Banker Blueprint

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http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/ Feel free to copy this report and send it to all your friends. Actually, scratch that... Please copy this report and send it to all your friends. Forward it to as many people as possible. The more the merrier! Print it out, pass it around, and hand out copies to everyone you know. Just make sure you keep the names and logos on each page intact.

http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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Table of Contents Why I Wrote This Guide and What You’re Going to Learn ......................................... 3 Does This Guide Apply to You? ................................................................................. 4 How to Become a Drug Dealer................................................................................... 5 Why Would a Bank, or Any Company, Want to Hire You? ......................................... 8 Action Plan, Step 1: Plan Your Strategy ................................................................... 10 Your Strategy: Action Steps ..................................................................................... 15 Action Plan, Step 2: Craft Your Story ....................................................................... 16 Your Story: Action Steps .......................................................................................... 22 Action Plan, Step 3: Network Like a Pro................................................................... 25 Networking Strategy #1: Developing Relationships .................................................. 25 Networking Strategy #2: Cold-Calling (and Cold-Emailing) ...................................... 34 Your Networking Crash Course: Action Steps.......................................................... 39 Action Plan, Step 4: Write a Resume / CV That Wins You Interviews and Offers ... 42 Your Resume: Action Steps ..................................................................................... 44 Action Plan, Step 5: Ace Your Interviews and Win Investment Banking Offers ....... 46 Acing Your Interviews: Action Steps......................................................................... 52 World Conquest & Domination ................................................................................. 53 For Further Learning ................................................................................................ 55


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Why I Wrote This Guide and What You’re Going to Learn When I first started Mergers & Inquisitions, I knew almost nothing about breaking into finance (aside from my own personal experience, which you can read about by clicking here). Over 508 articles and 35,298 comments later, things have changed. There are now about 25-30+ books’ worth of information on the site, but there’s no guide that tells you how to break in right now. So I wrote The Banker Blueprint to give you the action plan you need to get into investment banking. Sections 4 – 8 are the main parts of this guide, but the first 3 sections teach you something even more important: why a bank (or any company) would want to hire you in the first place. Oh yeah, you’ll also learn how to become a drug dealer. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Does This Guide Apply to You? How to Become a Drug Dealer Why Would a Bank, or Any Company, Want to Hire You? Plan Your Strategy Craft Your Story Network Like a Pro Write a Resume / CV That Wins You Interviews and Offers Ace Your Interviews and Win Investment Banking Offers For Further Learning

Each section has a checklist of specific action steps and links to relevant articles and videos.


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Does This Guide Apply to You? This guide shows you how to get entry-level roles in investment banking. When M&I first began in 2007, we only covered investment banking. Since then, the site has expanded substantially and we now cover fields like private equity, hedge funds, corporate development, corporate finance, equity research, asset management, sales & trading, and more. Addressing all those industries in a single guide would make this document about 2,493 pages long. So if you’re more focused on one of those industries, or you’re more senior (i.e. you’re NOT an undergrad or MBA student), or you’re reading M&I for entertainment value rather than career advice, go check out the specific articles you’re interested in right here:  All M&I Article by Category and Subcategory Here are a few good examples of what you can find there:  How to Break Into Private Equity as a More Experienced Hire  How to Start Your Own Hedge Fund  How to Break Into Corporate Development and Make Bank Without Selling Your Soul  How to Break Into Venture Capital  The Top 3 Methods of Breaking Into Private Banking – Even If You’re Not The Son of The Sultan of Brunei Return to Table of Contents.


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How to Become a Drug Dealer In the series finale of Breaking Bad, the protagonist, Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher turned drug dealer, sees his wife for the last time and admits something to her:

The entire series, he maintained that he started selling crystal meth to keep his family afloat financially – and that he also killed dozens of people in service of “his family.” But with the end in sight, he admitted the truth: he had done it all for him. In the same way, you must have your own “Walter White moment” before you take the plunge and go for investment banking roles. Here are reasons why you should NOT pursue investment banking:  You Want to Save the Whales / Cure Cancer / Help the Poor – Forget it. You are making rich people richer (or sometimes poorer – maybe that helps?). You can do some good in fields like impact / infrastructure / renewables investing, but not in traditional M&A advisory roles (unless you donate your bonus to non-profits). http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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 You Want to Make a Lot of Money Very Quickly – It’s a long haul, it takes a ton of work, and you have to sacrifice friends/family/hobbies along the way with no guarantee of success.  You Want It All – You want a job where you work 8-10 hours per day, never work weekends or stay late, never get stressed out, never take risks, and also make a ton of money. Keep dreaming.  You Want to Say You Could “Hack It” – You might as well pour gasoline on yourself, light a match, and see how long you can “hack it.”  Models and Bottles – Please jump off a cliff right now. So why would you want to enter this industry? I’ve been advising students and career-changing professionals for almost a decade, and I can think of only 2 good reasons to break in:  You Want to Gain a Skill Set and Experience That You Can Leverage for Related Jobs – Despite everything going against the finance industry, you will almost certainly learn more, and learn more quickly, in 2-3 years at a bank than you would in 99% of other jobs.  You Are Interested in the Work and You Want to Make a LongTerm Career of It – Some people find financial analysis, valuation, and advising companies interesting and engaging. If this is you, great! You’re set. Keep reading. To get a few more reality checks, check out these articles on how much you can expect to earn and what it takes to get there:  No, You Can’t Have It All: Why Finance Does Not Guarantee You $10 Million and Your Own Beach in Thailand  The Myth of the Career Path Also, there’s no guarantee that finance in its current form will be around forever.


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Companies have been raising capital and buying and selling other companies for hundreds of years; the first M&A deal took place in 1708. However, the finance industry as a percentage of GDP was significantly smaller before 1970 – and compensation was much lower, only slightly above what normal jobs paid. Since then, a combination of policy changes (going off the gold standard, deficit spending, deregulation, etc.) and huge changes in the way governments and financial institutions “work together” (to put it nicely) have enabled the rise of industries like investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, and more. The detailed explanation is too long to get into here, but check out this excellent book for more on the topic. Many finance professionals are too insular to acknowledge this, but that’s why you’re reading this guide: I tell it like it is. And I want you to be fully aware of what you’re getting into. Nothing I can do personally will change the industry or the rules of this game – it is what it is. So just like Walter White, you’ve got to admit why you’re really in this. And if it’s for one of the points on the “reasons NOT to do investment banking” list, or you were shocked by the last few paragraphs, you should re-think your plans. Return to Table of Contents.


