get things done in a couple hours that they expect to take a week…

The productivity translates to any future life obstacles. Consulting peers won’t be able to keep up…

Skill 2 - Prioritization / Quick Decision Making

Going out to dinner, you’ll be looking over the menu for the 5th time while my director made his choice after a quick glance 20min ago.

You’re bombarded with tasks & get good at figuring out where to focus your effort in banking.

He specifically mentioned how he got better at weighing the pros & cons of each action quickly to avoid wasting time he didn’t have.

Skill 3 - Persuasion & Personal Branding

Figuring out how to get into the club is a lesson in itself.

He says how it was a bit different back then - but nowadays the skills undergrads are building to stand out in the sea of hyper-competitive studs are critical.

To land an offer, you need to learn to sell yourself and your story.

Takeaways: Learning & personal growth should be a priority right out of college. Investment Banking will QUICKLY make you into a well-oiled machine - primed for success & ready to face anything.