Breaking into Investment Banking is so insanely competitive that even Goldman’s, current CEO was rejected by The Firm twice thousands apply every year for just a few spots, and in order to stand out, you need every Edge that you can get, and so in today’S video I’m, going to give you 10 crucial tips. You’ll need for breaking into banking.
In case you,’re new here my name is Ben and I’m a former JP Morgan investment banker.
I was also the JP Morgan UC Berkeley recruiting Captain for 2 years, and so I.’ve not only participated in recruiting processes, but also LED.
Several recruiting processes as well with that said, let’s go into tip number one, which is understanding the banking industry, if you’re completely starting from scratch, learning what Bankers do and what the culture is like is essential.
So you know what you’re getting yourself into and, as you dive deeper and deeper into recruiting, you’ll learn that there are a lot of important nuances when it comes to each Bank office and group.
You recruit for for example knowing.
That pjt New York restructuring is one of the top groups that many Harvard and Wharton students would take over Goldman Sachs but that pjt, m is not it’s something you can’t.
Really know until you,’ve done a lot of research spoken with bankers and you know maybe watch some of my YouTube.
Videos next on the list, is figuring out your entry point and I’m going to break this down into those who are in college and those who have graduated first to cover the basics.
There are three crucial recruiting timelines for college students. The first are diversity and Early Access leadership programs which are easy to get into and are great resume.
Boosters second is Junior Summer internship recruiting, which is what leads to the most full time offers, and then there is full time recruiting senior year, which has the fewest spots, and so is the hardest path to banking from College banking timelines have been moving earlier and earlier.
Every year and in 2025, you can expect recruiting, for junior summer internships to start in the fall of your sophomore year, and the majority of offers at top firms will be given out before the spring.
And so this means that you need to start preparing for interviews.
As early as your freshman summer, because you’re going to be so busy networking and attending all those info sessions in the fall of your sophomore year now, if you’re already out of college, then transitioning into banking can happen in one of two ways: The first is by applying to a lot of small boutique investment Banks and then laterally to larger and more prominent Banks.
The second is by getting a master’s degree, do something like a MERS in finance or an MBA, which would be the largest investment, but highest probability path to success.
After you know your entry point, you can then create a timeline for when you need to ramp up networking and interview prep, so you can really maximize your chances because the vast majority of offers are given out during very specific times of the year.
All right.
I hope you’re enjoying this video so far and I’m guessing you’re watching this video because you’re interested in breaking into Banking, and on that note I’m really excited to announce that I’m launching my new one On one mentorship program called the banking accelerator, where I help determine students, graduates and early career professionals, secure Investment, Banking roles that can earn you over 150 000 in your first year on the job, regardless of your School degree or past experience.
My personal guarantee is that if you don’t land a banking job in 180 days or less my team – and I will work with you for free until you succeed – I’ll discuss this more at the end of the video. But if you’re looking to get started right away, you can click on the link in this video’s description where I’ll be explaining all the next steps in detail all right now, going back to the video an often overlooked tip at number.
Three on the list is joining the best business organization you can on campus.
These orgs are important for three reasons.
First, they’re going to have internal resources that have been handed down for years and you can really benefit a lot from them.
Second, alumni will be more willing to speak with you and connect you with other bankers and third being surrounded by like minded peers and classmates.
Your age who are recruiting with you, will keep you accountable and also make the intense recruiting process feel a lot more bearable.
I would highly suggest seeing where the orgs at your school have sent their alumni to and try to join the business orgs who have performed the best.
I personally did this myself and it was a huge game changer for me when I was recruiting next up on the list is maintaining as high of a GPA as possible.
Back when I was at JP Morgan, our standard rule was that if you had a 3 3 or below your resume would get thrown into the trash 3 3 to 37 meant you needed to have strong Finance experiences or have networked really hard to get an interview.
And above a 3 7 would check off the GPA box and move the candidate into the first quartile if they had solid experiences and internships and these standards can be generally applied to most top Bank thanks now, given that Junior Summer internship recruiting is now so early, What this means is that, if you’re just starting College, your freshman year GPA is super super important. So, honestly, I would try to take some easy classes and, if you’re older than that, keep boosting that GPA as much as you can to maximize your chances.
Next, up on the list is arguably the most important one and that is to add, as many Finance experiences to your resum as you possibly can.
If you think about it, what good is preparing for interviews and knowing how to build the financial model? If you can’t even get an interview in the first place, Bankers are extremely risk averse when hiring because of the industry.’s notorious work culture.
The last thing a banker wants to do is hire someone who didn’t know what they were getting themselves into and that they had to work 80 to 100 hour a weeks and then eventually quit, and so, as a result, Finance experience on resum s is Super super important, and so here’s a list of tangible things.
You should try to add to your resume from most to least important internships at investment Banks inter ship in other Finance Industries like private Equity or equity research, internships that involve a finance role like fpna, at a tech firm, placing in the finals or winning Investment Banking Case competitions, diversity, Early Access and Leadership events, you’ve attended at Blue Chip Banks like Goldman or JP Morgan leadership, roles at business organizations or a finance role in a college org and last but not least, Financial modeling and valuation related courses and certifications.
One once you have a strong banking ready resume, you’re more likely to receive responses during recruiting season from Bankers you reach out to and so networking effectively and having a strategy is the next point on the list.