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Why Would a Bank, or Any Company, Want to Hire You? Still with me? Good. Before planning your strategy, you need to understand why companies hire employees in the first place. There are only 3 reasons why a company would hire you: 1. To earn additional revenue. 2. To reduce expenses. 3. To save time or make a process more efficient. If the company is going to spend $50,000, or $100,000, or any other number on your salary, they better MAKE or SAVE more than that each year. This is especially the case at small and mid-size companies, which do not have the money to waste on frivolous hires. If you’re applying for junior-level roles in investment banking, your ability to help the bank earn additional revenue will be nonexistent. Therefore, you must save them time and money by proving that you can hit the ground running and do the work that’s required of analysts and associates. If you can do the work reliably, you can tolerate the hours and work environment, and you are a sociable person that others want to work with, then you have what it takes… http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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…But demonstrating all those qualities is more difficult than it sounds. For one, there’s a heavy bias toward the university or business school you attended – so even if you’re more capable than Ivy League or Oxbridge graduates, you have a much lower chance of breaking in. Then there are other biases, such as those against age and work experience (the older and more experienced you are, the harder it is to break in – they want younger candidates who are easily “molded”). Also, large banks do not make hiring decisions based solely on the criteria above. They hire a certain number of people each year based on their departmental budgets, and they have so much money to spend that they’re not as ROI-focused as smaller places are. Then there’s the matter of presentation: even if you’re the best candidate in the world, it means nothing if you can’t convey that effectively in the recruiting process. That is the purpose of this guide: to bridge the gap between who you are and the type of candidate that bankers want to see. To do that, you’ll need to understand:  How to Gain Proper Access to Recruiters and Bankers  How to Craft a Winning “Story” That You Present in Interviews  How to Network Effectively and Win Interviews  How to Write a Winning Resume / CV  How to Interview Like a Pro and Win Offers Return to Table of Contents.


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Action Plan, Step 1: Plan Your Strategy So now you know what banks are looking for and why it’s so hard to break in… but how do you get on their radar in the first place? There are 3 entry points into investment banking: 1. On-Campus Recruiting – Banks come to your school and recruit you in a formal process. 2. Networking (Developing Relationships) – You meet bankers at events or via LinkedIn or your alumni database, build relationships over months or years, and leverage those relationships to break in. 3. Cold-Calling / Cold-Emailing – You find the names of local firms and cold-call (or email) until they say “yes.” Strategy #1 is the most effective one because banks come directly to you – but you can only use it if you’re at a top school like Harvard, Wharton, LSE, or Oxford, where banks recruit. Strategy #2 works well, but it’s a time-consuming process and you need a lot of persistence to make it work. Strategy #3 only works well for undergraduates and recent graduates with limited work experience, and you should not rely on it 100% because the results are very random. You will use a combination of all these strategies to break in. Yes, even if you’re at Harvard you can’t rely on on-campus recruiting. You might focus on a certain strategy depending on your background, but you can’t rely on one to break in.


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To give you a few examples, I’m going to suggest specific strategies for different backgrounds and experience levels: Undergraduates / Very Recent Graduates You should use a combination of on-campus recruiting and networking to break in. If you don’t go to a “target school” (a university that many banks recruit at) or you’ve already graduated, you will have to focus on networking. Cold-calling / emailing can work, but you should only use it if it’s the lastminute and you only have 1-2 months to find an internship; it is also appropriate if you just graduated without a full-time job. As an undergraduate, you need at least 1 banking internship to maximize your chances of winning full-time roles. If you can’t get a banking internship, go for related fields like corporate finance or private wealth management. Reader Success Story Case Studies:  From Private Equity Internship to Bulge Bracket Investment Banking: How to Cold Email Like a Pro and Win the Offer (Exceptional Cold-Emailing Case Study)  How to Get Into Investment Banking from an Unknown State School with No Finance Background: Case Study (Exceptional Cold-Calling Case Study)  How to Break Into Investment Banking as an Engineer With No Finance Background: Case Study  From International Student at Non-Target School to Bulge Bracket Investment Banking: How to Beat the Odds and Break In  From Non-Target and No Finance Experience to 2 Full-Time Bulge Bracket Investment Banking Offers


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 From Non-Target School and Unpaid Wealth Management Internship to Full-Time Bulge Bracket Investment Banking Offer: How to Make the Leap Recent Graduates (< 3 Years of Full-Time Work Experience) At this stage, cold-calling is less effective, and you can no longer use oncampus recruiting. You have 3 options if you’ve graduated and you’ve been working fulltime for a few years: 1. Network via alumni, co-workers, professional organizations, and so on. 2. Apply to Master’s in Finance (MSF) programs at well-known schools. 3. Wait until you have at least 3 years of experience and apply to top MBA programs. The longer you’ve been out of school, the tougher it is to break in at the entry-level – even with extensive networking. One option is to “hedge” yourself by applying to degree programs only if you can’t catch a break via networking after 6 – 12 months of effort. Reader Success Story Case Studies:  How to Network Like a Ninja in London and Break Into Finance with Low Grades and a Non-Target School on Your CV (Master’s Program Case Study)  From the Back Office to Front Office Private Equity: How to Make the Leap (Master’s Program Case Study)  From Big 4 Restructuring to Investment Banking: How to Make the


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Leap (Networking / Lateral Hire Case Study)  From Valuation Advisory to Investment Banking: How to Make the Lateral Leap (Networking / Lateral Hire Case Study)  How to Defy the Odds and Break Into Private Equity in China as a Foreigner – Even as Everyone Else is Getting Deported (Networking / Lateral Hire Case Study) Experienced Graduates (> 3 Years of Full-Time Work Experience) Apply to business school. Only bother with top schools – if investment banks don’t recruit there, it’s not worth it. Why can’t you just network or cold-call to break in at this level? Because banks wouldn’t know where to place you. You’re too experienced to be an Analyst, but not seasoned enough to be an Associate. Business school gives you the credibility and the recruiter connections you need to break in as an Associate. Yes, sometimes you can still network your way in without an MBA even if you’ve been working full-time for more than 3 years, but it gets harder and harder to do that over time. MBA Students Similar to undergraduates, if you go to a “target school” where a lot of banks recruit, then on-campus recruiting is your best bet. And if you don’t, then you need to do a lot of networking to get in. But even if you do go to a top school, you still need a lot of networking to break in at the MBA-level. Everyone else is savvy and driven, and many of the career-changers http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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there also want to break into finance – so networking is critical. Reader Success Story Case Studies:  How to Break Into Investment Banking as a Career-Changer in a Part-Time, Non-Target MBA Program  How to Break Into Investment Banking at the Associate Level from a Part-Time / Evening / Weekend MBA Program  How to Do Everything Wrong and Still Land an MBA-Level Investment Banking Internship Beyond the MBA-Level / Over 10-15 Years of Full-Time Work Experience At this level, you will not be hired as an Analyst or Associate at an investment bank. Your best option is work in another industry, advance to a high level, such as “C-level executive” or “Partner,” and then leverage your contacts to move into banking or related fields like private equity or venture capital. Here are a few articles you can draw inspiration from:  How to Break Into Private Equity – Straight from a 17-Year Veteran of the Industry  Hedge Funds vs. Institutional Asset Management: Is a Billion Dollars Really Cooler Than a Million Dollars?  On the Job as an Associate Portfolio Manager in Asset Management: The Fastest Path to Becoming the Next Warren Buffett?  How to Break Into Venture Capital OK, But What About…


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So now you probably have 2 questions: 1. How do you effectively network, cold-call, and cold-email? 2. What if you’re not in one of the categories I mentioned above? For question #1, see the networking section of this guide. For question #2, please take a look at the following pages on M&I that have collections of case studies and advice for different backgrounds:  Case Studies & Reader Success Stories – All Articles  Investment Banking Recruiting – All Articles (Go to the “Career Transitions” section) It’s impossible to cover every single background – although we do have one on how to break in as a male escort – but we add new case studies frequently, and you’ll get new material as soon as it’s added to the site. Your Strategy: Action Steps You get off easy in this section. You just need to answer 2 questions:  What level are you at? If you’re an undergraduate, you can use all 3 strategies above but you should focus on networking. If you’re older than that, you also need to network but you may need to attend a Master’s program or MBA program to have a good shot.  How much time do you have? If the answer is “not much” and you’re an undergraduate or recent graduate, you will need to cold-call as well. Now that you’re in the right mindset to break into investment banking, let’s move onto the next step: telling your story. Return to Table of Contents.


