I know a little bit about this because a significant number of my peers are going into IBD (and junior recruitment here starts in a month, and I'm *completely* undecided as to whether I'll apply or not because the applications are a lot of effort and I don't know what I'm doing with my life...).
I can only comment for Wall St and what things are like in the US. But here are some thoughts.
1) Prestige matters. Prestige matters a lot. In the US, the universities which are regarded as top targets are Wharton (the business school at Penn), Harvard, Yale and Princeton. It's even questionable whether MIT is regarded as a target because the ethos and curricular requirements don't develop students in areas aside from science. In the US, students from other universities who even want to stand a chance have to network like crazy. Even most Yale students I know have informational interviews and so on with alumni.
2) Be strong quantitatively. Take more math and logic classes than what's required. Make sure you can do that. If you want a quant role, you really should be able to code fluently with C++ and python and be aware of the data structures. Also, keep up your mental math.
3) Know the finance backdrop. That goes without saying.
4) Make sure that you can demonstrate people skills and leadership skills. Being in a club is not enough; being highly involved in a club is an experience worth putting on a resume. I'm really unsure of what I'll do after graduation, and I met with someone at the careers center today and his advice was that simply being in a club is worthless; being president of a club is worth noting. The standards are high. One of my friends has been president of one of the biggest organizations here and has also served in the military in the middle east as a translator. He's doing an internship at a mid range BB but not at a top BB.
I'm honestly not sure how much the academic background matters in terms of grades and awards (IBD seems to care less about academics than MC). Maybe it's because if I apply, I'll be applying through Yale and everyone has a lot of awards from high school graduation and external scholarships. But only put on awards for things that are relevant (did you top an investment or a modelling class?) or something that's interesting (at my meeting today, my adviser said that I should keep my hobbies section because of some of the people I'd performed for). All of the academics said, over here, Ivy League students generally need to maintain a 3.5/4.0 GPA to even be considered, and to be considered for a first round interview for larger banks, you generally need a 3.7. Apparently it doesn't matter too much beyond there.
5) You need to create a story. If you do investment banking, you'll be working 90 hours a week so your coworkers will be around you a lot. They need to like you at the interview, so you need to be interesting and easy to get along with. In addition, you need to have a convincing reason for why you want to do investment banking and why the path that you have taken has led you to this in terms of skills and experiences.
6) Think about where you want to work. Which offices support which industries? If you're fluent in an Asian language, it might be worth considering locations such as Hong Kong, as the sector is more vibrant there than in Australia.
To whoever asked about whether they can get a NYC offer from Australia, the answer is that it's very unlikely from Australia (though it may be possible to transfer branches), at least for a top bank. This is for a few reasons:
-Many of the positions at top tier banks are filled with former interns. As someone on the Australian academic calendar, these will fall during your semester. In addition, firms are unlikely to pay to fly you across the world for the interview even though they fly American candidates across the country.
-It's harder to network from the other side of the world.
-In the US, and especially in banking and consulting, pedigree counts for almost everything to break into the industry. Melbourne University and Monash University are barely known in the US (though they're better known in Asia). These firms barely recruit outside of the Ivy League, and when they do, the students are absolutely extraordinary and have the odds stacked against them. The banks recruit here on campus - there are information sessions, bankers take out promising students to restaurants, the interviews are held on campus, you wine and dine with interviewers. Most of the hiring is through on campus recruitment, and even so, most of the hiring is from a very select number of schools. Prestige matters a lot when breaking into Wall St. It's harsh, but it's true. Things would probably be different if you're an established professional, but I assume that we're talking about entry level hires here.