Following my post covering a broad range of questions about the African investment banking (IB)/private equity (PE) scene, I thought I would cover some questions asked of me in more detail.
This is the second of a multi-part series on the South African IB market. This post covers how to get an investment banking job from the South African perspective.
There are several ways to get into banking; I will discuss the three simplest ways to join in Johannesburg’s competitive banking scene.
Campus recruitment
This is by far the easiest way to get into banking. In my previous post I highlighted what kind of student you need to be and which schools you need attend to make the cut for graduate/analyst programs. There are a few things you need to know about the process that will make it easier:
- Campus career days: go to every campus career day prepared; read about the banks, talk to the representatives, ask them what type of candidate they are looking for and visit several stands.
- Apply early: Most banks close applications earlier and earlier each year and some application processes are time consuming, input intensive and require several documents.
- Write your story: I mean this quite literally, you need to think carefully about why banks would want to hire you, what you have done to differentiate yourself and what you are passionate about. Make sure you can recall this on demand.
- Test your math and verbal skills: These will be tested, prepare by looking at SHL assessments and GMAT prep material.
- Get technical: Don’t embarrass yourself check up on WSO regarding which technical financial concepts you need to know to avoid being dinged.
- Dress to impress: Many students fail to notice how shallow bankers are. Make sure you are smartly dressed and well groomed.
Independent recruiters
If you missed the campus recruitment wave and you got a job elsewhere, that is not the end of the road, you can still make it into banking if you make yourself noticeable to independent recruiters. In my previous post, I indicated what kind of candidate you need to be to make the cut, ensure that sure you have read that post. Here, I will show you how to become noticeable via the central recruitment platform of careerjunction.co.za.
- Develop a concise CV: take a look at the WSO CV template, make one for yourself and have it checked by someone in banking/consulting/PE.
- Create a detailed Career Junction profile: Do this with the information in your WSO style CV and complete most fields to have at least a 95% complete profile.
- Make sure you clearly state the following in the “Next job” field: “Investment banking analyst/associate”.
- List your salary expectations at no more than 25% in excess of your current base salary.
- Double check your contact details and answer “private number” calls.
If you followed my instructions carefully you should be able get some calls requesting interviews.
This is an important platform for opportunities; make sure that you present yourself well because recruiters scour Linkedin thoroughly for good candidates. Firstly, like with career junction make sure you complete most of the fields with the information in the proofread CV you created using the WSO template until your CV status is “All-Star”.
Here are a few tips for how to use Linkedin effectively:
- read profiles of people in roles/companies you are interested in,
- upload a professional picture: dress smartly and have someone else take the photo,
- write a summary,
- get recommendations,
- list awards and honours,
- type in the right company and school names to ensure that the institutional logos show up on your profile,
- list at least two bullets per job or qualification, and
- apply for jobs posted on Linkedin.
Good luck!
In part III, I will discuss how to exit to private equity in South Africa.
How's IB like in South Africa? Do you get to do modelling or is that done by teams in other countries?
Most bankers do a fair bit of modelling, it's quite hard to avoid it. In the past decade some banks did models out of London; however, that is not en mode at present.
Which specific questions do you have about IB in South Africa?
Thanks for your reply!
Is there a good flow of deals at the moment in South Africa? Do you get to do work for customers outside S.A and frontier markets?
Deal flow is reasonable in South Africa, there are several banks playing in the market so not every bank has a decent slice of the deal cake.
Most South African banks are targeting deals across the continent and that is seen as a major growth area for deal flow.
Very good article.
Thanks again for the info!
There is IB in South Africa?
You dumb?
Can an American get into ibd in South Africa?
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