Investment Banking
Today I was considering the different choices I would have after I finish my MBA. After working as an engineer for 3 years, I’ve realized that engineering was underpaid for the amount of hours that I work and the responsibilities that I have.
Therefore, I decided to focus my MBA in a direction that would help me obtain a career in a profession that aligns with my values, skills and goals. I have narrowed it down to investment banking. In this industry you require the following skills:
spreadsheet (at least when you start as a financial analyst),
math,
interpersonal,
presentation skills, and
multi-tasking.
Surely this position makes a lot of money but you have to work really hard for it and sacrifice some personal time, investment bankers are known to work as much as 120 hours a week! However, IB pays really good specifically here in Toronto due to the lack of good IBs.
My plan is to study really hard and be deeply involved in the finance club at Schulich so it will facilitate me to get an internship in an Investment Bank like Goldman or Merrill.
I will post more details later on,
5 comments:
Weren't you doing the MBA part-time?
That would make it difficult to get into banking.
Also, check into how good Schulich is at placing students in I-banks. They recruit from a very limited list of schools and it's very, very hard to get in from outside that list. But not impossible.
Anything you can do to make yourself sellable is good. Language skills, etc.
Good luck!
Oh no, i was still considering doing one. What would make it difficult to get into banking?
Yes i have to agree that the IBanks list recruiting at Schulich is narrower than that at Rotman. IBanks in Toronto still old school and they like a more traditional school such as Rotman.
In Rotman employees come to you where Schulich you have to do some leg work.
Then why did i chose Schulich? I am lucky enough to have friends that attended both school and everyone from Rotman agrees that Rotman is not a program for a career switch (engineering to IB) also they tell me the experience is not that great , meanwhile Schulich people gave me just pluses about the program.
however, they agree with you that getting in an IBank that is not in the list is very hard but it is doable. but they have some good IBanks in the list such as Merrill Lynch.
About being more sellable, I have very strong analytical, presentation and quantitative skills (also i speak 3 languages, fluently), also, i am planning to get involved in a club such as the Finance Club for networking purposes.
what else do you suggest i should consider doing?
Thanks
Iyad
Usually the I-banks in the U.S. hire out of their summer intern base. Having a full time job would probably rule out an internship for you, which is going to make it harder to get a full-time slot.
Sounds like you have a pretty good plan laid out. I didn't mean to be overly negative, but a lot of people in my program (Brandeis University, outside of Boston) thought that getting into I-banking would be easy and that's not the case all.
Plenty of people did it, but they all had some cards to play in regards to solid background, languages, much like you do.
As I'm sure you know there are plenty of great blogs out there that focus on banking and are a good way to keep your fingers on the pulse of things.
Bankersball is good as is footnoted and The Big Picture (more of a general business/economics site.)
Take a look at private equity as well. I'm not sure how entrenched it is in Canada, but a lot of the top schools down here in the U.S. are sending a lot of people that way. The skillset is very similar.
I'm still looking for a full time job myself. I'm too old (37) to do the banker's hours and manage to stay married at the same time, so I passed on that. I'll probably go for finance, general management or a consulting gig.
Again, good luck. Sounds like you've done your homework on this
Thanks Jeff for your comment.
I will check the blogs you recommended. I realized about the issue with the internship. In Canada as well as the US it is way better to do an intership to switch to IB. That is why i am trying to switch full-time (at least in the middle of the program) in order to land an intership.
Now it is up to my bank, i asked for 30k more on my line of credit, so if they say yes i will switch full time right away, if they don't then i will switch later on in the program when it is feasable.
You are making a good choice not doing IB. IB is not a family-friendly career (i know 3 IBankers and they are all divorced for a couple of times). That is why i want to do it now before i commit with anyone, by then i will be rich and using 100-bill as napkins...hahaha
Good luck hunting for opportunities.
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