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"The Making of an Investment Banker_" With Jim Donovan
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so the topic about which I've been asked to speak tonight is the making of an investment banker and I would start by saying Investment Banking is hard it's also extraordinarily rewarding it's fiercely competitive most people in this room won't succeed as investment bankers or maybe not in this row but in most rows to most groups of people to whom I speak most of them would not succeed in investment banking so I'm hopeful that tonight the comments that I'm going to make the speech the advice that I'm going to give you will help you increase the chances of your success as an investment banker if you choose to pursue a career in Investment Banking I'm going to divide my talk into three parts part one is the interview getting the job part two is keeping the job How to Succeed as a young analyst or associate investment banker and part three is excelling at the job how to become an elite senior investment banker so part one the interview so all of you are at this incredibly competitive fantastic University all of you have great grades hopefully and you're all here tonight because you want to learn you want to better yourselves you want to improve your chances of getting a job in Investment Banking and of having a successful career in Investment Banking those are all very very very good things so I'm going to give you four pieces of advice around the interview which if you follow will help you walk out of that interview with a job offer now I'm assuming that you will satisfy the basic requirements of an interview so this list is not exhaustive it's four things that you need to do on top of the basic requirements of an interview and there are many I'm assuming for example that you have done research on the company for which you are interviewing I'm assuming that you can project confidence in the interview I'm assuming you can walk someone an interviewer through your resume I'm assuming those things and a whole host of other given that I'm going to stipulate that hopefully you've satisfied in addition to those here are four pieces of advice I would give you two things you should do prior to the interview two things you should do in the interview prior to the interview all of you should be reading the Wall Street Journal every single day read The Wall Street Journal every single day three articles from The Wall Street Journal one article on a macroeconomic topic like inflation or interest rates one article on a specific industry company or transaction so for example a recent merger transaction that's been announced or recent IPO that's been announced or a company that's recently announced earnings there be an article about whether those earnings are good or bad and why one article on a specific company transaction and thirdly an article from the oped page three articles every day no matter what no exceptions it'll take about 15 minutes a day it's not hard if you do that you'll be amazed at how much you know how much you've learned after 6 months or 12 months you'll be amazed you will know an incredible amount substantively after 6 months or a year you will also by the way begin to decipher the jargon that we use as investment bankers the jargon that we speak in and that will help you in your interview and in your job so read The Wall Street Journal start reading it early on every day three articles 15 minutes second thing you should do before the interview become familiar with with the three financial statements become familiar with the three financial statements know what they are if you don't know now that's okay look them up ideally take a glass in financial accounting and be facel with how these financial statements interact with each other uh and be able to analyze them at least at a basic level be familiar with the three financial statements two things you should do in the interview one what topic do people enjoy talking about the most answer is themselves very good themselves that may sound cynical but that is a psychological fact people enjoy most talking about themselves so in the interview you want to get the interviewer to talk about himself or herself that should be a primary goal you ask questions like why did you decide to become an investment banker why did you decide to work at XYZ firm what's the most interesting transaction you worked on and why get the interviewer to talk about themsel if you do that they're going to enjoy the interview a lot more which is good for you one and two by asking these questions these personal questions you will elicit the most authentic and genuine responses you will learn the most so get the interviewer to talk about himself or herself second thing you should do in the interview avoid questions that lend themselves to yes no answers ask questions that are open-ended that require sentences as answers ideally multiple sentences as answers you want this interview to be a dialogue not an interrogation ask open-ended questions those are the four things you should do surrounding the interview in addition to all the basics that I'm assuming you've satisfied if you do those four things you are more likely to walk out of the interview with an offer if you do and you do them well second part of the talk keeping the job How to Succeed as a young analyst or young associate in Investment Bank six pieces of advice first piece of advice find a role model find a role model your criteria for selecting the role model is singular purely Merit based you want to find the person who's an analyst if that's what you are or an associate if that's what you are who's one or two years ahead of you and is the best at the job you don't have to have a lot in common with them you don't even have to like them you want to find the person who's the best and then you want to model your behavior at work after that person there's no reason to recreate the wheel right if someone's doing the job very very well is generally recognized as being very very good in fact maybe the best learn is watch that person study that person learn as much as you can by watching them and then model your behavior after them second piece of advice make it clear that you have no ego make it clear that you have no ego make it clear that you have no task that's given to you there is no task that's given to you that is beneath you there's no task too menial for you make it clear to the team that you're willing to do whatever is necessary for the team to succeed in fact early on in your career as an analyst let's say in the first month or as an associate volunteer for the menial tasks go get coffee make copies make it clear you have no e go number three take notes some of you are doing that tonight take notes when you're in a meeting with a client a prospective client a superior take notes you want to