 Investment banking is arguably one of the hardest industries to try and break into. Every single year the industry attracts hundreds of thousands of applicants and unfortunately the vast majority are unsuccessful. But did you know that there are seven specific requirements which bankers look for whenever they are looking at a new applicant, whether that's an intern, analyst or associate? And unless you can successfully demonstrate all seven of these requirements then you are going to be unsuccessful. So in this video we are going to take a look at all of these requirements, how you can demonstrate them and how you can properly stand out during the recruitment process. So let's begin. The number one requirement that we look for whenever we are interviewing for a new investment banker is a track record of achievements. And these doesn't have to be purely or exclusively related to academia. It can be work related. It could be sports related even. But as long as you have a track record of achievements and this could be anything from winning scholarships, from being on the deans list, from winning a tournament, from getting an award at work, it could be anything. But as long as it shows that you know what it takes in order to achieve something, you know what it takes to grind out the long hours, to put in the effort and to win and excel and achieve something. Because historically whenever we have recruited candidates with a track record of achievements, they have done really well in investment banking. So that's why having a track record of achievements, it could be anything. Again, doesn't just have to be academic related. They tend to do well in investment banking. What we don't want is to have someone in the interview room and tell us that they are going to be the best analyst. They are going to work hard. They are going to print the hours. We want someone that has already done it and can demonstrate what they've done. And that is the number one requirement that we look for in any potential investment banker. The second requirement that we look for is good grades. And I think a lot of candidates assume that we measure good grades by how intellectual you are or how smart you are. No, we don't use grades as a measurement for your intellectual capacity. There's something else that we use that for. Good grades or high grade average points is merely an indicator of how determined you are. Because the reality is if you're a finance candidate, then it's going to be easy for you to ace all the finance classes. But how do you perform in a non-finance class? Or how do you perform with a professor which you don't necessarily get along with? Or how do you perform when you're in a group which you don't necessarily like some of the members? Having a high grade point simply means that regardless of the situation, you're still able to excel in all of your modules. You're still able to get along with people who you don't necessarily want to work with. Having a high grade is just an indicator of the fact that you're able to excel regardless of the situation. And that's exactly what we look for. Because once you start an investor ranking, you're not going to like every single project you work on. You might not get along with all of the team members. But we still need you to be able to perform really well regardless of the situation. And that's why we look for good grades. Now on the flip side, if you have low grades, then that's an automatic red flag because it means that if the situation isn't to your liking, if you don't feel comfortable doing something, then you're not going to put in all the effort that's required to get the work done. It means that you're not determined. So having a low grade is an automatic red flag. And if you do have low grades, you are going to have to justify why you have low grades. You're going to have to explain that maybe you are sick or maybe you have to take time off to look after your family. You're going to have to justify the low grade. Number three is demonstrating an interest for investment banking. And this is arguably far more important for candidates from a non-finance background than for candidates from a finance background. But regardless, you have to be able to demonstrate awareness of the investment banking landscape. And again, this is far more important for candidates who are from a non-finance background. So if you have been studying engineering, law, zoology, history, whatever it may be, you have to justify why you now all of a sudden want to switch from your original career to investment banking. And guess what? You can't just say for the money. You can't say for the money because even though that might be true, even though your interviewer is doing it for the money, even though you are doing it for the money, you can't say it because the industry likes to lie to itself. Until it wants to get honest and accept the fact that everyone does it for the money. You cannot say that you want to get into investment banking because it's going to pay more than what I could have made in engineering. It's going to pay more than what I would have made being an artist. You can't say that. But the reality is you have to demonstrate awareness of the industry. You have to know the difference between a buy side role versus a sell side role. You have to know what bankers do on a sell side, a money deal on a buy side, a money deal on a road show, on an IPO. You have to know the different products and divisions. And you also have to know how bankers do a deal, what processes are involved. And you have to know what it is that you're going to be doing as an analyst, so financial modeling, building marketing materials. You have to know the pros and cons of a DCF, of comparables. How do you build a pitch book? How do you build a confidential information memorandum? What are teasers? What are fence opinion reports? You have to be able to demonstrate your awareness of what it is that you're getting yourself into. Because if you don't do that, if you don't demonstrate an awareness of the landscape of the role which you're applying into, it's a huge risk for two reasons. Number one, it means that you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. Number two, you could easily quit the moment you start and then we're going to have to redo this whole process again. So it's very important that you demonstrate awareness of the industry and the role which you're applying for. You can pretty much get all this information by three ways. Number one, getting work experience in investment banking, which will show you all of this. Number two, networking with an investment banker. And number three, you can get our investment banking interview and recruitment guide, which is designed to replace 1,000 hours with an investment banker by giving you all the information which you need from the different areas of investment banking, the different roles, areas, as well as all of the answers to the interview questions to ace your interviews. Now, before we move on to number four, let me just take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this channel and like this video. YouTube keeps reminding me that almost 80% of my audience are not currently subscribers. And as a result, I'm not getting ranked on YouTube. So if you would like to support this channel, if you like the content, and if you would like to be updated whenever we post new and relevant videos, then please subscribe and hit the bell notification button. Okay, so let's move on to number four, which is extra curricular activities and work experience. The reason why I'm grouping them is because they have overlapping skills. And if you have one, it can replace the other in terms of demonstrating similar skillsets. So let's