One thing I have to note is that nowadays, networking’s importance has decreased at many bulge bracket Banks due to digital interviews that lead straight to Super days, but it’s still important in general, in the banking recruiting process, and especially at Elite Boutique Banks.
Networking itself could be an entire video on its own, so I’m going to leave you with three of my most important tips.
First, when it comes to info sessions, find your school’s, recruiting calendar ASAP and attend all the ones you can at the info session itself, try to make the best impression possible, but because there’s so many people, you’re, often going to be Forgettable, so your goal should be actually to try to get business cards and emails to set up one on one calls or coffee chats.
Once you’re able to set up these chats either from these info sessions or from cold emailing, your goal should be to make these conversations casual and get the banker to like you. This is 100 times more important than trying to ask a super super smart question, because Bankers work so much with each other and see each other more throughout the week than their families that what’s most important to them is them seeing that they can be.
Besides you for so many hours during the week, and you have to make them want to refer you to other Bankers, the last tip is more of a logistical one, which is to make sure you’re, sending three types of emails to each Banker.
First, confirmation emails the day before your speaking with them.
Second, thank you emails.
Whenever you chat with them and then third update emails, whenever you finish interviews or secure an offer at the bank, even if you get rejected and don’t end up working at a bank, these connections you make can always lead to offers in the future.
If you let’s, say full time recruit after your Junior Summer, internship, so maintaining these relationships are super super important.
The next tip on the list is to be ready for all kinds of interviews.
While in the past, Banks would only do first round phone interviews and then final arounds in person, covid 19 changed everything for the most part bullish bracket Banks send candidates higher views, AKA digital recorded interviews, where you answer a handful of Behavioral and Technical questions and record Them on your laptop and with this plus your resume, they decide who get sent to superday AKA final round interviews, some Elite boutiques have digital interviews as well, but many still do first round interviews which are then used to determine who gets sent to the super days.
Some banks also have their final round interviews on Zo zo, While others are in person.
So in short, you just need to be ready for everything. Next on the list, you’re going to have to craft a bulletproof story as to why you want to work in banking.
Why do you want to work 80 to 100 hours per week? Do you want to do this for the money or the prestige, or do you actually care about finance and know what you’re getting yourself into? Do you just want to dip after 2 years and go into private Equity? What’s your story? Trust me when I say that these are the thoughts that go through every Banker.’s mind when they’re interviewing candidates, and you need to have a convincing answer as to why you’re interested in banking, and there are three important components to a good answer.
First is what or who inspired you to pursue Finance such as investing in the stock market and wanting to learn more or an older sibling or Mentor? Who works in finance.
Second is how you acted on those interests, for example, Finance roles in organizations case competitions or finance.
Internships, third is what you want to gain from Investment Banking and why such as gaining exposure to high State transactions that shape industry to maximize your learning right out of college next on the list, is to master, not memorize technicals.
In order to truly do well.
In interviews, you need to understand technical Concepts rather than just memorize answers from a PDF guide.
Bankers can immediately tell when a candidate is just reciting a script versus when they actually know their stuff and with so many information and resources out there available banking interviews are just getting harder and harder every single year.
Reading about the technical Concepts is really just table.
Stakes – and so here are a few things I suggest to stand out against your peers: first go to bam, com or Edgar and briefly read through 10 q,’s and 10ks of your favorite companies and go through their financial statements. Second, build simple Financial models and play around with the assumptions to see the concepts in practical application, and then third ask your classmates and your peers for the hardest technical mock interviews.
You can they can possibly give you, especially if they successfully have recruited for banking, because it’s always better to fail during practice than during the real thing.
Last but not least on the list always make sure to maintain your Poise.
The entire Investment Banking recruiting process is a grind and intense, and there will be a lot of moments when you may be nervous, especially if you make a mistake during interviews.
What you need to remember is that, at the end of the day, Investment Banking is a client service, oriented business, and so Bankers are looking to see if you are confident and can be put in front of a client when the time is right, bankers will often Ask tougher and tougher questions in interviews to see if you get rattled and it’s? Okay, if you’re, not perfect, because you don’t need to answer every single question right in order to get an offer to practice, keeping your composure, I recommend doing at least 10 mock interviews before your first interview and going through as many interview processes As you possibly can, even if they’re, not in banking, so you can build this muscle and build your confidence.
Over the past 10 years I’ve used the 10 tips.
I’ve just discussed and more to help over 100 students secure offers.
At top firms like Morgan Stanley, evercore and Goldman Sachs – and I also served as the JP Morgan UC Berkeley recruiting Captain for 2 years.
So hopefully, with this video, you can tell that I know a thing or two about what it takes to break into Banking and now, for the first time ever, I want to offer my personal guidance to you with my mentorship program, the banking accelerator.
I kep the number of spots to 15 people, because that’s the only way for me to be able to really focus on each one of you guys and help you get incredible results since I’ll be working with each of you personally, and so, If you want to learn how to tailor your resume to banking, so you land interviews, leave Lasting Impressions with Bankers when networking crush your interviews and land, your dream, job or internship, build wealth and pay off all of that pesky student debt. So you can live life on your own terms.
Work on nine and 10 figure deals, build lifelong industry connections and set yourself up for elite exit opportunities on the buy side.
Then check out the link in this video’s description deson.
In order to get in touch with me and my team looking forward to those of you who join and working with you and for the rest, thank you as always for tuning in and watching and see you in the next video Music .
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