How To Prepare For An Investment Banking Role - Ft. Anish Lakhani, IIM L'21

2) Why is Investment banking so attractive to B-School students?

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.

So, is a career as an Investment Banker in top firms like Goldman Sachs your calling?

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3) Why did you choose investment banking?

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.

4) Which were your preferred companies during Summer Placement?

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.

5) How did you prepare for the interviews?

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.

Check Out → Skills Required To Become An Investment Banker - A Guide By An IIM Bangalore Student

6) What is an investment banking role campus interview process like?

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.

Check Out →The Reality Of Investment Banking - Harsh Parikh, Ex-Director-IB, DSP Merrill Lynch

7) Tell us a few things that you did really well to bag that role?

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.

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