Think of the smartest person in your group (product/industrials/financing). What makes him/her so incredible?

Is it their ability for analysis, creating incredible intricate financial models, the ability to generate deal flow, etc? Most investment banks are staffed with graduates from the usual targets. Yet, only a few rise or get noticed. So for those people in your group, what quality stands out? It could be their EQ which remains resilient when time gets tough or an incredible creative mind.

The end of goal of this post is to create a collation of skills needed to truly succed in investment banking that might benefit possible new analysts, employees, etc.

Cheers.

 

Don't conflate success in this business with intellect, client focus and so on. From what I can tell self-promotion is about 40% and generating fees is 60%. You need to be in the right seat at the right firm and grind hard. It helps to be willing to forego having a life. If you focus more on the self-promotion part, you can probably get away with having a better life while riding on the back of other people's hard work.

 

In my last M&A place, the best performing Analysts (I'm approaching this question from a junior level), were those who had the basics nailed down (whether that be an understanding of corporate finance / accounting, modelling / excel, powerpoints etc.). This allowed them to be viewed as reliable Analysts who could work efficiently and accurately. On top of this, they would often be the people who had built up some political capital, i.e. having the necessary support from the right senior guys.

 

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