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Action Plan, Step 2: Craft Your Story Once you figure out whether you’re going to focus on networking, coldcalling, on-campus recruiting, or Master’s / MBA programs, you need to craft your story. What is your “story”? It’s your response to an interview question such as “Walk me through your resume” or “Tell me about yourself”; it’s a 1-2 minute pitch that answers these 3 questions: 1. What have you done before? 2. Why banking, and why now? 3. Why should we hire you? A 1-2 minute version of your story is fine for interviews, but for networking purposes you’ll also need a 2-3 sentence version. Here’s how you structure your story: 1. 2. 3. 4.

The “Beginning” Your Finance “Spark” Your Growing Interest Why You’re Here Today and Your Future

The Beginning Say where you grew up – if you’re an undergrad or recent graduate – or where you went to university and where you started your career if you’re more experienced. Also mention what you were planning to do before you got interested in http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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finance (or before you got interested in the specific group you’re interviewing with). Your Finance “Spark” What made you interested in finance in the first place? Were you working at a non-profit when it merged with another non-profit, which made you interested in the M&A process? Did one of your parents start an ice cream truck business that needed to raise capital so it could add chocolate chip mint to its inventory? Did you win an investing competition by picking a pharmaceutical stock that outperformed the market by 150%? Naming specific people, places, and numbers, and citing unusual experiences are the most powerful strategies here. Your Growing Interest Walk through your jobs, internships, and activities (if you’re a student) and explain how each one led you in the direction of finance and investment banking specifically. With each experience, mention something that you liked and something that you wanted to change. Keep this part of your story to 2-3 “hops” at most and simplify your history if you’ve changed careers more than 2-3 times – otherwise you sound too indecisive. Common mistakes in this part include not explaining each transition (if you moved from asset management to equity research, and now you want to do banking, why?), and using too much negativity in your


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explanations (“There was no upward mobility, so I left”). Always say: “But I wanted to do more of… / I liked X, but I also wanted to do more Y” instead of “I didn’t like A, B, and C at this firm.” Why You’re Here Today and Your Future You should state: “I’m interviewing here today because…” and spell it out explicitly. Ideally, you will link this to your background: “I’m interviewing here today because I want to combine my background in strategy at retailers and knowledge of finance to become an adviser to consumer retail companies.” If you can’t do that, talk about why you’re interested in the deals this bank/group works on. At the end, give some indication of your future plans by stating: “In the long-term, I want to [Explain your future plans] and I see this firm/group as the best way to get there because [And point to their clients, deals, or other details].” Popular future plans include advising companies in a particular industry (this always works for investment banking roles) or becoming an investor (better for buy-side roles such as private equity and hedge funds). At the Associate level, you need to show more long-term commitment to investment banking specifically; vaguer plans are fine for Analysts. Example Story – Financier If you have a finance background, you need to focus on what made you interested in the industry and why you want to do investment banking specifically. Here’s a sample story:


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“Sure. I grew up in China, attended high school in the US, and then began studying at the University of Chicago to learn more about finance while gaining a strong liberal arts background. I got very interested in finance at a young age because my parents were both active day traders, and they did well trading natural resource and construction stocks just as the financial markets in China were opening up. I did a double major in Math and Philosophy, and then went back to China to work in wealth management at a local firm after my first year. I liked working in the financial markets and advising clients, but I wanted to work with more institutional clients and do more in-depth analysis. So the year after that, I went to Hong Kong and worked in asset management at JP Morgan – I liked the institutional investor focus and the more in-depth analytical work, but while I was working there I got more interested in M&A because one of the companies I followed was acquired at a huge premium (over 100%). So I started speaking with alumni and others in the investment banking industry, and also learning more of the technical side – valuation and financial modeling – on my own. I want to do IB rather than asset management because you advise companies on decisions that impact their long-term business prospects, instead of just ‘following’ companies. I’m here today because in the future, I want to become a trusted adviser to companies with presences in both the US and China and advise on cross-border deals, leveraging my background in both countries and my experience in finance. And I’m confident your group is the best way for me to get there, because of your track record working on these types of deals.” Example Abbreviated Story – Financier


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“I’m a Math and Philosophy major at The University of Chicago, and I’ve worked in wealth management and then asset management at JP Morgan in Hong Kong the past 2 summers. I’m interested in going into investment banking, applying my finance background to larger-scale transactions, and advising US and Chinese companies on deals.” Financier Story Analysis Here’s what he used for each element in his story: 1. The “Beginning”: Brief mention of being from China and why he attended UChicago. 2. Finance “Spark”: Parents’ day trading – note the specificity because he mentioned the sectors they traded. 3. Growing Interest: Wealth management internship and asset management internship at JP Morgan, plus why the AM internship made him more interested in investment banking. 4. Why You’re Here Today and Your Future: Becoming a trusted adviser to companies in the US and China and working on crossborder deals; this group has a solid track record in that area. This story might be a bit too long for real interviews, so parts such as the first wealth management internship could be cut. Example Story – Non-Financiers and Career-Changers If you’re coming from a non-finance background, you need to show how combining your background with finance will help you achieve your goals. Here’s a story from one of our clients who worked in the tech industry, and then attended an MBA program and won an investment banking offer (personal details and names have been changed):


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“I started out doing an electrical engineering degree at UT Austin, and then after undergrad I worked in IT consulting at IBM for 3 years. I liked working with clients, but I wanted to do something more businessoriented where you could make a long-term impact, so I moved to Oracle’s corporate finance team and worked there for 2 years. Working in corporate finance, I liked the finance and analytical focus and the ability to impact the company’s strategy, but I also wanted to continue to hone my client relationship skills. When I was at Oracle, the company went on a massive acquisition spree, and I got very interested in that side of the business. I thought about corporate development, but from watching the deals firsthand I decided that I would rather work on a wide variety of deals in different sectors. To gain the required knowledge and experience, I applied to business school and decided to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business. There, I’ve taken classes on accounting, finance, and M&A, and I’ve spoken with many alumni in the industry. I’m here today because I want to combine my tech industry experience with my client relationship skills and the finance knowledge I’ve gained at Oracle and business school, and become a trusted adviser to technology companies in the long-term. Given your firm’s track record in technology and the recent deals you’ve done there, your group is the best way for me to get there.” Example Abbreviated Story – Non-Financiers and Career-Changers “I’m a Stanford MBA student and I did IT consulting at IBM and corporate finance at Oracle. I want to combine my tech, consulting, and finance experience and work in technology investment banking, eventually becoming a trusted adviser to tech companies.”


