Moving from Corporate Accounting to IB

I have been working as a Corporate Accountant for 3 years. I graduated from a very non-target school with a 3.2 GPA. Currently, I'm studying for L1 of the CFA. I would like to get into IB. What can I do to position my self to land an offer?

 

Hi Jane.kellys1, check out these resources:

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Best Response
Hawkeye 79:
CFA is not to useful for IB, taking modeling classes would be far more helpful

Nah, I mean, yeah, you're right.

But in OP's shoes, very valuable. Will help you have something to sell yourself on when networking with MM Boutiques.

That's your audience. Unless you get a top MBA. Unfortunately, OPs GPA makes that pretty difficult.....

 

Sorry to break it down to you, but if you're working at a Big 4 you have a chance, otherwise its highly unlikely. Even within the Big 4 you would have to move to its Corporate Finance/Valuation Practice to establish the hard modeling skills you need for IB. Big 4 Audit is good as well but you'll most likely need an MBA in Finance to Break into Investment Banking. There are many resources online and on WSO to make such a transfer. Best of Luck!

 

im going to assume you are not in big 4 accounting and in just a general accounting role. you need to get into a more finance-related role at your company or start looking for one at another company if you want to stay corporate. these include treasury, corp dev, project finance/valuations. from there you can try to lateral to a boutique or mm.

BBs and EBs will be tough to get into without an MBA, I don't think they would hire you as-is because of how long you have been out of school and im guessing your age is mid-high 20s. you'll need to come in as an associate. the CFA may help with MBA applications, but you should focus on scoring high on the GMAT to remove concerns about your undergrad GPA

not sure where you are working now and what type of company it is, but if its industry specific (i.e. oil and gas) you might be able to leverage your technical expertise into an analyst role somewhere but it would have to be a very specific coverage group

you should be networking your ass off as sometimes you can get lucky with a role despite not being as qualified. do you have a cpa? if not you should try to get one whilst in your accounting role. however, it'll be an uphill battle as i would frankly hire a big 4 auditor over you (and there are a ton who want to switch to ib). financial modelling courses will help you as well as you can pick up the technical side of things from them as well as provide further context on technical interview questions. also buy a networking and interview guide from WSO, it'll help with your coffee chats and informational interviews.

i think your best bet is to do the mba and go straight in as an associate. it would probably be quicker for you to enter the industry this way as switching into a finance position and then to IB could take years before you make associate. assuming you have enough money to do a decent MBA

i would also ask yourself why it is you want to do ib. if it's about money and prestige, i'm sure you can find other ways to achieve both while maintaining a decent work-life balance. as a new analyst/associate you may be taking instructions from those younger than you- how would you feel about that? sometimes its ok to accept that the ib ship has sailed and focus on what you have going for you as you can still become extremely successful and wealthy

 

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