YouTube Transcript:
"The Making of an Investment Banker_" With Jim Donovan

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