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Non-Financier / Career Changer Story Analysis Here’s what he used for each element of his story: 1. The “Beginning”: Engineering undergrad at UT Austin, IT consulting at IBM, and then corporate finance at Oracle. 2. Finance “Spark”: Getting exposed to major M&A deals at Oracle during an acquisition spree. 3. Growing Interest: Speaking with the corporate development team, applying to the Stanford GSB, and networking with alumni in the industry while taking classes. 4. Why You’re Here Today and Your Future: Leverage tech/consulting/finance experience to work in tech IB and advise companies there; this group has a great track record in the area. You may not have as clear a “fit” with the group as these two candidates did – so make the last part more general and talk about deal types or industries you're interested in, even if the group doesn’t focus on them. Your Story: Action Steps  Look at your resume and think about what you’ve done over the past 10-15 years. Now, determine what you’re going to say for each of the following points: 1. The “Beginning”: Where you grew up? University? Business school? First job after graduating? 2. Your Finance “Spark”: Parents? Event? Activity? Student Group? Something in your first job? 3. Your Growing Interest: Which 2-3 key internships or jobs will you discuss? How did each one bring you closer to IB? 4. Your Future and Why You’re Here Today: What will you do, and how will banking get you there? Why this firm over others, and why are you well-positioned to work here?  Now take those points and make a brief outline of your story. Do NOT script it out 100%, or you’ll sound like a robot. Use only an outline, and practice with that version.  Once you’ve done that, make a 2-3 sentence abbreviated version http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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of your story similar to the examples above. This is what you’ll use when networking (see the next section). Even More? This just scratches the surface of what goes into your story – to get more, check out the IB Recruiting section of the site and review everything “story”-related under Interviews. And if you’re looking for even more comprehensive tutorials, plus 15 templates for telling your story, check out the IB Interview Guide:

Gain an 'Unfair Advantage' Over Other Interview Candidates The BIWS Investment Banking Interview Guide gives you a detailed breakdown of the 15 categories of "fit" questions... preparation guidelines... and response structures. There are 127+ questions with model answers. You also get 15 templates for walking through your resume, covering most common backgrounds.

The IB Interview Guide is the best and most comprehensive resource we have on this topic. If you’re looking for 1-on-1 support and personalized assistance with your own story, we also offer coaching services (along with resume and cover letter editing), where we help you refine your pitch, answer your career questions, and even revise your networking emails. Depending on the package you sign up for, a personalized Action Plan and your own LinkedIn profile may also be included. NOTE: These services are NOT right for everyone – we focus on undergrads with significant work experience (e.g., several internships), professionals with at least several years of work experience, and career changers. http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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So if you’re a 1st or 2nd year university student with no internship experience, please do not sign up. Make sure you read the descriptions of both services carefully before you sign up:  Investment Banking Resume Editing Services  Investment Banking Coaching Services

Win the Finance Interviews and Job Offers You Desire and Deserve Discover how to pitch yourself perfectly, network like a pro, present your work experience in the most effective way possible, and convert your networking efforts into interviews and offers more effectively.

Finally, there are also a few relevant articles and videos on M&I:  How to Tell Your Story In Investment Banking Interviews in 5 Simple Steps – Video Tutorial  How to Walk Me Through Your Resume in Investment Banking Interview: The Top 6 Mistakes to Avoid (Infographic)  Mistakes to Avoid with Your “Story” – Part 1  Mistakes to Avoid with Your “Story” – Part 2

Return to Table of Contents.


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Action Plan, Step 3: Network Like a Pro With your story and strategy in hand, next up on your action plan is networking and gaining access to the proper recruiting channels. There are 2 approaches to networking: 1. Developing Relationships – You do this by conducting informational interviews and weekend trips, attending information sessions, and meeting bankers in any other way you can. It works well and it can get you into bulge bracket banks, but it takes a lot of time and you need to start 6 – 12 months in advance of recruiting season. 2. Cold-Calling / Cold-Emailing – Find lots of local boutique banks (or even PE firms or other finance firms), set aside an hour each day for cold-calling or cold-emailing, and don’t give up until you get a good answer. This is more about persistence and consistency than “skill,” though using the right tactics helps. I mentioned in the first section that you’ll also use on-campus recruiting if you’re at a “target school.” I’m not mentioning it here because there’s not much to it. You submit your resume online… and you get selected for an interview. The only way to tip the scales in your favor is to network with alumni beforehand so that they know your name and are more likely to give you an interview. Here’s how you do that: Networking Strategy #1: Developing Relationships This strategy is more appropriate if you have 6-12 months of lead time, you have access to a solid alumni network, or you can otherwise get referrals to bankers through mutual connections. http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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Here are the steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Make Your List Make the Initial Outreach Follow-Up If You Don’t Get a Response Do Additional Research Make the Call / Attend the Meeting Make Your “Mini-Ask” Follow-Up Make Your “Real Ask”

Now let’s look at each of these in more detail: 1) Make Your List Start with alumni, family, friends, professional contacts, and anyone you meet at information sessions, and then expand into student groups, professional organizations, volunteer groups, and professors. Nothing is “unfair” or “morally wrong” when it comes to making your list. If you have Capital IQ or Bloomberg access, use it. If your uncle is Head of Investment Banking, embrace nepotism. Look at individual banks’ websites, go to other schools’ information sessions, travel, and do whatever it takes to build a solid list of industry contacts. Aim for at least 20-30 before you begin your outreach, and expand that list over time. 2) Make the Initial Outreach


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Email each contact to set up a 10-15 minute informational interview. Put your school and/or workplace and/or mutual connection in your subject, then introduce yourself and say how you found them in 1-2 sentences. Then give 1-2 sentences on your previous work experience and propose a specific range of dates and times to speak with them or meet in-person. Say you realize they’re busy and understand if they can’t make the time – but you’d really appreciate it if they could spare a few minutes. NOTE: You will always get better response rates if you’re contacting someone you already met in-person at an event such as an information session. The “look up random alumni and email them” approach comes off as “spam” to many people. 3) Follow-Up If You Don’t Get a Response If you don’t hear back within a week, follow-up via email. If you don’t hear back after another week, move to the phone. Keep these emails short, use the same subject, and use this template for your email body: “I’m the student from [University Name] / guy/girl from [Company Name] who contacted you last week – just wanted to follow-up and see you would be available to speak for 10 minutes on [Date/Time 1] or [Date/Time 2].” If you still don’t get a response after 3-4 attempts (each a week apart), put the person on the backburner and move onto other contacts. 4) Do Additional Research


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Once you’ve set up your call or meeting, spend 20-30 minutes doing research on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and any other sources you have access to (e.g., Bloomberg, FactSet, or Capital IQ) and figure out where they went to school, where they’ve worked, and other details such as the deal types they’ve worked on. Don’t go crazy with this – you just want enough information to properly frame your questions. Don’t turn into a stalker and create 10-page bios of everyone. 5) Make the Call / Attend the Meeting Aim for 10-15 minutes for a call, and 30 minutes for a coffee meeting. Start by asking about their work and educational background and how they got to where they are today. Try to draw out their interests, hobbies, and anything notable they’ve done as opposed to asking generic questions (“Where do you think the industry / economy is heading?”). Be personal if you want to be remembered. Don’t brag about your accomplishments or attempt to sound “smart.” If they want to test your knowledge, they’ll test it – so be prepared, but don’t pre-empt them. It can also help you to show a vulnerability; you don’t want to come across as so confident that you don’t need their help. So after you’ve asked about the other person, ask for his/her advice on a challenge you have.


