Good afternoon. I am halfway to my CPA and anticipate being finished by August 2008. After I get that, I really want to get into Investment Banking. I was a Finance undergrad '03 from Fordham University w/ a 3.9 in my major. After getting out of school, I took night classes in accounting to get to my 150 credit hrs. My work experience includes a food distribution company me and 3 friends from college did after college and I’m currently working in public accounting and have 2 years under my belt. My strengths are my work ethic and I’d like to think that I’m a great team player and communicator. I do like my job and would only leave it for a step up in all facets. I want to get into investment banking and am also pondering doing the CFA after my CPA. I know investment banking is extremely competitive and I know I’d be successful once I have a job, but what is the best way to go about getting interviews and nailing down a job? What do these companies really look for? MBA? CFA? Connections? My company also has a Transactions group so I don’t know if it would be wise to try to get into that group to use a launch pad to get into I Banking. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Why didn’t you get into Investment Banking right after undergrad? If you were a Finance grad, why did you do your CPA instead of try to go straight into IB? just curious
If you search and do some research, you will learn the CFA doesn’t help (for the most part) you get into IB. Transaction Advisory at a big 4 can help you get into a middle market IB. Otherwise a solid MBA. Also, I am sure you are aware of the situation in the financial world, so it’s not a good time.
I did Finance for undergrad because that’s where my interest was; I thought about doing options trading when I got out of school but decided against that and financial jobs at first. No particular reason but I was just a college kid and didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. Got interested in accounting and it took off from there. I just have a huge interest in investments in general. It started as a personal interest and now this is where I want to be professionally. I know its not a great time for the industry as the banks are getting crushed. But is it more difficult to get into now that I’m a little older (26) and have done the accounting thing for a couple of years?
your best bet would be top 15/10 mba. even with CFA/CPA u might not get an itnerview.
Aren’t a lot of top MBA programs tough to get into until I’m around 30? Maybe I should think about consulting instead…
You are around the right age for an MBA and your reason for pursuing one is perfect. That being said, if you decide to apply, you are facing one of the worst application years ever, particularly for a finance guy. The 2009 application season is going to be brutal (2008 applications were up 20% and 2009 will probably be up at least that much). Personally, I do not think you will be able to get into ibanking with your current qualifications and the current environment, so MBA may be the best route despite the challenge.
Thanks for the honest advice. I appreciate it.
CPA is the wrong path…maybe for ER. I-banking is generic term. What type of investment banking, what firm, where? If you want to do M&A at a bulge bracket, your chances are very low (even in a “normal” environment) If you want to do CF or Cap Mkts at a tier 2, maybe even a boutique…could have a shot. Traditional I-Banks are very pedigree sensitive, top MBA will greatly improve your changes of getting an interview.
Maybe like a Houlihan Lokey in Chicago. Maybe I should be more specific. Maybe investment banking is too general. I’d love to do M&A, I love doing financial statement analysis/research, I love working in teams with people and want to be involved with client service. Most importantly, I want to get into a job without a ceiling and plenty of room for growth.
asdffdsa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You are around the right age for an MBA and your > reason for pursuing one is perfect. That being > said, if you decide to apply, you are facing one > of the worst application years ever, particularly > for a finance guy. The 2009 application season is > going to be brutal (2008 applications were up 20% > and 2009 will probably be up at least that much). > > Personally, I do not think you will be able to > get into ibanking with your current qualifications > and the current environment, so MBA may be the > best route despite the challenge. Just like the increase in enrollment for the CFA, won’t the number of applicants to MBA schools just go up from here?
With the CFA you just give up some personal free time.With an MBA you give up your job for that time.
I don’t think you can get into investment banking at this time. A top MBA could help you fix that, but your statistics and where you are in your career path do not make you a good fit for current analyst programs. Also, it’s not clear to me that you know what investment banking is – your reasons for wanting to do it are vague or don’t exactly jive (“I just have a huge interest in investments in general. It started as a personal interest and now this is where I want to be professionally” => not a good reason), so I would seriously recommend to you to learn more about it, and if it’s still something that interests you, try to go to MBA route and get recruited out of there.
Maybe I should have just said, “I want to make bank.”
Finish the CPA since you are this close, apply to B-school in the fall, get apps in by December, and see if you can get some valuation experience in the CPA world, as that experience may help in your B-school interviews down the road. Oh forgot, you need to take the GMAT this fall too, and make >680 for a top 7 elite school. good luck… I have MSEE/MBA-Chicago/CPA and looking for an ER job in semiconductor sector. (worked 10yrs in semis).
sacko14 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Maybe I should have just said, “I want to make > bank.” You didn’t have to say it explicitly, your previous post suggested it. As Numi pointed out, your reasoning for wanting in is not compelling. If we can sniff it out here, best believe the associate your interviewing with will. Oh yeah, and good luck surviving the day to day grind of being whale shit for a couple of years when your primary motivation is money, which you likely won’t be seeing much of (especially when you consider the hours you’ll likely be putting in) early on.