How to get into Canadian Investment Banking?

Hi everyone,

I did an old post about getting into PE in Canada. I truly benefit immensely from everyone's interaction and additions. Thank you very much for that!

Allow me to give you a brief description about my current status.

  1. Graduated from top national, Egyptian, civil engineering with low GPA.

  2. Always had passion towards finance and investing, so i self studied for CFA level 1 and passed with my score almost within top 10% worldwide

  3. Finished wallstreet prep course to sharpen my financial modelling skills

  4. Learned Multiple programming languages, MATLAB, Python, R and SQP, at a beginner level. With possibility to raise my knowldge in whichever is demaneded.

  5. Got Asset Management intenrship in Egypt

  6. Corporate Finance internship

  7. Currently working in top national PE firm, for a year and half now.

My goal is to ultimately get into top Buy side in Canada, PE/HF/AM. Since i was educated by all of you to seek IB first so i put that into my plan, which is:

Get into top IB in Canada gain experience for a 2-3 years and network my way to other top Buy side places.

I thought about how to get into top PE and i got accepted into 2 places, Queens University MFin in Canada, downtown Toronto campus. Which isn't superbly tanked worldwide but supposedly recognized in Canada, correct me if i am wrong.
I was also accepted at Grenoble Ecole De Management Msc in finance which is consistently ranked top 20 in FT rankings.

I plan to do the masters degree to increase my knowldge and networking capabilities plus rebranding myself after the low Gpa from non target place. I plan to study FRM/CAIA if the job market requires

I was wondering what do you think is the best rout to get to my goal? Queens MFin or Grenoble Msc in Finance?
Do you think i should seek AM or HF directly after Msc? I would appreciate the detailed guidance.

I hope this isnt the wrong forum to post this. I will be posting it in the specialised industries forum just in case.

However, i truly appreciate the insight from everyone on this forum!

Thank you for your help and time!

 
Most Helpful
  1. Are you a Canadian citizen? I'll be honest there's typically some subconscious/conscious resistance about hiring those who don't have a North American background (i.e speak without an accent)

  2. Do you know what a top buy side role in Canada is? Compared to US MM/MF PE the only real shops in Canada that pay are Altas and Onex which I honestly think it's too late for that for you. In Canada at least, alot of people would prefer to do IB compared to AM or PE because the pay is better at a bank in Canada so some might even say its harder to get a good IB gig here

  3. No one at an traditional IB cares about FRM/CAIA so don't waste your time on that

As you mentioned, you are probably better targeting AM after your Msc if that is ultimately your goal as its much more common for international students with a MFin to work in AM at a small shop then it is to go to a large IB like RBC.

 

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