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6) Make Your “Mini-Ask” As the conversation or meeting is drawing to a close, ask if it’s OK to follow-up with any additional questions you have, ask for referrals (if applicable), and suggest meeting in-person in the future. Why should you ask for favors in your first call or meeting? To condition the person into helping you. It’s just like dating: if you treat someone as a friend, you will never move beyond the “friend zone.” If you want a relationship, you need to act like more than a friend from the start. And if you want to get interviews from your networking efforts, you need to ask for them. 7) Follow-Up This is very simple: 1. Aim to follow-up at least once every 2-3 months so they remember you. 2. But only follow-up when you have a “reason why” – a request for referrals, advice, help with recruiting, a planned weekend trip, etc. If you don’t have a “reason why” and you need to followup, make one up. You’ll be doing this a lot in finance… 3. Email is fine for quick requests – you can ask for a phone call or an in-person meeting for something more detailed, but it’s not always necessary. Follow-up is good, but making a great first impression is far more important. This is why you spent time outlining on your “story” and researching the person beforehand.


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8) Make Your “Real Ask” “I hope all is well. With recruiting season approaching, I wanted to follow-up and ask you how I could best position myself for an interview with your firm.” You’re not asking for an interview – you’re asking how to “position yourself” for one. If you don’t hear back, follow-up once more via email and then move to the phone. Your goal is to get the other person to ask for your resume/CV, and then receive a strong recommendation from that person at their firm. One Final Point: Just because the other person “passed along” your resume/CV does not mean he/she actually did anything. Often, busy professionals say they’ll help you but forget to do it, or they get too busy and never get around to it. So even after you send your resume/CV, you still need to follow-up and ask about your status. “Relationship development” is an exhausting process, and it’s not feasible to stay in touch with 500+ people consistently. As you contact bankers, though, you’ll realize that only a small percentage are willing to help you – so focus your efforts on that smaller set (20-30 “solid, helpful” leads is a good result). Here are examples of the specific numbers to expect when you’re networking:  300-400 Emails Sent; 80-90 Responses; 10-20 Actually Helpful


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 4 Months Spent Networking; 60 Informational Interviews; 14 First Round Interviews  Cold Emailed 100 PE Firms; 15 Responses; 1 Internship Offer  5 Hours Per Week Spent Networking; 40-50 Conversations with Bankers; 2 Interviews  1000 Emails Sent; 200 Responses; 50 Actually Helpful Other Avenues: Information Sessions & Weekend Trips Those are the ABC’s of how to conduct informational interviews – but you can always meet people elsewhere. The strategies below go beyond this guide, so check out The IB Networking Toolkit if you want the juicy details. Here’s a quick summary: Information Sessions Focus on people with the fewest number of wannabe bankers surrounding them. Go up and make a joke about the news, the information session itself, or other people there to win their attention, chat for a few minutes and focus on personal matters, travel, and their hobbies/interests, and avoid “So, what’s it like being an investment banker?”-type questions. If you get along “OK,” but not spectacularly, make an excuse after 5-10 minutes and say you have to run, and then get their business card before you take off. Then, move on and repeat this process with everyone else in the room. If you do hit it off really well, stay and chat and leverage the crap out of it – you might win an interview on the spot.


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Afterward, quick follow-up is essential – contact everyone who showed any interest in you within 1-2 days and ask for 10-15 minutes to speak on the phone or meet in-person and request recruiting advice.  How to Break Out of “Harold & Kumar” Mode and Use Investment Banking Information Sessions to Break Into the Industry Weekend Trips A weekend trip to New York, London, or whatever financial center is closest to you is an excellent way to get interviews… but only if you do it the right way. Aim for 5-10 meetings each day, split between morning and afternoon, and make sure each “block” of meetings is in the same area of the city so you’re not running around constantly. Plan for each meeting to be 30 minutes, and request everything 2-3 weeks in advance of your trip – then follow-up right before the trip to confirm. The weekend of your trip, make sure you have a “reserve” list of people you can contact in case any meetings are canceled (50%+ will be canceled due to work emergencies), and that you have all the necessary phone numbers, email addresses, and bios with you. The goal of a weekend trip is to meet as many as people as possible near their offices, and then get invited INTO the office to meet everyone else there.  Weekend Trips: The Best Way to Break Into Investment Banking?


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Spring Weeks Spring weeks are “introduction to banking”-type programs offered in the UK and made available to students in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region. You typically rotate between different groups in the course of 1-2 weeks, and you “shadow” professionals and/or participate in valuation and case exercises (at least for IB spring weeks). If you use them well, spring weeks can significantly boost your chances of winning internships and offers – for more, see the article below:  Investment Banking Spring Weeks: The Single Best Way to Break Into the Finance Industry in the UK? Sample Relationship Development Process & Timeline Here’s a sample timeline you might follow if you’re in school right now and you’re looking for a summer internship next year: • July: Begin making your list and contacting people. • August: Continue to get referrals and focus on the most helpful contacts. • September: Move to in-person informational interviews and think about weekend trips. • October: Plan for your first weekend trip early in the fall. • November: Follow-up with everyone you’ve met, and plan for your 2nd weekend trip to occur just before recruiting starts. • December: During your second weekend trip, make sure you’re on the “interview list” everywhere. • January – February: As you move through interviews, continue networking and setting up in-person meetings. • March and Beyond: If you don’t already have an offer, don’t give up – just shift your focus to boutiques and smaller firms, cold-calling where necessary.


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The entire networking process is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration (maybe even less than that if you use our templates). By following the guidelines above, you’ll be ahead of 90% of prospective bankers when it comes to networking.

Get Your Foot In The Door For Investment Banking and Finance Interviews... Discover how to request, conduct, and follow-up on informational interviews, how to convert relationships into offers, how to cold-call your way into Wall Street, how to rock your information sessions, and how to plan weekend trips that get you offers. Complete with templates, audio lessons, and online quizzes.

Networking Strategy #2: Cold-Calling (and Cold-Emailing) Cold-calling is even simpler than “developing relationships” because you don’t need to develop a relationship – you just need to call boutique banks (or other small finance firms) repeatedly and ask for a job. Here are the steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Perfect Your Pitch Make Your List Refine Your List Place Your Calls Follow-Up Rinse, Wash, and Repeat

Let’s look at each of these in more detail:


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1) Perfect Your Pitch See the “Abbreviated Story” samples above. Your “pitch” for a cold-call is just a 1-2 sentence version of your story, plus a request for an interview at the end. Here’s a template you could use: “Hi [Person Name], my name is [Your Name] and I am [Student at University Name / Analyst at Firm Name etc.]. I wanted to get some information from you on how best to secure a [Name the Position] position at [Bank Name]. Is now a good time to speak?” Even though this is short, you are likely to stumble and stutter unless you practice a few times first. Try it in front of the mirror, and then practice “for real” by cold-calling companies in a different region, or banks you don’t care about as much. 2) Make Your List Focus on local and boutique firms – in most cases it’s a waste of time to cold-call people at large banks. If you happen to get their contact information somehow, sure, go ahead and call, but focus on the smaller places. If you want names of local firms in your area, The IB Networking Toolkit has the names and contact information for 10,000+ banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds. Use the list there, do some Google searches, or ask a friend with Capital IQ access to run searches for you. 3) Refine Your List


