Investment Banking

The investment banking career path attracts people who are high achievers, competitive, and willing to work long hours.

OVERVIEW

Investment banking is all about helping businesses, entrepreneurs, or governments raise funds to finance projects. They do this through issuing “securities” (such as shares or bonds) and selling those to investors.

Aside from raising money, investment bankers also provide advisory services to clients. For example, they may advise clients on mergers and acquisitions, as well as manage initial public offerings (IPOs) for clients looking to be listed on the stock market.

Other services offered by investment banks include:

Research to assist investors in deciding what securities to buy

Brokerage services – helping companies to trade with each other

Private equity – investing the bank’s own money in projects to bring in new revenue for the bank

Investment banks also help countries plan economic growth and policy, by advising governments on fiscal and monetary matters. Their influence over government policy can significantly impact a nation’s economy as a result - from the price of daily commodities to annual returns on EPF investments.

CAREER PATHWAYS

Investment banking employers typically start newcomers out in structured training programmes to provide them with the necessary key skills. The most common first step in this industry is starting out as an analysts, providing ongoing research and support for deal-making staff.

With experience, graduates can move up the ranks to become a junior investment banker or associate, liaising with clients as well as performing financial analyses for them.

In most organisations, investment bankers are grouped into teams based on specialisations, but can collaborate with members from other teams while executing a deal. You can expect to work with a wide range of specialists across different fields.

Investment work provides high levels of early responsibility, good promotional opportunities and impressive financial rewards for top-performing employees. However, this area of work is also infamously demanding with long working hours, sometimes up to 12 hours per day. Weekend work is the norm as well.

REQUIRED SKILLS

As applications from a range of disciplines are welcome, a financerelated degree isn’t a prerequisite. However, to be successful in this career, graduates need to demonstrate keen interest and a good understanding of business and financial markets. so make sure you keep your CGPA sufficiently high enough to meet the entry requirements. Having a few quality finance and banking internships in your CV is a must as well – this is not an industry you can expect to break into with no relevant past experience.

Investment banking work requires a lot of financial modeling and valuation. Analysts and associations spend a lot of time using Excel to build and analyse financial models. They also use various valuation methods (e.g. precedent transactions, discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, etc.) to advise clients and complete deals. You must be able to think laterally and discern trends and patterns through all this data.

Because investment banking is ultimately a client-focused line of work, excellent interpersonal skills are a must. You must also have the energy and readiness to deal with many different people while providing the best customer service possible.

Other key skills for aspiring investment bankers include:

An interest in current affairs

Ability to work effectively under pressure

IT skills (especially with Excel)

Analytical and problem-solving skills