Investment Banking

JDOC1996

Hi everyone,
I'm in 6th year at the moment, and considering a career in investment banking.
Can anybody provide me with some details as to how it would be possible to branch into this?
Also, what's the pay actually like?
I'm considering Law and business in Trinity as my course, would this be a good background?

Nika Bolokov

Jobs are really only available in London. Make it easier for yourself and apply to:

Oxford
Cambridge
LSE
Imperial College

The more maths you study the better. Law and business are a bit watery especially for structured transactions.

Pay is £45k basic plus 20% - 35% bonus in year one. Goes up dramatically every year.

Horrible hours, no life, but you can leave it after 5 -7 years with money in your pocket.

Make sure you intern in one during your summer holidays in college. Most are know recruited from there unlike 10 years ago. Process to get an internship is ferocious.

freeze4real

The chances if getting into those places are slim as the completion is fierce. But there are students who went to Irish university that are working in IB in London.

In fact there are loads.

Advice is do maths programs like actuary science, financial economics and maths or maths. Try to get a minimum of 2.1 and get angoodnwork experince with the likes of citi JP Morgan or Goldman sachs etc.

If you go to trinity UCD or dcu the send them in house applications.

Then solidify the above with a masters in quantitative finance or corporate finanace and try to incorporate some programming.

Nika Bolokov

Go for a UK uni. Very tough otherwise.

JDOC1996

Cheers for the replys guys.
Unfortunatly, a UK uni is off the cards for me.
Surely a Trinity degree would suffice?
I've heard of trinity graduates getting on IB programmes.
I know I'd have to immigrate, and That's fine.
Can I just ask if either of you two are in IB?

freeze4real

I'm not IB now. I'm currently in middle management funds which is completely different to IB.

But will be doing my master in a year or two which will take me to IB/trading.

Trinity, DCU UCD NUIG are all fine.

But back it up with extracurricular activities and a solid masters. That's the best advice one can give you.

I have friends who've gotten 550points in L.C and 1.1 in college who've gone straight o IB/tradinfg or portfolio management. But a masters solidified everything.

Nika Bolokov

Yep, in London.

NUIG, DCU , NUIM etc are not fine......

Be aware Trading and IB are different. Trading is harder and harder to get into as its increasingly done by computers acting on the instructions of mathematical models.

Don't bother getting a masters etc unless you love your subject, getting a masters is a very Irish thing, on a UK grad program maybe one in eight will have a masters and most of them will be from France/Germany/Holland.

TCD is good and your in with a shout, make it easier if you add more maths. Your up against Oxford, Cambridge etc

Have to intern , have to.

There are many many rewarding careers in a bank in areas such as risk management, model development etc other than your traditional IB Mergers and Acquisition jobs. Most roles in an investment bank in London will pay you £100K after 7 years of career progression once your good whether your in the back, middle or front office. Have a good look at the grad brochures and look at all available areas.

ebayissues

Trading, working in hedgefunds and IB are COMPLETELY different.

Its a matter of opinions on what college is better.

Ixus aka C.D did his undergrad in nuim and masters in UL and he's head trainer for traders in P.E.

Use linkedln as your guide, type in what area of expertise you want to get into and college name at the end of it. E.g risk management UCD linkedln Ireland

Nika Bolokov

Best advice I can give.

Read UK based forums. You will get much more accurate answers.

bke

I started at Barcap many moons ago as a grad. Agree with the earlier comments about good pay but when in your twenties the hours don't matter, becomes crap as you get older though. Apply to every IB you can, they all struggle to get Cambridge/Oxford grads because of the competition in the city so with high enough results you will get to through to their interview/testing stage. My advice would be to practice these tests with a few dummy companies (IT companies will have the same tests) as they get much easier with practice. And rule number one, don't get hammered the night before!

airbus125

Does anybody know the chances of getting an IB job in New York. Most of their websites say you can apply for internships anywhere and they will support visas but a search of Linkedin only show UCD and Trinity students in London.
Visa wise you have your J1 for your summer internship and then if you receive a Full Time offer, you have your 1 year graduate visa and by that stage they would of decided wether your worth sponsoring a green card or H1B.

Saipanne

airbus125 wrote: »

Does anybody know the chances of getting an IB job in New York. Most of their websites say you can apply for internships anywhere and they will support visas but a search of Linkedin only show UCD and Trinity students in London.
Visa wise you have your J1 for your summer internship and then if you receive a Full Time offer, you have your 1 year graduate visa and by that stage they would of decided wether your worth sponsoring a green card or H1B.

Get a role with a London based American IB, then you can apply for internal postings in New York. That's one way.

airbus125

Thanks. Good Idea!

hfallada

You have to get a 2.1 in your degree. If you dont get a 2.1 you are wasting your time. Trinity is a good choice with Business and Economics. Most Americans will tell you an economics degree is the best to have for anything finance related. Trinity has an international reputation. I doubt anyone in the city, has heard of DCU or UL. You have to go to Trinity or UCD.

https://myucd.ucd.ie/program.do?programID=7
This UCD course is supposed to have 100% employment. This would be a good step to IB.

You have to do an internship. An internship is not photocopying or getting coffee. Its basically a 12 week interview and its how American companies decide which undergrads to hire. Its how JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs etc hire workers in the US.

coybig99

I'm currently studying Ec&Fi in UCD. It's a good course to get into banking and there's an Investors society also in UCD where you can learn all about applying to these banks and attend talks from them too.

Generally there are a few students from 3rd year on this course that go to London to some of the big banks for full time roles each year. It's probably expected that you have a 1.1 when applying to the biggest banks in London such as Goldman and Morgan Stanley, as they already receive applications from some of the best students in England. You'd also have to have an outstanding CV with lots of extra-curricular activities.

In regards to getting a place in a bank in America there was one student who attended UCD a few years ago who got a place in one of the big banks in London. He's now been offered a job in the US after being in London for two or three years. This is probably the most accessible route for an Irish student.

daheff

I'd advise doing a college course that's HEAVY on maths...be it a degree in maths, actuarial maths, engineering, physics.....and if you can, computer programming too. That's what investment banks want.