How to break into Investment Bank?

chipmunk

INTRODUCTION TO INVESTMENT BANKING

Exactly what the heck is an investment bank?
Let’s begin with a simple definition.  An investment bank is a firm that provides a range of services to companies and institutions using the financial markets.  In this capacity, an investment bank can be any one (or all) of a number of different things.  It's an advisor to corporations; it's a middleman in the creation and issuance of financial products (stocks, bonds and the like); it's a sales and distribution organization for the same financial products; it's a major investor and position-taker in the financial markets; and it's a research organization, among other things.  

Investment banking is a broad and loosely-defined term that applies to the activities and organizations involved in the issuing, selling and trading of securities (stocks & bonds), and/or the provision of financial advisory and asset management services to companies, governments, nonprofit institutions and individuals. Although the lines between these two types of institutions are starting to blur, I-banks comprise an entirely different slice of the financial world then do the consumer banks down on main street.  When you need a loan to buy a car, you visit a commercial bank.  When Sprint needs to raise cash to fund an acquisition or build its fiber-optic network, it calls on its investment bank.

We know this sounds like an awful lot.  To keep things in prospective try to think of an investment bank as a three-legged stool: investment banking (including underwriting), sales and trading, and research.  Each leg of the stool is important to the bank’s success in its own right.  You should be aware of the differences, which leg you are more interested in, and how that leg interacts with the other two.  

Within these three legs are a host of job opportunities for MBA’s.  A few include working in:

· Financial Advisory Services

· Underwriting Services

· Sales and Distribution Services (including market making)

· Research

· Corporate Finance

· Mergers & Acquisitions

· Public Finance

· Project Finance

· Asset Management

A Few Major Banks and Job Titles In Investment Banking
At the start of this decade there were 16,000 banks and financial institutions.  Through consolidation there remain roughly 10,000.  The trend is expected to continue, at least until the end of the millenium.  The details and reasoning behind the changing face of banking is the topic for another study altogether.  It is something you should seek to understand on you own.  For purposes of this guide we want to make sure you are aware of the trend—it is important.  

As a rule I-banking is a lean industry without a lot of fat.  Consequently there are not too many layers between entry level and the top.  Typically there are only five levels in the hierarchy:

Analyst (undergrads)

Associate (recent MBAs)

Vice President (typically this title is earned about 4 years out of b-school)

Principle/Director

Managing Director/Partner

Wall Street industry structure may be broken out into four primary areas:

·        Trading

·        Sales

·        Marketing

·        Research



Historically, financial product innovation was a trade and trading phenomenon. The word “trade” is used with trading to emphasize the butchers, bakers, carpenters and candlestick makers who are fundamental product producers.  The standing orders in these trades led to trading specialization by individuals associated with these enterprises.



Based on the development of significant information and transaction cost economies of scale, some traders separated from their fundamental trade activity and specialized in trading.  Today, corporate treasuries provide trading services for their core business units.  Treasuries may out-source their trading function to Wall Street or conduct portions of this activity in-house.



The expansion of the in-house treasury function into areas traditionally traded by Wall Street, including derivatives, is accelerating.  The expansion comes with both opportunity and risk.  (A particular example is the growing amount of notional insurance underwriting through “act of God” derivatives.)



For both Wall Street firms and sophisticated corporate treasuries, a sales function develops to support a trading units order flow, information access and profitability.  Trading and sales are the oldest Wall Street professions.  Sales and trading are also the long-term sustainable professions in all financial market environments.



At particular times, sources of innovation lead to high incremental returns to product development and packaging.  The marketing and research areas grow and contract with the reward-risk trade-offs that are associated with product development and packaging opportunities.





The activities of the four areas may be differentiated as follows:

·        Trading:  trade for profit and value customer relationships

·        Sales: generate trade flow and manage customer-firm relationships

·        Marketing: focus on product development and manage relative industry standing

·        Research: analysis (of the systems, legal and accounting variety) and evaluate traders (and customers) compliance with reward-risk and other benchmarks

All four areas serve as information gatherers and synthesizers.