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It’s better to get bankers’ contact information, but if you can’t find it, settle for the main line, look up banker bios on the website, and ask to speak with a specific person when you call. Before calling, verify that everything is up-to-date and that all the banks and people still exist. But don’t go crazy with refinement – breadth is more important than depth with cold-calling. 4) Place Your Calls Now start placing your calls – aim for 5-10 minutes at most with each one. If you get the main line, ask for a banker by name. If you get sent to voicemail, hang up, call the secretary back, say you got disconnected, and ask for the banker’s direct line or cell #. Do not take “no” for an answer until you speak with someone who makes recruiting decisions. Answer any negative comment with: “So, you’re in charge of recruiting there?” and when they say “No” or “Well…” ask to speak with whoever is in charge. If they resist or say they’re not hiring, find out why – Is it money? Lack of time/resources? They don’t need anyone? Answer their “objections” head-on by offering to work for free, asking if they ever hire multiple people, pointing out that deal flow may pick up and they might need someone, and checking back every few weeks. 5) Follow-Up


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Follow-up every 3-5 business days with each firm until you receive a definitive “yes” or “no” response – even if they say “no,” still follow-up every few weeks to remind them who you are and see if anything has changed. If they’ve said “no” to you consistently over several months, then it’s time to move on and stop bothering with them. 6) Rinse, Wash, and Repeat Once you get the basic process down, repeat it until you win interviews and offers. If you run out of local firms to contact, expand your scope and travel to other cities in your state or country that have more opportunities. More so than “relationship development,” cold-calling truly is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. It’s like hitting on people randomly in a bar: most of them will say “no” immediately, but eventually someone will cave in and say “yes” (or at least “maybe”). Whither Cold-Emailing? We have focused on cold-calling here, but cold-emailing can also be highly effective. Some people argue that it works better than cold-calling since finance professionals don’t like to be interrupted in the middle of the day; your mileage may vary. The difference is that you’ll almost always need relevant work experience to get results when cold-emailing. Examples:  You completed a private equity internship, and now you want to work at a bulge bracket investment bank.


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 You completed a private wealth management internship, and now you want to work in equity research or asset management. A sample cold email might look something like this (taken from a reader who used cold-emailing successfully in the UK): “Dear Mr. [Last Name], I am writing to you to see if [Bank Name] might be interested in taking an intern in its [Industry Name] team. I am available to start immediately. I am a [Year] [University] graduate ([Grades and GMAT score]) with six months’ consulting experience at [Firm Name], fluent in [European Language] and technical skills which I have developed in my current private equity internship at [PE Firm Name]. My CV is attached. I understand that [Bank Name] has a formalized recruitment process, but if the [Industry Name] team is currently experiencing high deal flow then I could be of assistance. Would it be possible to arrange a call? I would be very grateful for an opportunity to discuss this with you. Thank you, [My Name]” And then you follow-up if you don’t hear back, try other people on the team, try other teams, and so on. Here are our best tutorials and case studies on how to cold-call and cold-email successfully:  From Private Equity Internship to Bulge Bracket Investment Banking: How to Cold Email Like a Pro and Win the Offer  The Complete Guide to Cold Calling Your Way Into Investment Banking  How to Get Into Investment Banking from an Unknown State http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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School  How to Break Into Private Equity Right Out of Undergraduate with No Investment Banking or Private Equity Internships Your Networking Crash Course: Action Steps  First off, are you going to develop relationships or cold-call / coldemail? Pick one.  For developing relationships, here’s your quick-start guide: 1. Make a List of 20-30 Names – Get these from your alumni database or LinkedIn by searching for “investment banking” in your region or for specific firm names; ask family, friends, student groups, and professors; use Capital IQ, Bloomberg, or FactSet if you have access. 2. Write a 5-Sentence Email Template – List your school or company in the subject; the body should have 1-2 sentences introducing yourself and stating how you found them, 1 sentence suggesting an informational interview, and then 1 final sentence suggesting specific dates and times. 3. Send Out 20-30 Emails – Take the template you just created and customize it for the 20-30 names you found in step #1. 4. Follow-Up After 7 Days – If you don’t hear back within a week, send another email to each person to follow-up and remind them of your request.  For cold-calling, here’s your quick-start guide: 1. Write Your Elevator Pitch – Yes, you should write it down. Fill in the blanks in this template: “Hi [Person Name], my name is [Your Name] and I am a [Student at University Name / Analyst at Firm Name etc.]. I wanted to get some information from you on how best to secure a [Name the Position] position at [Bank Name]. Is now a good time to speak?” 2. Make Your List – Find as many firms as you possibly can – ideally over 100. You can find the names via Capital IQ, Google http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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searches, LinkedIn, or The IB Networking Toolkit, which has over 10,000 firms listed. 3. Call 5-10 Firms per Day – Start with 5-10 firms per day, verify the information before calling, and deliver your pitch from step #1. Do not give up until you reach a real banker or someone in charge of hiring. 4. Rinse, Wash & Repeat – This is the key to success with coldcalling. You have to keep calling firms and following up every few weeks even if they say “no” initially. These action steps will get you up to speed with networking ASAP. Even More? This just scratches the surface of the networking process – to get more, check out the IB Recruiting section of the site and review everything in the “Networking” category. And if you’re looking for even more comprehensive tutorials, plus scripts, templates, sample informational interviews and cold calls, and the names of 10,000+ banks, PE firms, and hedge funds, check out the IB Networking Toolkit:

Do You Shudder When You Hear The Word 'Networking'? Discover how to request, conduct, and follow-up on informational interviews, how to convert relationships into offers, how to coldcall your way into Wall Street, how to rock your information sessions and how to plan weekend trips that get you offers. Complete with templates, audio lessons and online quizzes.

And if you need something even more comprehensive than the IB Networking Toolkit, we also offer coaching services (along with resume and cover letter editing), where we help you refine your pitch, answer


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your networking and career questions, and even revise your emails. Depending on the package you sign up for, a personalized Action Plan and your own LinkedIn profile may also be included. NOTE: These services are NOT right for everyone – we focus on undergrads with significant work experience (e.g., several internships), professionals with at least several years of work experience, and career changers. So if you’re a 1st or 2nd year university student with no internship experience, please do not sign up. Make sure you read the descriptions of both services carefully before you sign up:  Investment Banking Resume Editing Services  Investment Banking Coaching Services

Fast-Track Your Way Into Investment Banking and Finance Jobs Discover how to pitch yourself perfectly, network like a pro, present your work experience in the most effective way possible, and convert your networking efforts into interviews and offers more effectively.