start off with extra curricular activities. We do not want you to be members of multiple societies. It doesn't matter if you're a member of the economic society, if you're a member of the finance society, or if you're a member of the marketing society, we don't want you to just be members. We want you to be, we want you to have positions of responsibility. We want to know that you can be the president of the society. You can be the chairman, you can be the VP, you can be the treasurer, because then that shows that you know how to work towards deadlines, you know how to manage multiple tasks, and that you didn't just go to university, do the bare minimum of just graduating with good grades and that you were able to manage having good grades, as well as partaking in extra curricular activities. Now, if you don't have positions of responsibility at university or college, you can substitute this by having relevant work experience, because it's going to give you similar skillset. And it's going to signal the fact that you can work towards deadlines, and you can manage and handle multiple things at the same time. So ideally, you should be able to have both, you should have positions of responsibility and relevant work experience. But if you don't, it's not the end of the world. If you don't have relevant work experience or an investment banking internship, it doesn't automatically eliminate you from the running. Half of the candidates in investment banking are from non-planar background. And they don't have previous work experience in investment banking, but they were able to break into investment banking because they were able to demonstrate their ability to overachieve on the seven requirements. And having relevant work experience is a soft requirement. It's not a hard requirement. You don't need it to break into investment banking. Sure, it's a huge bonus. It's great if you have it, but you don't need it. What you do need is to demonstrate the fact that you're able to manage and handle multiple things at the same time and excel at all of them. So now let's move on to the fifth requirement and arguably one of the most important requirements because this will determine how successful you are. And it will also be a good indication of whether or not you're going to be successful or not. And that is demonstrating technical awareness or technical mastery. The reality is the job of an investment banker is not hard. You're not doing brain surgery. You're not doing rocket science. You're pretty much just on Excel every single day and PowerPoint. When you get into investment banking, you're going to learn that investment banking analysts have a nickname of being called an Excel monkey. And that's pretty accurate because number one, you can pretty much train a monkey to do what an analyst does on a day-to-day basis. And number two, we are pretty much living on Excel. Now, just because what we do is not complicated, it doesn't mean that we left anyone in into investment banking. You have to be able to demonstrate that you know what investment bankers do. And more importantly, how they do it. How do they build a financial model? What are the pros and cons of each methodology? How do they build a DCF? And in order for you to know this, in order for us to check the fact that you know this, we are going to ask you technical questions. Your interviews are going to be split up into two areas. Behavior and fit questions. So, for example, tell me about yourself, name me three strengths and weaknesses. Tell me about a time when you let a team. Those are behavioral and fit questions. Technical questions, which will indicate to us that you actually know what investment bankers do on a day-to-day basis, are going to be around finance, valuation, mergers acquisition, LBO, economics and brain teasers. You are going to have to demonstrate technical mastery in order for you to pass your first round interviews. A lot of candidates, they tend to focus on everything else apart from this, which is completely wrong. And the reason why there is such a high rejection rate in investment banking. The main area which you need to focus on, especially if you're trying to break into investment banking, is acing the technicals. Because a large part of your interview is going to be based on the technical questions. Because that's how we separate candidates that truly want to be investment bankers and those that are just tourists. Because if you truly want to be an investment banker, you would have learned what investment bankers do and how they do it, how they build textbooks, how they build financial modules, how they build teasers. What are they? The sixth requirement is having good communication skills. Now, I don't mean having perfect English. And of course, if you are an international student and English might not be your first language, we will make exceptions. But nonetheless, you are going to have to demonstrate the fact that you can communicate. And if you are someone with English being your dominant language, you have to excel here. Because one of the biggest risks is we leave you alone or we bring you to a client side. The client asks you a question and you just cannot communicate. You're this awkward, weird specimen that's just quiet all the time. That's the worst thing that can happen. And having good communication skills is something which you can easily demonstrate throughout your interview. You have to make sure that you can articulate yourself in a coherent manner using proper English vernacular in order to get your point across. Finally, number seven. And this is something which I think a lot of candidates completely ignore. But there is an age limit to what you can apply for in investment banking. If you're still a student, then you can apply for internships. And if you've just graduated, you can apply for internships and analyst roles. But if you graduated and it's been more than two years, then you cannot apply for an analyst role or an internship unless you're about to go and do a masters or an MBA. And that's because investment banking, it's a pretty intensive industry. You are expected to work long hours. Now, the older you are, the less likely you are going to be able to work the analyst hours. If you're 26, 27, it's far less likely you're going to be able to work the same hours as an analyst. In that case, you're going to have to do an MBA in order to break into investment banking and join the associate rank when you join investment banking. If you're below 25, then you can still apply for the analyst role. You can pretty much graduate work two years and then break into investment banking via the analyst role. Anything above 25, you're considered to be too old. And the only way for you to break into investment banking is via the associate route by doing an MBA. And I think this is something which a lot of candidates, they don't really consider. And no one really talks about this as well. So it's something that I can understand why people get confused. But there is an age requirement for the specific roles. So if you're below 25, you can still apply for the analyst role. If you're above 25, then you have to go for the associate round. Now, there is no hard and fast rule on this, but generally that's what I found. Okay, so I'm going to wrap up the video here. If you've enjoyed this video, if you've enjoyed the content, don't forget to subscribe, like and of course, leave a comment. And again, I will see you in our next video. And don't forget to check out other videos on investment banking interviews, how to break into investment banking and everything else which you need to break into investment banking. And of course, don't forget to check out our financial modeling course and our interview guide.