On Wall Street and in the associated financial derivatives industry, a unique organization feature is sales and trading compensation dominance.  Significant compensation flows to marketing and research professionals if sales and trading producers identify these professionals as major contributors to profitability.  As a result, there is a drive by marketing and research staff to be on or near “the desk” (trading desk).  The focus on the desk tends to be short-term.  As in all industries, long-run financial and derivatives industry performance is driven by marketing- and/or research-led innovation.

Historically, major growth has come from government policy, regulatory and technology changes.  Specifically:

·        Global government sector deficits, monetary activity and trade policy initiatives motivated economic forecasting and market-based economic indicator led growth.

·        Innovations in return-risk evaluation and management have led to growth.  Historically…

collateral-based valuation,
expected cashflow-based valuation,
risk-adjusted cost of capital-based valuation, and
now, derivative-based valuation

…have all led to growth.

·        Technology also is a source of growth.  Examples include:

- (Monroe) bond calculators (bond market and long-term funding)
- HP 12-C (swaps)
- Spreadsheets (options)
- Object-oriented modules (exotics)
- Internet-WWW and parallel processing (hybrids - multidimension-correlation based initiatives)

How has this industry structure worked?

Successes:

1) Risk and information sharing in four underlying markets
            - bonds and interest rates
            - equity
            - foreign exchange
            - commodities
with an explosion of opportunities and benefits.

2) Accelerate global market integration with overcoming of arbitrary regulatory-tax barriers and resultant “gains from trade”

3) Derivative-based financial institutions push convergence and consistency of markets (CRT into NationsBank, hedge funds, Long-term Capital from Salomon, O’Connor into SBC, and Susquehanna with Chase)

4) Risk management services. - consulting and software

Except for 3) and 4) success is hard to document because it is beneficial to those experiencing success to allocate success to their fundamental trade activity.  It has also been found to be a good idea not to trumpet successes that overcome the spirit, but not the letter of regulation and tax laws.

Failures:

1) Absent or insufficient checks on a “star” performer who becomes an important source of total firm profitability (looking back to four area structure, no effective research group or competing trader benchmarks the star.)  e.g. P&G, Barings, Orange County, Metallgesellschaft, Sumitomo => ~$5.4b.

2) Quantitative methods fail for hedging and risk management.  Askin - mortgage backed positions were often by “sophisticated” firms.  e.g. Howie Ruben loss at Merrill and then, later, gains at Bear Stearns with Askin “exposure management.”

3) Organizational development failure in face of new business - investments in necessary people and systems are not made.

4) Upward ratcheting performance benchmarks require improved performance for a bonus in the face of a harsher business environment.  Usually faced in corporations, not as much on Wall Street where market opportunity windows are “better” understood.

A key source of success is well-timed marketing and research activity that kicks off the first two stages of a (short) product cycle.  Otherwise, life in Stage III is not fun.  But this stage III is where much of Wall Street lives.  As a result, investment for future innovation is limited. An implication will be enormous financial and derivative industry overhead cuts:

1)      Consolidation across and among firms

2)      Vertical integration among and within firms (more corporate work in-house and out-sourcing to sophisticated corporates and service firms- not necessarily Wall Street.)

3)      Niches - regional, industry, size and product.

Understanding what you should do to find a job in finance

1)   Like and know one of the financial markets - fixed income areas will hire bright and motivated people that know currencies, equities or commodities and vice versa.  Basically, firms simply look for strong signals of interest in finance and that an individual knows a good deal about what he or she say that they are interested in.  The Street likes to hire people who have clearly excelled at something.  For example, a past world backgammon champion might interview quite well.  For investment banking, you need to know markets these days as well as know valuation and a few companies, industries and emerging opportunities that you just love.  Be current on what’s going on in what you like and are supposed to know.