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Action Plan, Step 4: Write a Resume / CV That Wins You Interviews and Offers Once you begin contacting bankers, you’ll get asked for your resume or CV – so you need to be prepared with a document that wins you interviews and offers. But if you’re reading this guide, you don’t need to “write” a resume at all. You can just use templates I’ve already written for you and modify them as necessary:  Investment Banking Resume Template – University Student  Investment Banking Resume with No Real Work Experience Template  Private Equity and Buy-Side Resume Template  MBA-Level / Experienced Investment Banker Resume Template Pick the category that best matches your own background, download the template, and tailor it to your own experience. Here are the most important rules: One Page Only Unless you’re more senior and you have extensive transaction experience (see the MBA-Level / Experienced Resume Template), your resume should be 1 page. The only exception is in Australia, where 2-4 page resumes are more common (sorry, no template for that yet). The Rule of 3 No matter how much experience you have, you can’t list everything. http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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Focus on the 2-4 key full-time jobs, internships, or activities where you held a leadership role. Bankers work 70-80+ hours per week and review hundreds of resumes, so they will not remember or care about all 27 different student groups you were in. Project-Centric vs. Task-Centric For each entry, use either a projectcentric or task-centric structure. Start with a summary sentence giving your overall results, and then go into specific projects, clients, deals, or tasks you completed. Project-centric structures are the best for consulting, investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, law, accounting, finance, and other “professional” fields, while task-centric structures are better for everything else. Specifics & Results Within each bullet, give the specifics of what you did followed by the results, including numbers: “Developed new social media marketing campaign for TV network client; led to 20% ratings growth in new series lineup” “Valued client using DCF and public company comparables; resulted in valuation 10% higher than management’s expectations” Shouldn’t This Be Harder? I’ve purposely kept the resume section brief, because it’s mostly about using the right template and picking the right experience.


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You should not overthink your resume if you’re a university student applying for internships, because your networking efforts and interview skills matter far more. Once you’ve had substantial work experience, it gets trickier to craft a great resume because you have to be more selective with the experience and language you use. Please see the end of this section if you’re looking for comprehensive resume/CV editing solutions. Cover Letters Cover letters matter in some situations (spring week programs in the UK, firms outside the US, and sometimes at smaller firms), but are less relevant than resumes at large banks. We do, of course, have a template for you to follow:  Investment Banking Cover Letter Template and Tutorial Your Resume: Action Steps  Select one of the templates linked to above and download it to your computer.  Now, decide on the 2-4 key work experiences or activities (for undergrads) you want to write about. Pick the ones that you spent the most time on or the ones that will impress the most – and if you have banking experience you MUST include it.  For each entry, pick either a project-centric or task-centric format and include 1 summary sentence, followed by the 2-3 most relevant tasks or projects you completed.  For each bullet, follow the specifics; results format and use a semicolon to separate the two parts. Even More?


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And if you need something even more comprehensive than the templates and tutorials above, we also offer resume and cover letter editing (along with coaching services), where we completely revamp your resume and cover letter, answer all your questions, help refine your pitch and networking strategy, and more. Depending on the package you sign up for, a personalized Action Plan and your own LinkedIn profile may also be included. NOTE: These services are NOT right for everyone – we focus on undergrads with significant work experience (e.g., several internships), professionals with at least several years of work experience, and career changers. So if you’re a 1st or 2nd year university student with no internship experience, please do not sign up. Make sure you read the descriptions of both services carefully before you sign up:  Investment Banking Resume Editing Services  Investment Banking Coaching Services

How to Make Your Resume Shine & Spin Your Experience Into Sounding Relevant... You’ll get a completely revamped, “bankified” resume that spins your experience in the best light possible, and makes investment bankers and recruiters eager to interview you as soon as they see it.



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Action Plan, Step 5: Ace Your Interviews and Win Investment Banking Offers Investment banking interviews are a huge topic, and we already have a comprehensive interview guide that goes into extreme detail. Rather than repeating all of that here, I’m going to give you a quickstart guide instead: the 80/20 of how to prepare for interviews with limited time. Step 1: Lock Down Your “Story” See the earlier section of this guide on crafting your story. Even though it only takes a few minutes in an interview, your “story” is the most important part. Everything you need to know about telling your “story” is in the second section of this guide, so go back and re-read that if you’re confused. You will need to modify your story slightly for the group and bank you’re interviewing with – so get used to bending the truth. To one group, you want to advise on cross-border European M&A deals; to another group, maybe you’re interested in becoming an adviser to tech companies. Step 2: Gather Your 2-3 Key “Mini-Stories” Once you’ve figured out your story, you need to collect a few “mini-stories” that you can use for your answers to “fit” questions like “Tell me your strengths and weaknesses” and “Tell me about your biggest failure.”


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You could get dozens of “fit” questions, but most of them fall into a few categories – so you can easily recycle the same “mini-stories” and put a different spin on them. Here are the question categories you need to watch out for: • • • • • •

“Tell me about your quantitative skills / attention to detail…” “Tell me about your leadership skills…” “Tell me your strengths and weaknesses…” “Tell me about a failure / your biggest weakness…” “Why are you changing careers?” “Why investment banking?”

You should go over your resume and pick out 2-3 mini-stories that you can use for these questions. Let’s say you’ve been worked as a healthcare policy analyst for a few years, and now you want to move into investment banking – here are 3 “mini-stories” you could use to address these types of questions:  Talk about your exposure to financial modeling when you analyzed healthcare companies’ financial statements as part of your job. This addresses the quantitative skills, changing careers, and why investment banking categories.  Talk about how you led your team to discover financial distress with one healthcare company because of accounting decisions they made, and then how you effectively conveyed this to a Senator you worked with. This addresses the quantitative skills, leadership skills, and the strengths / weaknesses categories.  Talk about how one team member was not satisfied with his contribution to your group, and how you tried to convince him to stay but failed to do so – even though you “failed,” you used the experience to make your group even better. This addresses the leadership skills, strengths/weaknesses, and failure question categories. Taking 15 minutes to pick 2-3 key anecdotes like this will save you hours http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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of grief and prepare you for 90% of possible “fit” questions. Step 3: Prepare to Discuss Your Work Experience You also need to prepare for discussions of your previous job/internship experience, because this will be a huge part of any interview. Here’s what we recommend:  Come up with a 2-3 sentence summary for each work/leadership experience entry on your resume. This will flow directly from the summary sentence on your resume.  Within each work experience entry, pick 2 projects/tasks/clients to focus on and discuss in interviews. These will flow directly from the projects or tasks you’ve listed. Describe the problem, what you did, and what the results were. Numbers are always good.  Make sure you can talk about 1-2 activities or interests outside work. This one is more relevant for undergraduates than it is for MBAs or more experienced candidates. Here’s how you might structure your 2-3 sentence summary and your 2 projects/tasks/clients for an investment banking internship: • Summary: “I worked in the Energy M&A group and helped out with several sell-side and buy-side M&A transactions for clients and prospective clients there. I often worked directly with the Associate and VP, rather than other full-time Analysts, and spent most of my time on valuation, industry research, and contributing to some of the merger and LBO models our team completed.” • Project 1: You talk about a sell-side M&A deal where the seller wanted to divest separate oil field assets and also sell the main subsidiary. The key challenge was to minimize the number of buyers and find someone that would buy the entire entity; you also http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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had to value everything with a Sum-of-Parts valuation. You contributed by researching the public company comparables and precedent transactions. The project was ongoing when you left, but you had an IOI (Indication of Intent) from 1 buyer. • Project 2: You talk about a buy-side M&A deal where you were helping a large oil conglomerate find potential acquisitions in Canada. The key challenge was making sure that the new acquisition was not competitive with your client’s business, and that it would clear regulatory hurdles. You contributed by performing industry research and valuing the potential acquisitions. The project did not progress very far, but you can say it was “ongoing” when you left. Go through your resume and make sure you can talk about each entry with a summary sentence and your 2 key tasks / projects / clients. Step 4: Technical Preparation Focus on the following topics: • Accounting – How the 3 statements link together, what each line item means, and how changes to line items (e.g., Depreciation) affect everything else. • Valuation – The 3 main methodologies (public company comparables, precedent transactions, and the DCF) and when to use which one, which ones will produce higher/lower implied valuations, and the advantages/disadvantages of each one.


