Ask HN: Where does one get started with investment banking?
Background: I am 20. I want to make money. I currently work at a bank as a software developer. I am halfway through a software development degree. I have my foot in the door, had meetings with bankers and a possible internship next year.
In terms of reading material and self study, what is a good point to get into investment banking?
Nearly every field has a de facto resource to get into that field.
Where do I start? So far I've been reading Benjamin Graham's material.
Goal: To make use of my software knowledge in conjunction with investment banking to make myself money. I don't necessarily want to work at a big bank.
6 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 27.2 ms ] thread[1]: http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com
[1]: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com
Start with a broad class on economics (e.g. Econ 001 on UC Berkeley's webcasts, or intro macro and intro micro on MIT OCW). Then take a look at "Financial Theory" on Yale's OYC. Following Financial Theory, take Financial Markets on OYC too.
Stay on top of current events. Obsessively. I have an IB friend who claims that his perfect-GPA interns who barely know what's going on in the world are useless compared to average-GPA* interns who can relate content to context. Context is everything; financial decisions never exist in a constrained system.
There's always so much going on that you need some service for digesting the news (as opposed to opinions and analysis). For news look at the WSJ or FT. Bloomberg isn't as shabby as people say; simply stick to Bloomberg's news and not their analysis (which is often poor). Podcasts and audio editions are helpful (you can only read so much, but you can jog to someone reading the WSJ). Understanding others' opinions (derived from their analysis) is very important, because it helps you spark or critique your own. I've seen some other blogs posted here that are good... but you cannot beat FT's Alphaville blog (free).
Where does your existing knowledge stand? Have you learned some sort of finance 101? Relevantly, have you taken any economics or accounting classes? Remember that finance is really an intersection of economics, accounting and statistics - so leverage any relevant knowledge that you already have.
Oh, and good luck :)
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* What he calls an "average" GPA, I think of as excellent. Our local unis work on a 1-7 scale (4 is a pass), and "average" means to him 6-6.3 (or a "distinction" average). These same universities usually equate a USA GPA 3/4 to a GPA 5/7. So that's a rough guide of who your competing interns are :)
For further context (comparing GPAs between university systems is never easy..), I graduated with a 'meager' 5.6 GPA from a good university, which still placed me in the top 20% of my class.
What's poor about Bloomberg's analysis?
Good idea about the podcasts. Do you have any recommendations?
My existing is knowledge is basic College accounting.
Thanks!
Those are insane, 90% as average.
Bloomberg's analysis tends to be shallow and short-sighted. They'll turn out what's supposed to be a deep piece, but it's almost as if they try to tune out words; there's no rigor in the insight. Nine out of ten times, I'll read an article, consider it for a moment, and find a dozen crucial questions that are unanswered or parts that are outright incorrect.
On the other hand, Bloomberg's news service is phenomenal. And Bloomberg is continuously pushing out podcasts (under many titles) that are great for digesting news along with the occasional interesting interview.
IB is supposed to be really competitive in the USA, but it would not surprise me if it were more-so in Australia because of a lack of demand. Though the below is factual, take the conclusion with a grain of salt; I'm clearly biased haha.
Australia has an excellent public university system that pushes out top graduates, but we don't really have anywhere to go if we want to get into IB (relatively speaking, we're a small but rich country). In my city - Brisbane - we have the University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology, both of which have excellent business schools. UQ's MBA is often ranked in the top 50 worldwide. Yet most IBs don't even have an office here - the few we have in Australia is either in Sydney or Melbourne.
Don't get me wrong, many graduates from UQ and a few from QUT go into in IB. But they're few and far between and the quantity as a proportion of students makes it seem nigh on impossible.