2)   Know the firms and yourself - each firm has very different character, ways of doing business, strengths and weakness, just as you do.  Different areas of the institutions can also differ significantly.  A few are truly cutthroat and a couple are moderately “collegial.”  Sources of preliminary information are annual reports, Lexis-Nexus, Web-surfing, and the firm rankings in Institutional Investor, Euromoney, Corporate Finance, Risk, IFR, Greenwich Associates, ...  Business profit and market share are also good indicators of relative strength.

I think that its better to work in a top three globally rated area at whatever institution than join a highly rated firm that is poor in your area.  Joining an institution with a good training reputation is also advisable.  It’s fair to ask how hires have done.

3)     Be persistent and organized.  rioritize potential institutions just like you did graduate schools into three classes: prayer (after all you are at Georgetown), fair chance, and likely.  ick one from each class, and plan to obtain “information” interviews through a personal, professional or school link.  Know 1) and 2) before trying to set up the information session.

In any contacts prior to going in, direct your conversations by your questions and be brief.  Be an excellent listener and draw out whomever you are speaking with.  Don’t bullshit, you’ll get caught.  If you are doing a good job, you will be hit with all sorts of things you don’t know and new questions.  Know them before you call back.  If they answer your call back, then you are doing well (unless they tell you off immediately.)  

The “information” interview is never just for information.  Somebody is going to put you on the spot, and your reaction will determine if you get any follow up.  You may even be cold interviewed over the phone and stress variants are not unheard of.  After any interview, review your performance and then get feedback.  Any deficiencies?  Fix them before your next interview.

4)   You will be hired if they see you can help them make money and they like you.  For some firms, there is no honeymoon period and you’re expected to pitch-in and produce in a month (even while your still training “full-time.”)  The commercial banks tend to take things a little slower than the investment banks, but not much.  You will be working in a hot and poorly ventilated space that is packed with electronics and you in about seven feet of space.  The people in the neighboring seven-foot plots must like seeing you 12 hours a day or no job.

chipmunk

At the beginning of my first year of business school I posed this question to myself.  Frankly, at the time I could not have begun to even define investment banking or accurately explain what an investment bank did!

If you are considering a career in the Finance Industry or seriously want to become an investment banker, than the time to start you career search is at the beginning of your first year.  There are two types of MBAs who want to become investment bankers.  The first is the former financial analyst.  I do not have much to tell this person.  He or she already knows more about the business than I do in my second year.  The other type of MBA is what is considered a career changer (someone using b-school to change careers).  The career changer faces a big challenge in entering the investment banking industry.  A career changer has little or no related experience, lacks an understanding of the industry and hasn’t a clue as to how to get started.

As you can probably guess, I was a career changer.  After graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in Accounting, I was commissioned as a lieutenant in the US Army and served four years as a Signal Corps officer (Communications officer).  After serving a year in the Republic of Korea and two years in the Republic of Panama, I decided to leave the Army and enter business school at Georgetown University.  Early on in my Georgetown experience I asked myself the question, “ so you want to be an investment banker?”

Within the first couple weeks of business school I decided the short-term answer was ‘yes’ and if I ever was going to do it, I had to start immediately.  For a career changer, it is critical to start early, be focused and land a summer internship in the industry.  Former analyst have some flexibility here but gaining relevant work experience is essential for us career changers.

How to get started?
The first step should be to consult with classmates and personal friends who know about the industry.  Other sources of information are books, the Wall Street Journal, WEB sites, the career management office, company presentations and alumni.  The first challenge is learning about the industry.  Here are few questions to focus on:

·        What is Investment Banking?
·        How is it organized?
·        Who are the players?
·        What do investment bankers do?
·        How (through what functions) do they make money?
·        What are the different cultures?
·        How do they differ?
·        What do they sell?
·        What makes a successful banker?
·        What are the trends in the industry?
·        What specifically will I be doing my first couple of years as a banker?

