<p>This might be a stupid post...but if you're recruited by an I-Bank from a highly prestigious school, do you have to go through any interview process? How would they select you?</p>
<p>Yeah you have to go through a fairly rigorous interview process. At some of the top i-banking firms you may have to go for up to six interviews.</p>
<p>This might be a stupid quesiton...bow exactly does the "recruiting" work? Do they come to you...or are there connections you have to make to get those interviews/jobs?</p>
<p>If you know what firm you're thinking about then just go on to their website to the "Careers" page, and they usually have a recruiting calendar. They go to several of the top schools for recruiting, but if you are out of that bracket you would have to initiate interest in them some other way. I know at Northwestern most of them come in around Sept. - October and give a presentation then they come back later and hold on-campus interviews. After the first interview the process continues on if they liked you and you have several interviews after that (the end usually being an interview at one of their main offices); it's a rather lengthy process, but if you are good at interviews and have the skill sets needed for investment banking then you would probably stand a really good chance.</p>
<p>Whats the point of so many interviews? How many do they needs to figure out if you have the skills for the job? Or is it just to deter unmotivated people from applying?</p>
<p>They won't interview you if you don't have the skill set they are looking for. The interviews are to determine if you're a fit for the organization. So many people want these jobs that they can be extremely careful about who they take in. They are making an investment in you in their eyes. They want it to work out. If it's after college, they want people who they'll invest in and will return after B school. If it's after B school, they'll want to meet your significant other, know how you spend your free time, in essence, will you fit in? These businesses are partnerships. The interviews will be in social settings as well as the office. Wives will be at some, if you're older and have a family they'll have a family event. They want to know who you are and what you think. I went through all of this with my boyfriend. It's still and old boys thing.</p>
<p>thanks for the info. So, going to undergrad at Yale would probably be an advantage in the recruiting process, since it is a "top school"? How are the salaries coming directly out of college?</p>
<p>Wow great post jazzpiano. Damn, i guess one of the hardest things about I-banking is just getting into the field.</p>
<p>"The interviews will be in social settings as well as the office."</p>
<p>i heard from a friend that he knew someone who's third round interview was to go clubbing and pick up chicks and just have a good time in general... and that one guy got so drunk that he lost his bid on the offer. is it true that for the social aspect of the interview, a possibility is going to a club?</p>
<p>haha that'd be awesome. I highly doubt it though. Honestly, i think a lot of people exaggerate all the "social" aspects of investment banking. This is a very serious field that moves fast and is all about money. The company will hire you if you will make them money, not bring em chicks.</p>
<p>Getting an interview at an investment bank is extremely hard. They don't recruit at schools that are not extremely prestigious. Period. After you get into a prestigious school, you've got to do really well (3.5+). Then, if you're lucky enough to land an interview at a bank, the process is extremely rigorous. They want to know that you're intelligent, yes, but if you're at Harvard, or Duke, or some other elite school, you're probably smart enough to do the work. What they really look for in these interviews is how well you fit into the firm culture. You have to be a guy (or gal) who someone can have a real conversation with - a person they can relate to in some way, shape, or form. An often used example is the beer question that recruiters ask themselves of recruits - "Can I sit down and have a beer with this guy?" Basically, you can't be a nerd who knows of nothing else but what's in your textbooks. That's why schools like MIT and CalTech aren't big i-banking hot spots. The main reason why people do it is, quite simply, to get filthy freakin' rich. The career opportunities that i-banking gives you are also amazing. If you work for 2-3 years at an i-bank, you can pretty much do anything you want. Go to a top 10 MBA program, or work at a company of your choice. To do the work, however, you've got to be an extremely motivated individual, and you have to LOVE finance.</p>
<p>Salaries out of college for top investment banks are the following:</p>
<p>55K + signing bonus (usually 10K) + year-end bonus (varies depending on the economic situation, but usually around 35K)</p>
<p>After your first few years, the sky's the limit. Good luck.</p>
<p>Well there are some firms that would probably value social character much more than some (i.e, Goldman), but all IB's are concerned with money making. End of story. Is getting Cindy Crawford in bed going to make up for the 3 million dollar loss you posted for the year? Hmm...probably not. Well, UNLESS of course you got her in bed and an "accident" happened to where you would be able to extort the money from her in order to pay off the losses you accrued at the investment bank. But that is another topic within itself...(How to extort money from famous celebrities?)</p>
<p>I think you guys are missing the point about being social...it's not a matter of bringing in chicks, as some of you have postulated....Rather, most branches of i-banking are either jobs in sales or jobs that require socializing with clients, leaving them with good impressions. They want to see, as someone earlier put it, "Can I have a beer with this guy?" because lots of i-banking IS going to be having beer/dinner with clients and VPs and impressing them with a good amount of knowledge coupled with a glossy, polished front.</p>
<p>Note that this is probably more important in sales and M&A than corp finance.</p>
<p>i have a question thats a bit off topic but i thought it would be better to post here than to create a new thread.</p>
<p>i wanted to know if it was common for PhD's to get work on wallstreet as a trader or i-banker.</p>
<p>and would a PhD be able to replace an MBA in terms of job positions? for example could you get a job as an associate i-banker with only a PhD.. ive read this job is reserved for MBA's.</p>
<p>also how rare is it? ive done a bit of research on careers on wallstreet and it seems as if all the articles ive read refer to the typical path--- graduate college -> work two years or so -> MBA</p>
<p>id much rather spend the 5 years of my life after college getting a PhD in a subject that interests me(physics) than working a crappy job doing grunt work on wallstreet and then getting an MBA. would i be at a disadvantage compared to my peers if i went the PhD route?</p>
<p>A Ph.D in physics has zero to do with an MBA in Finance.</p>
<p>That's almost like asking: "If I have three BAs, is that like having an MBA?"</p>
<p>An MBA in Finance really has little to do with investment banking either. You go through an extensive training course once you get a job at the institution, so a degree from Anthropology to Zoology would be sufficient. So yes, it would be possible to pursue physics and still get a job on Wall Street, especially in quantitative jobs like trading. In Liar's Poker, the author mentioned quite a bit of Physics Ph.D's on the trading floor.</p>
<p>heh thats exactly what sparked my thought. im reading Liar's Poker at the moment</p>
<p>i wasnt sure if a lot as changed since the mid to late 80's though. MBA's seem more common now than they did during the time period the author wrote about. so i thought having one may have become a prerequisite. i wasnt also sure how accurate the book was.</p>
<p>So how are the i-banking prospects for European markets such as London or Frankfurt?</p>
<p>eh...screw i-banking sounds too damn stressful...I don't wanna be filthy rich and have a heart attack</p>
<p>if you like 80-100 hr work week then this is the job for you </p>
<p>plus if you end up not being really good you wont be moving that high</p>