This document provides guidance on summarizing your resume or CV when applying to investment banking roles with significant full-time work experience. It discusses that career changers must have experience relevant to investment banking like law or consulting to have a chance. It also notes that an MBA alone will not allow reinvention and the key is showing a gradual and believable progression of interest in finance and investment banking over time through previous roles and education. The document emphasizes being honest about initial career interests but then demonstrating specific actions taken to work towards investment banking.
This document provides guidance on summarizing your resume or CV when applying to investment banking roles with significant full-time work experience. It discusses that career changers must have experience relevant to investment banking like law or consulting to have a chance. It also notes that an MBA alone will not allow reinvention and the key is showing a gradual and believable progression of interest in finance and investment banking over time through previous roles and education. The document emphasizes being honest about initial career interests but then demonstrating specific actions taken to work towards investment banking.
This document provides guidance on summarizing your resume or CV when applying to investment banking roles with significant full-time work experience. It discusses that career changers must have experience relevant to investment banking like law or consulting to have a chance. It also notes that an MBA alone will not allow reinvention and the key is showing a gradual and believable progression of interest in finance and investment banking over time through previous roles and education. The document emphasizes being honest about initial career interests but then demonstrating specific actions taken to work towards investment banking.
You Have Full-Time Work Experience Will That MBA Work Miracles?
This Lesson: Read OR Watch It
This video walks you through the key
points of our more experienced / MBAlevel / career-changer templates but its not really essential, since you can just look at the templates, examples, and explanations there as well. Or download these slides!
Telling Your Story as an Experienced Candidate
Part 1: The Truth About Career Changers and IB
Part 2: The Main Ideas Behind These Templates
Part 3: Answering the Why Now? Question Part 4: Why MBA and Masters Degrees Dont Matter Part 5: What If Your Background Doesnt Match?
Part 1: The Truth About Career Changers and IB
REALITY CHECK: You must already be doing something relevant to investment banking law, Big 4, corporate finance, etc. to have ANY chance of moving into the industry Not Possible: Librarian or Firefighter directly to IB UNLESS: You get highly relevant experience in between, such as a pre-MBA internship at a PE firm Also: Even with a highly relevant background, youll often need a steppingstone role such as a boutique IB internship
Part 1: The Truth About Career Changers and IB
Steppingstone Roles Most Needed For: Back/middle office, Big 4 or smaller firm accounting/audit, corporate finance, entrepreneurship, military, or roles that are even more different Not As Necessary For: Law, corporate development, sales & trading or equity research, or a Big 4 role where youre working on deals Litmus Test: Do you work in a front-office role at a bank, or do you work on M&A or capital markets transactions? If so, you can probably move into IB without doing something else first BUT: Remember, it still wont be easy banks are very picky!
Part 2: The Main Ideas Behind These Templates
Beginning: You always had some interest in finance, even from back in university or high school But: You chose to go into a slightly different field dont explain why in detail but found yourself increasingly drawn to IB over time Spark: Should move you from finance in general to IB specifically seeing an IPO from the S&T side, or seeing the legal side of a Restructuring deal, or interacting with VCs at your startup BUT: You have to show more of a gradual buildup of interest in IB over time, or this wont seem believable
Part 2: The Main Ideas Behind These Templates
Growing Interest: Your steppingstone role (e.g., Big 4 accounting/audit role to TAS group, or independent valuation firm), your MBA or MSF program, and your self-study Sometimes: Could just be a slightly more relevant role in the same group (e.g., sales rather than trading, or working on more M&A deals as a CFO) This Section: Needs to prove to bankers that you can hit the ground running and immediately contribute something to the firm Usually: Only way to prove that is with a previous internship
Part 2: The Main Ideas Behind These Templates
The Future and Why Youre Here Today: Should be very specific and tailored to the bank and your background Need: An industry and/or a deal type (e.g., healthcare equity research to healthcare IB, or tech startup to tech IB) What If Theres No Match? Make it broader, or find something else in your background that matches up (e.g., familys professions)
Part 3: Answering the Why Now? Question
KEY QUESTION: So if youre so interested in investment banking, why didnt you get in right out of undergrad? Bad Answers: My school didnt have any recruiting, I graduated in a recession, or I couldnt win any IB offers (with some exceptions, such as the back/middle-office template) Better: You realized pretty quickly you wanted to do IB, but you had to work toward it with a steppingstone role first Better: You knew about IB, but were more interested in another career a long time ago until you saw the downsides firsthand
Part 3: Answering the Why Now? Question
Example: For a career change out of law, you can say you were drawn to finance starting in your first BigLaw internship But you were obviously not going to turn down a return offer at a major firm, so you accepted it and then worked in the most relevant groups possible (e.g., M&A and capital markets) while planning your transition to IB Formula: Honesty (admit you were initially interested in something else) + early realization and specific actions taken since then
Part 4: Why MBA/Masters Degrees Dont Matter
MBA Myth: You can re-invent yourself in our program!
MBA Reality: If you cant explain in 30 seconds why you want to
get into IB, based on your background from before business school, you have no chance MBA Reality: So unless youre coming from a closely related background, like corporate development, an MBA alone wont make your story work MBA Reality: Even with the degree, your story doesnt change much the degree is just another Growing Interest point
Part 4: Why MBA/Masters Degrees Dont Matter
The Value of an MBA or Masters in Finance Degree: Gaining access to on-campus recruiting and an alumni network So: Were not saying that these degrees are useless; its just that they wont help your story that much Best Solution: Combine these with a pre-MBA internship, or school-year internship(s) for the MSF degree Truth: In 10+ years of doing this, Ive only seen one case of someone using an MBA to win an IB role at the last minute with no advance planning and he got extremely lucky
Part 5: What If Your Background Doesnt Match?
Truth: We think it would be useless to provide 1,053 templates for every single possible background My Recommendation: Dont focus on the templates look at the executed examples of how each client told his/her story Common Elements: Youll see a lot of language and arguments you can re-use in your story And If Youre Not Sure: Ask us! Leave a comment within this lesson, email us via the contact form, etc.
Recap and Summary
Part 1: The Truth About Career Changers and IB
Part 2: The Main Ideas Behind These Templates
Part 3: Answering the Why Now? Question Part 4: Why MBA and Masters Degrees Dont Matter Part 5: What If Your Background Doesnt Match?
Investment Banking Interview Questions and Answers Prep Guide (200 Q&As) Ace Your Technical Questions and Tell Your Unique Story That Will Intrigue The ... Your Background. (Entrepreneur Pursuits)