do that because it conveys to the people in the room that you're serious it also conveys to the people who are talking that what they're saying is important you're writing it down and thirdly and most importantly it gives them a sense of comfort that you're not going to forget what happened in the meeting or the fire task that you have to accomplish after the meeting the analogy I always like to use with this is if you go to dinner with a group of your friends and there's six of you at the table at a restaurant the waiter comes over and he takes your orders and want at a time each of you order and he doesn't write anything down he says terrific I'll be back with your orders and he leaves I don't know about you but I'm sort of wondering in 30 minutes am I going to get the salad that I ordered or am I getting meatloaf right you have no idea because there's nothing written down doesn't Inspire confidence and he didn't recap what the orders were now may look impressive and I don't care if you have a photographic memory take notes write things down and then in a meeting with your Superior afterwards walk through the list of followup items that you have tick them off say to your boss I will have the memo Rewritten by tomorrow at noon I'm going to rerun the model with the new numbers the other follow-up item I have from the meeting is I'm supposed to call XYZ person or write a text to ABC person recap the meeting and your follow-up items with your boss it will put your boss's mind at ease even if you know them all even if you're not going to forget them all it will make your boss feel like okay it's okay he's got this she's got this I don't need to worry about it take notes number four work hard make no mistake the most successful analysts and Associates in Investment Banking are the hardest workers period full stop it doesn't matter if you're a good golfer if you can smooze well doesn't matter if you can play tennis well or you know something about professional sports that doesn't matter what matters is how hard are you willing to work be prepared for that it's hard work hard number five five related to number four First Impressions Die Hard good first impressions die hard and bad First Impressions die hard so be very responsive especially early on there's nothing more frustrating for a senior investment banker than to send an email or text to an analyst or an associate and have that email or text go unanswered for for an extended period of time don't let that happen particularly early on be available be responsive people like to extrapolate if the first five interactions they have with you you're super responsive you never drop a ball they're going to extrapolate from there and assume that behavior is going to continue if the first five interactions with you you're unresponsive and you forget a bunch of things they're going to extrapolate in a negative Direction and it's incredibly hard to recover from that First Impressions Die Hard make good ones be available be responsive don't make mistakes particularly early on number six piece of advice as a young associate a young analyst never stop learning so in year two day three you should be reading the Wall Street Journal every day in year three day four you should be reading the Wall Street Journal every day every day you may read more articles you may read different articles but read it every day ask questions of your PE ask questions of your superiors approach the second and third year the same way you approached the interview with that same zest Zeal that same sense of intensity be curious ask questions never stop learning the most successful analysts and Associates do that that they never stop they never rest on their Laurels third part of the presentation how to become an elite senior investment banker how to really excel at this job six pieces of advice first give your client advice that is the best advice for the client even if and in particular if it is contrary to your own interests there's no better way to establish credibility with a client then to give them advice that they know is contrary to your interest give that advice no matter what second take a position don't equivocate the client has hired you to advise them tell them what to do that's what they've hired you for don't give them five options and say you know pick one you pick one advocate for it it's okay to present options but advocate for one tell them what you would advise them to do that's what they've hired you for take a position don't equivocate number three Embrace and relish in adversity adversity is what makes you better stronger at this job relish it it's easy for particularly for young professionals these days to want to take and to take shortcuts it's easy in particular because we have phones and the internet and there's a lot of answers at our fingertips now right so if someone's asked you to build a model an Excel model to perform some task at work you could probably look up on the Internet a model that will do that resist that Temptation build your own model resist the temptation to take shortcuts live in the trenches because the best investment bankers lived in the trenches their skills were forged there relish adversity you will come out of it stronger don't be disappointed afraid angry when you encounter it view it embrace it and view it as something that will make you stronger number four Master discipline this job requires incredible discipline Master it inside and outside of your work this means different things to different people to some people it means remaining physically fit to others it means time management Master discipline don't procrastinate don't let items builded up in your inbox keep lists don't procrastinate be extraordinarily disciplined Master it number five Excel on the merits if you're really good at what you do if you're one of the best investment bankers it's a lot easier to avoid spending time on things that you don't want to spend time on and you'll have much more control over what you do at work and what you do outside of work a lot of people ask me what's the best way to achieve work life balance the answer is be really really good at what you do no one is going to give you a hard time if you're the best investment banker at the firm or among the best best for taking some time off to do something that you like to do in fact fact taking a lot of time off for doing something that you like to do Excel on the merits number six final piece of advice never ever give up adopt that Mantra as part of your life don't take no for answer apply this in everything you do from getting reservations at a restaurant to getting a job to getting a new client never ever ever ever ever give up don't take no for an answer what separates the good investment bankers from the great investment bankers is the great investment bankers never ever about
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