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• Enterprise Value / Equity Value – You need to know what these mean, how to calculate each one, and why you add or subtract items like Cash, Debt, Preferred Stock, and Noncontrolling Interests. • Discounted Cash Flow – You need to be able to walk through a DCF, explain how to move from Revenue to Cash Flow, explain how to calculate Terminal Value, Cost of Equity, and WACC, and what items and assumptions like Beta mean. • Merger Model – You need to be able to walk through this model, explain the basic assumptions (Cash/Stock/Debt, Synergies, Purchase Price), and explain how different assumptions affect EPS accretion / dilution. • LBO Model – Walk through the model, explain assumptions like Purchase Price, Debt/Equity, Revenue Growth/EBITDA Margins, and how those assumptions affect the output. Also know the basic types of debt and the characteristics that PE firms look for when buying companies. • Brain Teasers – Know the common probability and “math” questions, and stay cool under pressure. These are not very common in investment banking interviews (they’re much more common in interviews for trading / more quantitative roles). Going into detail on all the topics above would turn this into a 1,539page guide, so I’ll recommend a few additional resources instead:  Quick Videos and Review – M&I / BIWS YouTube Channel We frequently update that channel with new videos on all topics, from Excel to accounting, valuation, and financial modeling, to more advanced and industry-specific topics. http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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Next, you can also sign up for our free financial modeling tutorial series on topics such as merger models, the DCF, linking the 3 financial statements, and more:

Claim Your Free, 3-Part Video Tutorial on How to Build Your First Merger Model... Learn how to create your own merger model based on the $16 billion United / Goodrich M&A deal – both introductory and more advanced lessons are included. Plus, tutorials on the DCF analysis, linking the 3 financial statements, and more.

If you want industry-specific modeling tutorials, you can check them out and sign up on the right-hand side of the page at the link below:  BIWS Industry-Specific Modeling Tutorials For comprehensive training, the Excel & Fundamentals course is best:

Master Excel and Financial Modeling and You'll Leap Ahead of Everyone Else... Discover Excel shortcuts, formulas, formatting, graphs/charts, and more, and get a crash course on accounting, 3-statement modeling, valuation, merger models, and LBO models… plus bonus case studies based on real deals.


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Step 5: (Some) Practice Prepare by using the points and resources above, and then go through 1-2 practice interviews with friends, anyone in the industry, or an interview prep service if you want to go that route (we don’t officially offer mock interviews, but we make exceptions on a case-by-case basis). Another tactic: interview with banks you don’t care as much about first, and use those interviews as “practice.” Acing Your Interviews: Action Steps Here’s a summary:  Lock down your story using everything in the 2nd section of this guide, and run through it a few times with friends.  Gather your 2-3 key “mini-stories” from your work experience and activities, and make sure you can use each one to address “fit” questions on leadership, strengths and weaknesses, and so on.  For each work experience entry on your resume, create a 2-3 sentence summary and a description of the 2 key tasks or projects you completed.  Review the technical topics above; to learn everything from scratch and prepare more comprehensively, check out the interview guide or modeling courses.  Go through 1-2 practice interviews with friends in the industry, and schedule your first real interviews with places you don’t care about as much. Return to Table of Contents. http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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World Conquest & Domination By now, you should be ahead of 90% of prospective investment bankers. You know what really matters – networking, getting your “story” right, and making sure your resume and interview skills are strong without going overboard. And you now have a 5-step action plan to get into investment banking, no matter what your background is or how “last-minute” it is. You’ve locked down your story, and you’ve made sure that you’re networking the right way and not wasting time on irrelevant crap. So what now? Get out there and apply everything you’ve learned. Figure out whether you need to focus on cold-calling / cold-emailing or relationship development (or whether you should go to business school or a Master’s program), and make your initial list of 20-30 bankers to contact. Talk to your friends in the industry and run your “story” and networking outreach efforts by them, get feedback, and iterate until you succeed. Use one of the resume templates included here to craft your own, get a friend to look at it, and do 1-2 revisions. Then go through a few practice interviews with friends, make sure you have a solid “story,” and practice the fundamental fit and technical questions. And then go forth and dominate. - Brian http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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Brian DeChesare Mergers & Inquisitions Breaking Into Wall Street P.S. Since you signed up for this newsletter, you’ll soon be receiving updates each week with more tips on breaking into investment banking (and other industries), exclusive discounts and bonus material, and new stories and case studies as we release them. If you got this guide from a friend, sign up to receive free updates, weekly tips, interviews, case studies, and tutorials right here:  Sign up for the Mergers & Inquisitions Newsletter


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For Further Learning We mentioned A LOT of additional resources throughout this guide – here’s a quick recap and summary: Free Tutorials and Videos First, check out the M&I / BIWS YouTube channel for quick videos on key topics:  Quick Videos and Review – M&I / BIWS YouTube Channel You can sign up for our free financial modeling tutorials to learn more:

Free Tutorials: Learn Financial Modeling Secrets and Land Investment Banking Offers... Learn how to create your own merger model based on the $16 billion United / Goodrich M&A deal – both introductory and more advanced lessons are included. Plus, tutorials on the DCF analysis, linking the 3 financial statements, and more.

If you want the industry-specific modeling tutorials, you can check them out and sign up on the right-hand side of the page at the link below:  BIWS Industry-Specific Modeling Tutorials Guides and Courses To practice the technical questions, your story, and all the “fit” questions, we recommend the Investment Banking Interview Guide: http://breakingintowallstreet.com/ http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/

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Most Interview Guides Suck... This Guide Will Get You Better Results Than Anything Else Out There The BIWS Investment Banking Interview Guide gives you a detailed breakdown of the 15 categories of "fit" questions... preparation guidelines... and response structures. There are 127+ questions with model answers. You also get 15 templates for walking through your resume, covering most common backgrounds.

And if you want to learn the concepts behind the technical questions indepth and get up to speed on what you’ll do on the job, check out the Excel & Fundamentals course:

How to Learn Valuation and Financial Modeling and Dominate Investment Banking Interviews Master Excel shortcuts, formulas, formatting, graphs/charts, and more, and get a crash course on accounting, 3-statement modeling, valuation, merger models, and LBO models… plus bonus case studies based on real deals.

The bonus case studies included in that course also serve as excellent practice for private equity interviews and case studies, assessment centers, and more.


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Resume/CV Editing and Coaching And finally, if you’re looking for an even more comprehensive networking, interview prep, and personalized assistance solution, check out resume/CV editing and coaching packages:  Investment Banking Resume Editing Services  Investment Banking Coaching Services

Land All the Finance Interviews and Job Offers You Desire and Deserve... Discover how to pitch yourself perfectly, network like a pro, present your work experience in the most effective way possible, and convert your networking efforts into interviews and offers more effectively.



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