Once you can begin to understand the answers to these questions, you are ready to start contacting potential employers.  (Note:  Your answer to these questions will continually change as you gain more experience.)

The Internship
If this seems like a daunting task, then you are correct in you assessment.  The first step, however, should be to plan a strategy.  Things to keep in mind:

·        Timing of the process
·        Who are the gatekeepers?
·        Who do I know? and Who do I have access to?
·        What’s my goal?  (corporate finance, sales & trading, research, etc.)
·        How much time and money can I spend?
·        Why should they hire me? (This is called ‘knowing your story’.)

This is just a preliminary checklist to get you thinking about the magnitude of the task you are about to take on.  The following is a summary of the strategy that I followed:

1.      Develop a strong and interesting resume.  (I asked a lot of people to read it.)
2.      repare a focused cover letter in bullet format.
3.      Set a date to visit New York City.
4.      Call all my contacts to ask for 15 minutes of their time.  (I found that setting a date and telling people that I was already going to be in NYC helped open doors.)
5.      Send cover letters and resumes to all contacts and potential contacts telling them that I would follow up on a set date with a phone call.
6.      Manage very carefully all contacts and potential contacts - Be Professional.

This strategy got me in the door at many places, but follow up and relationship management were the keys to success.  Through this process you can develop a network and demonstrate to a potential employers that you have well developed people skills.

Interviewing
Rule #1:  every interaction with a banking professional or recruiter is an interview.  Never let your guard down.

A good start for getting your feet wet with interviewing is to set up informational interviews.  An informational interview is a low stress opportunity to ask questions and a method for them to make a preliminary evaluation of you.  The best conclusion to an informational interview is to discuss a possible next step.

Before going any further, it is important to address the concept of ‘knowing your story’.  In any interview a common first question is “why do you want to work in investment banking?”  The interview can end here or really take off.  This is a slow pitch down the middle designed for you to tell the interviewer why he or she should consider hiring you.  This is your chance to match your background with the needs of the interviewer.  I call it ‘making sense’.  You should try to convince the interviewer that it makes sense that you want to do this.  Do not expect the interviewer to draw any conclusion about you background.  That would be a big gamble!

In general, all investment banking interviewers are looking for the same things:  maturity, commitment, knowledge of the industry, enthusiasm, quick study, analytical and personable.  The bottom line is that they want to determine if they would like to work with you.

Bringing It Home
It’s great to learn about a new industry, but if you do not get an internship, than it’s a lot less exciting.  Everything you have done so far is to get you into the formal recruiting process that takes place in January and February.

By December my personal strategy was to focus on four institutions with whom I had made good contacts, it appeared to ‘make sense’, and I saw a realistic internship opportunity.  In early January, I made a big push and met with everybody I could in my target firms. A strong network goes a long way at decision time.  A key to building a good network, is having people you meet or know introduce you to someone else.  By late January, I was in the formal process with my four target firms, within six days in early February, I had four final round interview sessions and by February 18th, I accepted an offer for summer employment.

The keys to success are doing your homework, knowing your story, managing relationships and being persistent.

By Patrick McKenna, Georgetown University MBA 1998

chipmunk

Introduction:

Opportunities to apply the skills and knowledge acquired through graduate business education have increased dramatically in equity sales and trading. The incredible growth, volatility, and complexity of global equity markets have created a need for individuals who understand these changes.  Institutional clients have also become increasingly sophisticated and are demanding timely global macro-economic research, industry analysis, and equity recommendations.  The energy, challenges, and excitement of working in a market environment have attracted MBAs to an equity sales or trading career.

