Best Colleges for Investment Banking Recruitment

In short, investment banking (formerly abbreviated as IB) is a field wherein professionals advise a large range of companies on their financial decisions. Investment bankers often act as the intermediary, or the sort of middle man, between a company and its investors. Their job is to help companies raise and price capital, perform day to day financial transactions, and prepare IPO’s, or Initial Public Offerings. This term denotes the first price a company’s stock is sold at once it emerges onto the market. Investment bankers are quite financially savvy, and commit much of their career to work with important numbers and careful transactional decisions. If you are someone who enjoys working with numbers and is highly detailed, this may be a potential career path for you! Investment banking provides a host of opportunities and benefits, but not without momentous work. Deciding to undertake this pathway is no doubt a large commitment, seeing as how recruitment processes begin early on in one’s college experience.

The recruitment process involved with a range of different banks, from J.P. Morgan to Goldman Sachs, is incredibly nuanced, competitive, and tedious. That being said, it is attainable, and hundreds of thousands of students participate. Ideally, the work towards your IB recruitment should begin in your first year of college. From the get-go, you should be pursuing networking initiatives, whether that means contacting alumni, attending career fairs, or attaining early internships. The most integral internships will begin your summer going into junior year, and selection surrounding these vocations takes off a year early. This is why, when it comes down to investment banking recruitment, the bulk of your work towards establishing yourself in the IB world comes along in your second year of undergrad. The applications you craft and submit in your second year are vitally important, and will be the key to the enveloping of your IB career.

To keep it short and blunt, these universities simply send the most undergraduate students into the investment banking field with high levels of success. These schools offer the largest alumni network involved in IB, giving students attending the school an upper hand in establishing more connections that could propel their career. Furthermore, these schools provide their IB-eager students with the most access to programs improving their knowledge of the field and opportunities to network and garner connections (as an example, though I am not personally a member of Ross, I know that the University of Michigan Ross School of Business hosts investment banking and finance centered career fairs). Large banking industries will oftentimes even reserve a select amount of vocations for students that attend these target schools. This is why it serves to be vitally important that, if you take serious consideration in IB, you attempt to attend an undergrad that offers vast opportunities and advantages for the field!

IT IS OKAY! What triumphs over your career aspirations is your happiness and wellbeing, especially during undergrad! You can still acquire vast opportunities going to a school that isn’t necessarily a high target for IB. There’s no doubt that attaining a career in the field may come with much more difficulty, but is doable! The primary thing you have to do is stand out without being in an IB targeted program. This comes with factors such as a high GPA, a finance focused major (this is vitally important either way, but is an absolute necessity at a school that isn’t an IB target), good internship experience by your sophomore year, and a broad network. Another tactic you can involve yourself in is the targeting of more middle tier firms, since, compared to larger bankers, these companies may prove to be less competitive. Much more work and self sufficiency is required if you do choose to attend a non-target school, but it is wholly possible, and going to a university you love and enjoy takes absolute precedence!

Experience, experience, and MORE EXPERIENCE! This is the number one thing that IB recruiters want to see when they get their hands on your application. Apply for any opportunities you can, work with finance as much as possible (even if it’s something like a treasurer position for a club at your school!). The more you learn about the field and immerse yourself in IB, the better chances you garner at developing your career in a highly concentrated and competitive industry. Furthermore, IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START NETWORKING!! Set up a Linkedin page, begin connecting with people, maybe messaging alumni from your high school or even current finance students at your desired university! You never know who could help you out in the future! The fact that you are even reading this blog post is an amazing start!! With all of these efforts you have an incredibly fair shot at immersing yourself in IB and becoming the Wall Street finance bro you’ve always dreamed of being!