Oxford Eye
Great Hucklow, SK17 8RG, United Kingdom

Email: info@oxfordeye.com

Key Skills

Investment banks want employees with a combination of strong analytical and interpersonal skills. Some jobs lean more towards one skill set than another (e.g. brokers need to be mainly sales people). A typical job of an equities analyst requires both analytic and interpersonal skills. The skills involved include:

In investment banking / corporate finance / M&A, key skills include:
  • the ability to do DCF valuations (discounted cashflow valuations)
  • the ability to use Excel
  • the ability to arrange client meetings and get the logistics right
  • the ability to deal with people of varying personalities
  • the ability to find comparable companies when undertaking research
  • the ability to network within and outside the firm
In debt and equity capital markets positions, key associate skills include:
  • the ability to price up new deals (e.g. bonds, convertibles, preferreds)
  • the ability to track past deals and pricing to sense where the market is going
  • check and generate weekly newsletters 
  • coordinate due diligence
  • prepare document on debt and equity deals
  • generate pitch books

In sales and trading positions, key skills include:
  • the ability to know where prices are and where they are likely to go
  • the ability to work options pricing models and check their accuracy against other models
  • the ability to make clients feel comfortable with you

Hard Work Expected and Respected
Investment banking is a high work, high risk, high reward profession. When you start your hours will typically be long but the work can be exciting.

Tough to Break In
It's relatively hard to break into investment banking. You need to be prepared to pursue firms on your own after you have thoroughly prepared yourself. Use the company profiles section to familiarise yourself with the different firms and the entry requirements they are looking for.
 
Analyst Jobs Are the Best Entry Point
Many graduates start in investment banking in an analyst position. To succeed in these positions you need to be extremely dedicated, have good spreadsheet skills and be analytically fluent. Your next step will be to become an associate. Same skills, just raise the volume.  Some firms offer PhD positions at an associate levels upon entry.  Check the company profiles for further details.

 Communication and Completion Abilities Key
In mid-career, your success usually will depend on your ability to communicate with clients and get deals done. At this level it is also important to have a good understanding of market trends, the political and macroeconomic environment and deal mechanics.

Math Skills Can Help
Some jobs in investment banking call for very strong mathematical ability. If you are a maths graduate think about getting an advanced degree in a technical field (studying areas such as stochastic calculus and differential equations), then take some advanced finance courses in options pricing or bond valuation and apply to a research department. For PhDs demand is high from banks in the areas of modelling, derivatives, quantitative credit strategy and quantatative research. The areas of Fixed Income and Equities remain strong recruiters of PhD researchers.

Accounting Skills Valuable
The ability to analyze accounting numbers critically is important in most analyst positions. Ultimately, you should aim for the CFA designation if you would like to be a securities analyst. The CFA helps you become much more mobile over time. If you have ambitions too "bail out" some day and become a corporate financial analyst you might also want to consider the CMA (Certified Management Accountant) designation.

Get Used to City Life
Most large firms operate out of London or New York. Even if you are interested in working in another location, your general interviewing activities are likely to be centered there. Other places you should look at include Hong Kong, Tokyo, Moscow and Singapore. If you go looking for a job in investment banking using informational interviews in the U.S. it is crucial that you make several trips to New York.

Teamwork Crucial
A crucial success factor in investment banking is teamwork. Being able to pull together persons with large egos to get a presentation together for a client is a challenge and is likely to be rewarded highly.

Scientists and Lawyers Wanted
There's definitely an interest in people with backgrounds in science and law. Scientist types can work on everything from derivatives algorithms to biotech banking. Lawyers can help design new securities, sell leasing business and use their analytical prowess to talk to clients. This said, you have to sell yourself. It often doesn't hurt to go back and get an MBA from leading business school, and then try to repurpose your career into investment banking.

Contacts are Everything
The key to breaking into investment banking is a good network of contacts. You may already be blessed with such a network, but if you don't have one, you can start to develop one by going on informational interviews, attending industry conferences, finding alumni from your school in the business etc. Keep in mind that your network might not really "pay off" for some time.

Getting Things Done is Important
Starting off in an investment bank, you are usually responsible for getting projects done well and on-time, whether it be writing reports, running spreadsheets, trading, doing research or coding programs. Later, once you get involved with clients and ideas for generating revenue, you will be rewarded greatly if you can bring in business. At higher levels (usually Director, Managing Director and up) you are exposed to much greater risk. At this level, people are often fired for non-performance, whereas at lower levels you may not be scrutinized as closely.

In short, intellectual ability nearly always tops the list of skills that investment banks are looking for. The initial learning curve is steep. You will need commitment and determination to succeed in a highly competitive environment, confidence to distinguish yourself from others, and bags of stamina to cope with the fast pace and long hours. An economics or finance-based degree is not necessary, though a basic knowledge of the industry is essential.
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