Positions:
Institutional Sales
In institutional sales professionals (sell-side) are responsible for conveying market and security information to institutional investors (buy-side).  Sales professionals have extensive contact with portfolio analysts and managers and your firm’s research analysts and capital markets group.  Extensive market and product knowledge and sales skills are crucial in this area to get your firm’s view to institutional investors.  Institutional investors include money management firms (mutual funds, hedge funds), pension funds, insurance companies, and large corporations.  Institutional sales work in open areas and start their day at about 7:30 with morning market updates and meetings with research analysts.  rior to the open of the equity or fixed income markets, sales professionals call buy-side analysts and portfolio managers to their firm’s view on general market conditions and specific security or product recommendations.  Sales people are also involved in promoting and coordinating IPO road-shows and coordinating meetings between company management and institutional investors.  Generally, the sales force has three functions:

Advise clients on industry trends and investment decisions;
Distribute the firm's under-writings (IPO) by selling them to existing and prospective clients; and
Assist the firm's trading activities by finding the opposite side of a trade, so that the entire transaction can be completed "in-house” to capture commissions from both sides of the trade.

Each of these functions is the clear objective of generating commission revenues for the firm (and possibly the salesperson, depending on the compensation system employed by the firm). Revenue is only generated when orders are placed for a “trade” (a purchase or sale of a security or product) through the firm.  Although many of these activities are oriented toward common domestic stock, today's salesperson handles an extensive list of investment products.  Increasingly large firms have a more specialized sales force that covers particular regions, industries or products.  For instance, Goldman, Sachs & Co., has a specialized sale force for derivative products, international equity (broken down by regions including Europe, Latin America, Japan, and South East Asia), convertible securities, and even technology stocks.

Before discussing Trading, I would like to distinguish the difference between a Trader and a Sales/Trader.  A Sales/Trader is the intermediary between the buy-side trader and sell-side trader.  Depending on the structure and product volume at each firm, the role of Research Sales and Sales/Trader are sometimes combined into one, especially at smaller firms.  The primary role of the Sales/Trader is to provide market trading information and distribute a client's order to various traders who specialize in particular sectors or securities.  The Sales/Trader position is much more client relationship oriented.  It is a very fast pace and intense role that requires great communication and teamwork skills.  Now, I will discuss the Equity Trading position.

Research Sales and Sales/Trader Compensation: Starting salaries at leading investment banks are $120,000 including first-year and signing bonus.  After the first two years, the bonus is based on the department and firm's performance.  The average 1996 compensation in institutional sales in 1996 exceeded $320,000 according to the Security Industry Association.

A Day in the Life of an Equity Research Sales Professional

Source: The Goldman, Sachs Group, L.P.

My clients manage institutional portfolios, such as pension funds, hedge funds and mutual funds. My job is to help them access our firm's research expertise on market trends and the performance of specific companies.

7:00 AM

Arrive at my desk on the trading floor, compile a "to do" list, and scan the morning
papers and summaries of the previous day's trading activity. Also leave early voice
mail messages for clients with whom I want to discuss investment ideas.

7:30 AM

Meet other research sales associates for coffee in the cafeteria to discuss ideas on
portfolio strategies that might be appropriate for our clients. We share several accounts and are always discussing ways to add value.

8:00 AM

Participate in our daily research conference call, along with other research sales professionals and equity analysts from around the world. During these calls, research analysts comment on specific companies, market sectors and economic trends.

8:45 AM

With 45 minutes until the stock market opens, call several clients to relay comments made during the research call that may relate to their investment objectives.

10:30 PM

Keep close watch on the markets, phoning clients to update them on new developments and opportunities. There is a continuous flow of information around me from stock tickers, wire services, all-news television stations and trading activity. The atmosphere is intense and fast-paced.

12:00 PM

Lunch in the cafeteria with three other research sales associates. A major factor in my professional growth has been the constant interaction with senior colleagues who are always available to answer my questions and share their insights with me.

1:30 PM

Leave the trading floor to interview a candidate for a research sales position.
My colleagues cover my clients' calls.

3:00 PM

Review a client's portfolio in preparation for a conference call with our specialist in convertible bonds.

3:45 PM

Conference call with a convertible bond specialist and a client to discuss an upcoming convertible offering from a major software company. The bond specialist lays out the specifics for our client. I explain to her the benefits of investing in this security.

