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Anish Lakhani is an Investment Banking Associate at Avendus Capital. He completed his MBA at IIM Lucknow (Class of 2021) and is also a Chartered Accountant. At IIM-L, he was a Fund Manager at Credence Capital (Student-run Investment Fund), where he played an instrumental role in generating 20%+ return in a COVID-19-impacted year. Let's find out, how he bagged the role of Investment Banker at such a reputed firm.
The Investment Banking business is about advising clients on M&A transactions and capital-raising activities from public and private markets. An investment banker, in simple terms, acts as a facilitator representing either the Strategic/Financial Investor (Buy-side advice) or the Target (Sell-side advice).
For instance, for a fund-raising transaction of an enterprise, an Investment Banker would understand the Client's business, translate that into collaterals like Information Memorandum and Financial Model. Subsequently, look for an appropriate set of investors, pitch the Client's business to the investors and then convert that into a transaction by providing support throughout the deal lifecycle like due diligence, negotiation, valuation, and transaction structuring.
I believe it is primarily due to the rewarding career it offers, both in terms of the richness of experience and in monetary terms. Straight out of a B-School, it provides an opportunity to work on one of the highest-impact decisions for a client. An investment banker gets to interact with entrepreneurs, PE/VC investors, consultants, lawyers, and other stakeholders, resulting in a steep learning curve at a very early age.
My fascination with Investment Banking started during my pre-MBA experience at Nomura while working with their Global Markets Middle Office team. Even though my work did not involve direct interaction with the IB team, I still made some personal efforts to understand their work. This interaction, combined with my academic qualification of CA, made IB one of the possible career options I wished to explore during my MBA. I worked on multiple internships and live projects across Finance and Consulting domains, which helped me zero down on Investment Banking as my preferred career option.
Having an academic and work-ex background in finance, I primarily wanted to try out consulting during summer internship to explore if it was a possible career option for me. I secured an internship in M&A consulting, which gave me exposure to both consulting and deal lifecycle. I was fortunate enough to get a PPO. However, I decided to appear for final placements.
My advice to future aspirants would be to use a similar strategy, explore career options through internships and live projects to get a flavor of different domains, which will help you make an informed decision on your desired career path.
Preparation for Investment Banking spans three categories:
General finance preparation, which involves news reading, academic and industry preparation. Academic preparation should cover the revision of basic finance concepts studied in prior academic/professional qualifications and work experience (if any). For industry preparation, pick 2-3 sectors where you have worked in the past or have some understanding through family business or internships. Study these sectors thoroughly, covering industry landscape, size, growth, headwinds and tailwinds, the business model of peers, and how they differentiate themselves.
Domain-level preparation, which involves studying past and ongoing transactions within the chosen sectors, operating and financial metrics, valuation method, peer benchmarking, and investors.
Lastly, Firm-level preparation covers the firm's basic history, sector presence, reports published, and major deals advised. Also, it is crucial to prepare the basic HR questions around the role and the firm.
I started early with general finance preparation covering news from financial publications, industry preparation, and choosing electives like Investment Analysis & Valuation to help me in academic preparation. Domain and firm-specific preparation were done in the last two months as placements season approached.
The interview process would typically consist of three rounds:
HR round – The interviewer would test skills relevant to an Investment Banking role like logical thinking, hard work, high accountability, stakeholder management, etc. It is important to demonstrate these skills through examples from your past experience. It is also necessary to justify why you want to pursue Investment Banking, your long-term career goals, and why you would like to work for the specific firm you are being interviewed. While students are busy preparing for technical aspects, this part is often left ignored, and hence, it sometimes becomes a deal-breaker.
Technical round – This interview would majorly revolve around discussion on technical aspects of finance like academic and industry topics based on your background and experience.
Leadership round – This is the final interview taken by a tenured banker with the firm and involves a mix of HR questions and technical questions. This round might also turn into a stress interview, depending on the interviewer.
As highlighted earlier, in a highly competitive B-School environment, everyone would put in rigor to prepare for the technical rounds. It is the conviction through which you can demonstrate your ability and willingness to work in Investment Banking and back it with instances from your experiences that would differentiate you from the rest. While my technical interviews went reasonably well where I could answer over 70%-80% of questions, satisfactory answers to HR questions played an equally important role in selection.
I often come across this question from aspirants; the simple answer is that you have to be good with the financial concepts you have learned in your past education, nothing beyond. In case you do not have previous education in finance, the interviewer would test you on the basic academic concepts that you would have learned during your preparation for the role.
So, ready to embark on a rewarding Investment Banking career? Let AltUni help you develop the skills & exposure required to fast-track your journey!Work On 2 Live Projects, Learn From Top Industry Experts Who’ve Worked With Goldman Sachs, JM Financial, Morgan Stanley & More, Master Core Concepts & Get Interview-Ready!