0:00 so the topic about which I've been asked
0:03 to speak tonight is the making of an
0:06 investment banker
0:09 and I would start by saying Investment
0:11 Banking is
0:14 hard it's also extraordinarily
0:19 rewarding it's fiercely competitive most
0:21 people in this room won't succeed as
0:24 investment
0:25 bankers or maybe not in this row but in
0:27 most
0:28 rows to most groups of people to whom I
0:32 speak most of them would not succeed in
0:34 investment banking so I'm hopeful that
0:36 tonight the comments that I'm going to
0:38 make the speech the advice that I'm
0:40 going to give you will help you increase
0:42 the chances of your success as an
0:44 investment banker if you choose to
0:45 pursue a career in Investment
0:47 Banking I'm going to divide my talk into
0:50 three parts part one is the
0:53 interview getting the
0:55 job part
0:57 two is keeping the job How to Succeed as
1:01 a young analyst or associate investment
1:04 banker and part
1:06 three is excelling at the job how to
1:10 become an
1:11 elite senior investment
1:15 banker so part one the interview so all
1:18 of you are at this incredibly
1:20 competitive fantastic University all of
1:24 you have great grades
1:27 hopefully and you're all here tonight
1:29 because you want to learn you want to
1:31 better yourselves you want to improve
1:32 your chances of getting a job in
1:35 Investment Banking and of having a
1:38 successful career in Investment Banking
1:41 those are all very very very good things
1:45 so I'm going to give you four pieces of
1:47 advice around the
1:49 interview which if you follow will help
1:53 you walk out of that interview with a
1:56 job
1:57 offer now I'm assuming that you
2:01 will satisfy the basic requirements of
2:04 an interview so this list is not
2:05 exhaustive it's four things that you
2:07 need to do on top of the basic
2:09 requirements of an
2:11 interview and there are many I'm
2:14 assuming for example that you have done
2:18 research on the company for which you
2:21 are interviewing I'm assuming that you
2:23 can project confidence in the interview
2:25 I'm assuming you can walk someone an
2:27 interviewer through your resume I'm
2:30 assuming those things and a whole host
2:32 of other
2:33 given that I'm going to
2:37 stipulate that hopefully you've
2:39 satisfied in addition to those here are
2:41 four pieces of advice I would give you
2:43 two things you should do prior to the
2:45 interview two things you should do in
2:47 the interview prior to the interview all
2:50 of you should be reading the Wall Street
2:52 Journal every single
2:56 day read The Wall Street Journal every
2:58 single day three articles from The Wall
3:00 Street
3:01 Journal one article on a macroeconomic
3:04 topic like inflation or interest
3:08 rates one article on a specific industry
3:12 company or transaction so for example a
3:16 recent merger transaction that's been
3:18 announced or recent IPO that's been
3:23 announced or a company that's recently
3:25 announced earnings there be an article
3:27 about whether those earnings are good or
3:28 bad and why
3:30 one article on a specific company
3:33 transaction and thirdly an article from
3:35 the oped
3:38 page three articles every
3:41 day no matter what no
3:45 exceptions it'll take about 15 minutes a
3:48 day it's not hard if you do that you'll
3:50 be amazed at how much you know how much
3:53 you've learned after 6 months or 12
3:55 months you'll be amazed you will know an
3:57 incredible amount substantively
4:00 after 6 months or a year you will also
4:03 by the way begin to
4:05 decipher the jargon that we use as
4:09 investment bankers the
4:12 jargon that we speak in and that will
4:15 help you in your interview and in your
4:17 job so read The Wall Street Journal
4:20 start reading it early on every day
4:23 three articles 15 minutes second thing
4:27 you should do before the interview
4:28 become familiar with with the three
4:30 financial
4:31 statements become familiar with the
4:33 three financial statements know what
4:35 they are if you don't know now that's
4:38 okay look them up ideally take a glass
4:42 in financial
4:46 accounting and be facel with how these
4:49 financial statements interact with each
4:50 other uh and be able to analyze them at
4:53 least at a basic
4:55 level be familiar with the three
4:58 financial statements two things you
5:00 should do in the
5:02 interview
5:05 one what topic do people enjoy talking
5:08 about the
5:09 most answer is themselves very good
5:15 themselves that may sound cynical but
5:17 that is a psychological fact people
5:20 enjoy most talking about themselves so
5:23 in the
5:25 interview you want to get the
5:27 interviewer to talk about himself or
5:29 herself
5:32 that should be a primary goal you ask
5:35 questions
5:36 like why did you decide to become an
5:38 investment
5:40 banker why did you decide to work at XYZ
5:44 firm what's the most interesting
5:47 transaction you worked on and
5:51 why get the interviewer to talk about
5:54 themsel if you do that they're going to
5:57 enjoy the interview a lot more
6:00 which is good for you one and two by
6:04 asking these questions these personal
6:07 questions you will elicit the most
6:10 authentic and genuine responses you will
6:11 learn the
6:14 most so get the interviewer to talk