4:30 PM

Leave for an outside meeting with a hedge fund manager and the management of a forest products company in which he is considering investing.

6:00 PM

Dinner with a client. I try to do this several times a week. One of the aspects of my job I find most rewarding is the opportunity to build long-term relationships with clients.

While each day is different, my work always involves frequent client contact and constant interaction with colleagues and traders. I love the excitement of the equity markets and the chance to work alongside such talented and supportive professionals.

Equity Trading
The energy and atmosphere of the equity-trading floor are considerably different from those of the rest of the firm. On the trading floor, traders are in close proximity surrounded by telephones and multiple computer terminals, executing client orders and committing the firm’s capital. They are in constant contact (either via telephone or computer) with the firm's entire sales force (or sales/traders) and the trading floors of all major securities exchanges.  The atmosphere of the trading floor is intense. Due to the increasing competition among firms and the decline in commission rates, the trader's ability to properly execute an order often determines whether a particular transaction makes or loses money for the firm.  

There are also two distinct purposes in trading securities:

1)      Transaction facilitation: Traders usually take a position to facilitate a client’s transaction.  For example, a trader on the listed desk receives a client order to “Sell” 10,000 shares of General Electric.  Assuming the transaction price has been negotiated, the trader may not be able to find any buyers of Microsoft stock to match the seller's order.  In this case, the trader steps in and purchases the stock in the firm’s account and facilitates the client’s transaction.  Then the trader gradually unloads (by selling) the stock into the marketplace to either other clients or other securities firms.  The revenues gained for the firm includes a commission on the transaction and the difference between the purchase and sale price of the stock.

2)      roprietary positions: In this case, traders take positions in securities as a short-term “bet” on market direction.  The revenues gained for the firm are limited to the return on direction of the security.

A strong trading operation must include the following two components: (1) Capital Commitment and (2) Volume of business.  Without capital commitment, client's trades cannot be facilitated.  Trading volume provides commissions and the opportunity to reduce trading positions.

Most firms structure their trading operation in two groups: order size and product

1)      Order size:  this entails having a "block trading" desk for larger volume, institutional types of transactions and an "order" desk for smaller, retail types of trades (i.e., under 10,000 shares).

2)      roduct areas: The trading function is also divided by product areas, with separate traders for listed (NYSE) and unlisted (NASDAQ or over-the-counter) securities, derivatives, international securities, and convertible securities.

Trader Compensation: Starting salaries at leading investment banks are $120,000 including first-year and signing bonus.  After the first two years, the bonus is based on the department and firm's performance.  The average 1996 compensation in institutional sales in 1996 exceeded $320,000 according to the Security Industry Association.

The Process:  A Secondary Market Transaction
The Goldman, Sachs Technology Research Analyst upgrades IBM from a buy to a strong-buy rating on the morning research call.  The change is due to an unexpected earnings lift from the company's international division.  

After the end of the morning research call Research Sales professionals contact portfolio managers and buy-side portfolio analysts about Goldman's upgrade of IBM stock.  They explain, in great detail, the changes in the company's forecasted earnings.  A Fidelity mutual fund portfolio manager likes Goldman's views on IBM and decides to purchase 100,000 shares.

Next, the portfolio manager orders his trader to purchase 100,000 shares at $98 1/4 from Goldman.  The buy-side trader then contacts Goldman's Sales/Trader and places an order limit for100,000 shares at $98 1/4 per share.  The Sales/Trader contacts the Sell-Side Trader and explains Fidelity's order to purchase IBM stock.  The Sell-Side Trader then sends the order to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to a Goldman NYSE Floor Clerk.  The Floor Clerk then gives the order to a NYSE Floor Broker who physically runs the order to the Specialist who transacts in IBM stock.  The transaction takes place between the NYSE Floor Broker and the Specialist, who first attempts to match the buyer with a market seller.  If the Specialist cannot match buyer and seller, he or she will have an option to purchase the stock at a negotiated price.

