Uni Stuff > Commerce
Investment Banking
Gekko:
--- Quote from: appianway on August 04, 2013, 12:27:06 am ---IBD is super competitive. However, you seem smart, so there's no reason why you don't have a chance. I don't know how recruitment works in Australia, but I can't see why a 90 average would be too low. It wouldn't be the top commerce grade, but it would show that you're smart enough for the job, and beyond there, I'd assume other things matter more.
I spoke briefly to a friend who was doing a banking internship in Australia and the sectors in Australia seemed pretty small (mostly real estate and resources? I don't really remember). At the very least, make sure you understand those. Australia is pretty closely integrated into Asia, so you must understand the Asian markets at the very least, but that would also require an understanding of the American economy because China and Japan (and some other countries) are major stakeholders in America's current account deficit. In addition, China is trying to switch from an export oriented economy to an import economy (so that it can be more sustainable) and a large part of that relates to the EU's economic crisis, given that the EU recently overtook the US as the largest market for Chinese goods. I think you get the picture; the economies around the world are connected.
I'm certainly not one to give career advice about back ups, but think about why you want to do IBD. What about it sounds engaging? Which skills do you want to use? What about it would be fulfilling? If you can figure this out, you can figure out what back ups would be acceptable.
In terms of careers, my own case is probably very different but it might provide some insight. Until about a month ago, I was 100% sure that I was going to pursue academia in experimental physics. However, I then realized that I don't enjoy working with my hands or heavy machinery and that this work doesn't come as naturally to me as theoretical work does. I also don't enjoy pure mathematics, so that restricts me to applied physics in a computational sense, which is OK. Unfortunately this work is a lot more competitive than experimental work, and while I feel confident that I could be in the <20% of computational physicists who do actually get a job, I'm not sure where that job would be (middle of Iowa? no thanks) or when I would get it (three postdocs? no thanks). Academia has some wonderful features that I think I'd love (the flexibility to be creative once you reach a certain point, to ask questions if funding permits, to teach others) but also some drawbacks (horrible remuneration for the 6 years of your PhD and mediocre pay for your postdoc, as well as lack of geographic flexibility).
As a consequence, I'm now considering a range of professions that fit with my skills and interests. I have strong quantitative and analytical skills, and enjoy this type of work a lot. In addition, I've been doing lab work, tour guide work and tutoring work over the last few weeks, and the work I enjoy the most is the tour guide stuff and tutoring. I've interpreted this as the fact that I really want to work with people - be it teaching, collaborating or presenting.
So now I'm considering a range of different things and am open to exploring all of them to get a better idea of what might fit me well. These options include a PhD in computational geophysics (probably seismology), consulting, IBD, trading and tech business (including start ups). My suggestion for back ups would be to look at what type of work you enjoy and consider industries that seem to be a good fit. Consider the possibility that you might never get into IBD even if you try (I'm not saying you won't, but it's good to have options!). In that case, what would you like to do?
--- End quote ---
Thank you very much for your replies. I really appreciate your insightful advice.
What draws me to IB is how heavily embedded it is in finance. I love finance and financial modelling in particular. I took part in the UBS IB Challenge with another friend and the people from UBS were visibly impressed by how good our presentation was and that almost everything was correct. My friend and I didn't get later year friends to do it for us and present it as our own, either! Even though I slept very little during that week, I found the work genuinely interesting. It was a formidable challenge to research what I need to do, scour through all of the available documentation and then make it happen in excel. Obviously in the junior levels there is very little/no client interaction but that also appeals to me. If I never get into IB, I guess I would like to work on M&As in law as I will still effectively be part of the IBD process, I'll just be the legal-eagle in the process as opposed to the number-cruncher.
816:
--- Quote from: Gekko on August 04, 2013, 01:07:45 am ---Thank you very much for your replies. I really appreciate your insightful advice.
What draws me to IB is how I can be a multi-millionaire before 30 if I work hard enough.
--- End quote ---
Fixed your post for accuracy.
I only know one bloke in IB, he often sleeps at his desk and begins when he wakes up at his desk. He was athletic, attractive and happy before he started IB. He's now fat and takes several sorts of pills to calm him down. Having said that, he bought a $2,000 bottle of wine when we last ate out.
sluu001:
Investment banking
150k p/a + bonus
....which then works out to roughly $16 per hour at the end. ^_^
816:
--- Quote from: sluu001 on August 04, 2013, 07:33:29 pm ---Investment banking
150k p/a + bonus
....which then works out to roughly $16 per hour at the end. ^_^
--- End quote ---
Honestly, I know nothing of what IB actually involves because I'm not in commerce, but my friends who are 25+ keep making jokes regarding to how heartless IB's are. Could someone explain why this is?
Like, one time we were at soccer training and one of my friends was on the floor (and we all thought he was faking an injury for a laugh), so I kicked the ball into him for a joke. He then faked the injury further to comical proportions and said, 'shittt, with a heart like that we could make an Invesment Banker out of you'. Never really got him though.
Gekko:
--- Quote from: sluu001 on August 04, 2013, 07:33:29 pm ---Investment banking
150k p/a + bonus
....which then works out to roughly $16 per hour at the end. ^_^
--- End quote ---
816, this is completely right haha. Before I looked into the industry and started talking to people in it, I thought that the constant 80-90 hour work weeks were an exaggeration.
There are lots of other jobs that you can make more money than an IB analyst if you work the same number of hours.
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