Investment Banking. Phase 1

Investment Banking, the most reputed career in finance. To get an offer from a large investment bank is like getting a bid from the leading fraternity at your university. Everyone knows of your fraternity's strapping greatness and you are a brother forever. 

It is no secrecy that investment banks pay the highest salaries to their employers compared to any other company on the face of the planet. The top investment banks or "bulge bracket" banks are as follows:

• Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch in 2008)

• Barclays Capital (Barclays acquired the North American operations of Lehman Brothers in 2008)

• Citi

• Credit Suisse

• Deutsche Bank

• Goldman Sachs

• JPMorgan Chase

• Morgan Stanley

• UBS

These are what these bulge bracket banks pay. 

There are three phases one must follow in order to cop that offer.

Phase 1: Get the interview.
Phase 2: Prepare for the interview.
Phase 3: Kill the interview.

I will mostly be talking about phase one in this blog post. 

The first and foremost way to acquire the opportunity for an interview is to establish your investment banking resume.

Two words that define an investment banking resume are: results and details. 
In your job description, you must start off with what kind of impact you had on the company (your result) followed by how you made that impact (the details).

In your resume, it would behoove you to mention experiences that was high level stress, pressure and fast paced. 

You must also include cool facts about yourself because your interests may personally connect you with your interviewer. 

Your Format is what will emanate first impressions.

Here is a great example of format and content:





You now have a top notch and competitive resume. But what good is a winning resume if you have no one to read it?

The best ways to find employers to read your resume is as follows:

1) Personally reach out to them.
2) Use your university's career website
3). Apply on the company's website.

Anyone that works in investment banking will tell you that getting a job is mostly about networking, making connections and establishing relationships. 

By far, the best way to get an interview is by personally reaching out to individuals that work at the bank. This may be a tedious task but at the end of the day its a numbers game. the more people you reach out to and send your resume, the more people you will ultimately have an opportunity to interview with.
Here is a good example/template for an email to help get you in a door with an employee or executive. 

Dear John,

My name is Jack and I am currently a Finance major at Penn State University. I have been learning a considerable amount about investment banking and eager to learn more.  I received your information from our alumni directory and would love to speak with you regarding the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Summer Analyst Program. It would also be great if I could hear your perspective on the investment banking industry and your experience at the firm. Would you be available to either have coffee or speak over the phone for 15-20 minutes? As a fellow Nittany Lion, I would really appreciate your help. Thank you, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Regards,

This email is geared toward an alumni of a university. But you can tailer this template to anyone you may have any sort of connection to. 

LinkedIn is a great site to find people you may have a connection with.