Private Client Services
Private Client Services (PCS) is the high net-worth retail business of investment banks.  CS sales people serve wealthy individuals and families worldwide, helping them define and execute investment objectives and strategies.  At Goldman, Sachs and J.P. Morgan, for instance, over 95% of PCS sales people have graduate degrees in either business or law.  The PCS business varies greatly at each firm and it is a highly fragmented business.  For example, San Francisco based Montgomery Securities defines its Private Clients with a $100,000 account minimum and offers basic money management and brokerage services.  However, bulge-bracket investment banks, such as Goldman, Sachs and Morgan Stanley, offer a variety of client solutions including asset management, brokerage services, restricted stock services, private-equity investment opportunities, and international banking opportunities for international clients.  In addition, there are two emerging models in the PCS business.  The first is defined as an asset-gathering role, where the PCS sales person only manages client relations (J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley).  The other, allows the PCS to locate the client and also manage the client’s funds (Goldman, Sachs).

In general, PCS professionals become expert in a comprehensive range of investments, including domestic and international equity and fixed income securities, derivatives, restricted stock and direct private investment.  Although the model again differs from firm-to-firm, PCS sales people typically working in teams of two to four, and the professionals have expertise in advising clients on the optimal asset allocation designed to protect and grow their wealth. With the exception of Merrill Lynch, bulge-bracket firms have between 200-350 professionals worldwide.

Private Client Compensation: Starting salaries at leading investment banks are $120,000 including first-year and signing bonus.  After the first two years, some firms are based on bonus-only and others are based strictly on commission.  At many bulge bracket firms, the PCS sales people are the average highest paid in the equities division.  However, they also probably have the highest turnover rate.

By: Ali Bastani, Georgetown University MBA 1998

chipmunk

Yes it’s true, poets and artists are people too!

I went to Lafayette College in Easton, PA and was a double major History and Art.  Upon graduation I had no clue what to do with my life.  So, I moved to Vail, Colorado and taught skiing for two years.  Then, on to NYC where I worked for a year and a half at a television advertising sales firm.  Following that, I worked as a strategist for a small consulting firm in Connecticut.  All of a sudden like a blinding flash, I decided to go to business school.  OK, I know what you’re thinking … this guy is all over the map, what an idiot.  I agree.  The thing is, I wasn’t lucky enough to know exactly what path I wanted to follow, and probably still don’t.  

After attending several of the company events, Career Day, speaking with Career Management, etc. I decided that investment banking was my calling … or was it more strategic marketing … or was it working for an Internet firm.  The point is that no matter what position you’re going for the method is the same, just different jargon, dress codes, and maybe you use Excel instead of Word.  

The critical success factors in landing the right position are the 4Ps of job hunting (not to be confused with the 4Ps of marketing, nor to be confused with the 4Ps of Connecticut Avenue – a great Irish bar next to the Uptown Theatre).  No, these Ps can make it all come together Preparation, Practice, Polish, and Persistence:

Preparation – DO YOUR HOMEWORK – know the “why’s”

·        Why banking / consulting / corpfin / etc?  

·        Why XYZ firm?

·        Why Georgetown?

·        Why should they pick you?

Practice – have your friends grill you on every possible question – take this seriously because your classmates are going through the same interviews you are and can hit you up with the worst of the worst.  For some reason, I seem to draw out the ‘weird’ in interviewers, some examples:

(Strategic Marketing): If you were a cereal what cereal would you be and why? My response: Crunchy granola suite (from the Neil Diamond tune), you know kind fun, full of uhhh fiber, and good for you.

(Strategic Marketing – same interview part II): What makes you tick?

My response: You mean besides the electromagnetic pulses causing the contraction and expansion of the muscles of my heart?

(Investment Banking): We chitchat for a while and then the interviewer slides a handwritten piece of paper across the table to me, I’m not kidding it looked like this, and asks me what does this mean?

By Torrey Martin, McDonough School of Business MBA 2000