6:17 about himself or
6:19 herself second thing you should do in
6:20 the interview avoid questions that lend
6:25 themselves to yes no answers ask
6:28 questions that are open-ended that
6:31 require sentences as answers ideally
6:34 multiple sentences as answers you want
6:36 this interview to be a dialogue not an
6:39 interrogation ask open-ended
6:43 questions those are the four things you
6:45 should do surrounding the
6:47 interview in addition to all the
6:51 basics that I'm assuming you've
6:54 satisfied if you do those four things
6:56 you are more likely to walk out of the
6:57 interview with an offer if you do and
6:59 you do them
7:01 well second part of the
7:03 talk keeping the job How to Succeed as a
7:06 young analyst or young associate in
7:08 Investment Bank six pieces of advice
7:11 first piece of advice find a role
7:15 model find a role model your criteria
7:19 for selecting the role model is
7:22 singular purely Merit
7:26 based you want to find the person who's
7:29 an analyst if that's what you are or an
7:32 associate if that's what you are who's
7:34 one or two years ahead of you and is the
7:37 best at the job you don't have to have a
7:40 lot in common with them you don't even
7:42 have to like them you want to find the
7:44 person who's the best and then you want
7:46 to model your behavior at work after
7:50 that
7:53 person there's no reason to recreate the
7:56 wheel right if someone's doing the job
7:58 very very well is generally recognized
8:01 as being very very good in fact maybe
8:03 the best learn is watch that person
8:06 study that person learn as much as you
8:08 can by watching them and then model your
8:11 behavior after
8:12 them second piece of
8:15 advice make it clear that you have no
8:18 ego make it
8:20 clear that you have no ego make it clear
8:23 that you have no
8:27 task that's given to you there is no
8:29 task that's given to you that is beneath
8:31 you there's no task too menial for
8:35 you make it clear to the team that
8:38 you're willing to do whatever is
8:40 necessary for the team to succeed in
8:43 fact early
8:45 on in your career as an analyst let's
8:48 say in the first month or as an
8:50 associate volunteer for the menial tasks
8:52 go get coffee make
8:56 copies make it clear you have no e go
9:00 number
9:02 three take
9:06 notes some of you are doing that tonight
9:09 take
9:10 notes when you're in a meeting with a
9:13 client a prospective client a
9:16 superior take notes you want to do that
9:19 because it
9:20 conveys to the people in the room that
9:22 you're
9:25 serious it also conveys to the people
9:27 who are talking that what they're saying
9:29 is important you're writing it
9:32 down and
9:34 thirdly and most importantly it gives
9:38 them a sense of comfort that you're not
9:39 going to forget what happened in the
9:41 meeting or the fire task that you have
9:44 to accomplish after the meeting the
9:47 analogy I always like to use with this
9:49 is if you go to dinner with a group of
9:51 your friends and there's six of you at
9:52 the table at a
9:54 restaurant the waiter comes over and he
9:56 takes your orders and want at a time
9:59 each of you order and he doesn't write
10:00 anything down he says
10:03 terrific I'll be back with your orders
10:05 and he
10:06 leaves I don't know about you but I'm
10:09 sort of wondering in 30 minutes am I
10:11 going to get the salad that I ordered or
10:12 am I getting meatloaf right you have no
10:15 idea because there's nothing written
10:17 down doesn't Inspire confidence and he
10:19 didn't
10:20 recap what the orders
10:22 were now may look impressive and I don't
10:24 care if you have a photographic memory
10:26 take notes write things down and then in
10:28 a
10:29 meeting with your Superior
10:33 afterwards walk through the list of
10:36 followup items that you have tick them
10:40 off say to your boss I will have the
10:43 memo Rewritten by tomorrow at noon I'm
10:46 going to rerun the model with the new
10:48 numbers the other follow-up item I have
10:50 from the meeting is I'm supposed to call
10:52 XYZ person or write a text to ABC
10:58 person recap the meeting and your
11:00 follow-up items with your boss it will
11:02 put your boss's mind at ease even if you
11:05 know them all even if you're not going
11:06 to forget them all it will make your
11:08 boss feel like
11:10 okay it's okay he's got this she's got
11:14 this I don't need to worry about it take
11:18 notes number
11:22 four work
11:25 hard make no
11:27 mistake the most successful analysts and
11:31 Associates in Investment Banking are the
11:33 hardest workers period full
11:36 stop it doesn't matter if you're a good
11:39 golfer if you can smooze well doesn't
11:42 matter if you can play tennis well or
11:45 you know something about professional
11:47 sports that doesn't matter what matters
11:51 is how hard are you willing to work be
11:54 prepared for that it's hard work hard
11:58 number five five related to number
12:01 four First Impressions Die
12:06 Hard good first impressions die hard and
12:09 bad First Impressions die hard so be
12:12 very
12:14 responsive especially early on there's
12:18 nothing more frustrating for a senior
12:19 investment banker than to send an email
12:21 or
12:22 text to an analyst or an associate and
12:25 have that email or text go unanswered
12:28 for for an extended period of time don't
12:30 let that happen particularly early on be
12:34 available be responsive people like to
12:37 extrapolate if the first five
12:39 interactions they have with you you're
12:41 super responsive you never drop a ball
12:44 they're going to extrapolate from there
12:45 and assume that behavior is going to
12:47 continue if the first five interactions
12:49 with you you're unresponsive and you
12:51 forget a bunch of things they're going
12:53 to extrapolate in a negative Direction
12:55 and it's incredibly hard to recover from
12:58 that First Impressions Die Hard make
13:02 good
13:03 ones be available be responsive don't
13:07 make mistakes particularly early
13:10 on number six piece of advice as a young
13:15 associate a young
13:16 analyst never stop
13:20 learning so in year two day three you
13:24 should be reading the Wall Street
13:25 Journal every day in year three day four
13:28 you should be reading the Wall Street
13:29 Journal every day every day you may read
13:33 more articles you may read different
13:34 articles but read it every day ask
13:37 questions of your PE ask questions of
13:39 your superiors approach the second and
13:41 third year the same way you approached
13:44 the
13:45 interview with that same zest Zeal that
13:48 same sense of
13:50 intensity be curious ask questions never
13:53 stop learning the most successful
13:56 analysts and Associates do that that
13:59 they never stop they never rest on their
14:03 Laurels third part of the presentation
14:06 how to become an elite senior investment
14:10 banker how to really excel at this job
14:13 six pieces of
14:15 advice
14:17 first give your client
14:20 advice that is the best advice for the
14:22 client even if and in particular if it
14:25 is contrary to your own interests
14:27 there's no better way to establish
14:29 credibility with a client then to give
14:31 them advice that they
14:33 know is contrary to your
14:36 interest give that
14:39 advice no matter
14:42 what second take a
14:45 position don't
14:47 equivocate the client has hired you to
14:50 advise them tell them what to
14:54 do that's what they've hired you for
14:56 don't give them five options and say
14:59 you know pick one you pick one advocate
15:03 for it it's okay to present options but
15:05 advocate for one tell them what you
15:07 would advise them to do that's what
15:09 they've hired you for take a position
15:11 don't
15:16 equivocate number
15:21 three
15:23 Embrace and relish in
15:26 adversity adversity is what makes you
15:29 better stronger at this job relish it
15:34 it's easy for particularly for young
15:37 professionals these days to want to take
15:40 and to take
15:42 shortcuts it's easy in particular
15:44 because we have phones and the internet
15:46 and there's a lot of answers at our
15:47 fingertips now right so if someone's
15:50 asked you to build a model an Excel
15:52 model to perform some task at
15:56 work you could probably look up on the
15:59 Internet a model that will do that
16:02 resist that Temptation build your own
16:06 model resist the temptation to take
16:09 shortcuts live in the
16:12 trenches because the best investment
16:14 bankers lived in the trenches their
16:18 skills were forged there relish
16:21 adversity you will come out of it
16:23 stronger don't be disappointed afraid
16:25 angry when you encounter it view it
16:29 embrace it and view it as something that
16:30 will make you
16:32 stronger number
16:34 four Master
16:37 discipline this job requires incredible
16:42 discipline Master it inside and outside
16:45 of
16:46 your
16:48 work this means different things to
16:50 different people to some people it
16:52 means remaining physically fit to others
16:55 it means time
16:57 management Master
17:01 discipline don't
17:04 procrastinate don't let items builded up
17:07 in your
17:09 inbox keep lists don't procrastinate be
17:13 extraordinarily disciplined Master
17:16 it number
17:18 five Excel on the
17:23 merits if you're really good at what you
17:25 do if you're one of the best investment
17:27 bankers it's a lot easier to avoid
17:31 spending time on things that you don't
17:32 want to spend time
17:34 on and you'll have much more
17:37 control over what you do at work and
17:40 what you do outside of work a lot of
17:42 people ask me what's the best way to
17:44 achieve work life balance the answer is
17:46 be really really good at what you
17:50 do no one is going to give you a hard
17:54 time if you're the best investment
17:57 banker at the firm or among the best
17:58 best for taking some time off to do
18:01 something that you like to do in fact
18:03 fact taking a lot of time off for doing
18:05 something that you like to
18:08 do Excel on the
18:14 merits number six final piece of
18:19 advice never ever give up adopt that
18:25 Mantra as part of your life don't take
18:27 no for answer apply this in everything
18:30 you do from getting reservations at a
18:34 restaurant to getting a
18:37 job to getting a new
18:39 client never ever ever ever ever give up
18:44 don't take no for an answer what
18:47 separates the good investment bankers
18:51 from the great investment bankers is the
18:54 great investment bankers never ever
19:01 about
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