Looking around for some investment banking training courses?
Be careful.
There are things these programs don’t want you to know.
At the end of the day, they just want your money.
Most don’t help you land an investment banking job.
And no, financial modeling doesn’t guarantee you an investment banking job.
If you actually want to get a job in investment banking, you need to think like an investment bank would.
We’ve helped non-target students beat out Harvard students and other ivy-leaguers by helping them utilize the right strategies.
The next 60 seconds that it takes to read this will dramatically improve your odds of getting an investment banking job.
Here’s how:
You Need Investment Banking Training That Looks Like Experience
If I had one strategy for you to use it would be this:
Find an investment banking training course that mimics experience.
If you want to be an investment banker, you need experience.
No one cares about the classes you took in school.
And if you’re from a non-ivy league school and don’t have the best GPA, you absolutely need experience.
The only program we’ve seen actually offer this type of training and resume boosting experience is the Invest Like The Street Analyst Program.
But before we dig in, let’s focus on investment banking training courses you want to avoid:
- 2 – 3 Day Financial Modeling Bootcamps
- Bogus investment banking certifications
- Boring online video courses
#1) 2 – 3 Day Financial Modeling Bootcamps – Why You Should Avoid Them
How many of you are capable of learning complex topics in two days?
How many of you love sitting in a classroom for 8 hours (probably hungover) on a Saturday and Sunday?
Can it be more obvious why these are a waste of money?
Basically, you’ll get stuck sitting in a classroom for 8 hours on a Saturday and a Sunday while a guy tries to teach you financial modeling.
About 4 hours in he will have totally lost you and you’ll be forced to just copy what he’s doing the whole time.
It’s boring, rushed, and a waste of money.
Don’t waste your money and time on these.
#2) Bogus investment banking certifications – Why You Should Avoid Them
There are a lot of courses out there that offer ‘investment banking certifications’.
Pretty much all of them are bogus.
Do you honestly think a certification is going to help you get a job in investment banking?
No shot.
Don’t bother with these unless the organizers actually help you get a job. (Spoiler alert: they won’t)
#3) Boring Online Video Courses – Why You Should Avoid Them
These can be hit or miss.
While a few of them have great content, here’s their big flaws:
- They are boring as hell, and the majority of people never finish them
- It’s not considered experience that you can add to your resume
Think about it like this:
If you’re trying to learn how to drive a car, are you going to watch a video that teaches you how to drive a car?
No way!
You’re going to get in the car and learn with an instructor the real way.
That’s the issue with these courses.
You can’t learn by copying what a guy is doing in excel for hours on end. It’s just not practical.
That’s why Invest Like The Street’s Program is cleverly organized to teach you, but give you real world work to do at the same time, along with feedback from an instructor.
So while online courses might be nice to teach you certain topics, they won’t be able to help you get a job in investment banking.
Find An Investment Banking Training Program That Helps With Career Stuff (Resumes, Interviewing, etc)
Here’s a major problem with most training programs:
They don’t help you with any of the career stuff you need to do to get the job (resume editing, networking, interviewing, etc).
Or if they do offer it, it’s an ‘extra cost’.
Sounds like BS to me right?
You can be an extremely smart person, but if you don’t understand how to navigate the recruiting process it is still really tough to break in.
Invest Like The Street’s program puts a good deal of time into helping students with a lot of these career aspects, so at the end of the day they get results and ultimately a job.
There’s a great step-by-step guide on how to become an investment banker here.
Here are some areas you want to see an investment banking training course cover:
#1) Resume Editing
Half the reason some people aren’t able to get these highly desired jobs is because their resumes are just plain ugly.
Seriously.
Don’t put your part time job as a waiter close to the top of your resume.
If your internship was mainly bullshit administrative work, don’t tell me that. Make it seem like it was the most analytical, hands on internship ever!
More importantly, don’t take one resume and try to apply for 100 different jobs. You’re totally wasting your time. Each resume needs to be customized based on the job you’re applying for, and it needs to have the right keywords.
Start off by using the proper investment banking resume template:
Download This Resume Template To Increase Your Chances Of Landing The Job
Trick #1 – Get the Keywords Right
When you apply online, software basically scans your resume for certain keywords based on the job description.
So if you’re applying for an investment banking role and you don’t have keywords like ‘investment banking’, ‘financial modeling’, ‘M&A’, etc, you’re already at a disadvantage.
In the first part of the Invest Like The Street Analyst Program, students go through a mini Wall Street Career Bootcamp course. One of the lessons shows you how to use this software against itself to increase your chances.
For example, we took a resume from a 37% match for a Goldman Sachs Investment Banking job, to an 80% match using some of these tricks.
FYI: Applicants of the Invest Like The Street Analyst Program get free access to their Wall Street Career Bootcamp course after applying. Get access for free here.
Trick #2 – Highlight the RIGHT Things On Your Resume And Be Specific
If you worked a summer job recently that wasn’t an internship (think Waiter, Caddy, Construction, etc) it should be NOWHERE near the top of your resume, even if it was the most recent thing.
You need to highlight relevant things that banks, funds, etc will actually give a fuck about.
If you were in a finance club/investment club at school and you pitched stocks, put that up there.
Specific!
Even if you shadowed someone for a few days and have nothing else relevant on your resume, put that up there.
More importantly, be specific. Employers want to see specific things you worked on or accomplished.
Like you saw in the screenshots above, using sub-bullets are a great way to highlight specific deals, companies or stocks you pitched, and are a surefire way to catch an interviewers eye when looking at your resume.
#2) Networking Effectively
How many of you love getting spam emails?
No one!
How many Managing Directors or Portfolio Managers do you think love getting cold emails or calls from people asking for jobs?
None of them!
Want to know the secret on how to network effectively?
Give before you ask.
Mind-blowing right?
If you want to network effectively, build a relationship first.
Get them on the phone by asking good questions about their career, day-to-day, etc.
Make them feel like you value them, not just the job.
No one is going to help you out if the first thing you try and do is ask for a job.
The more value you can provide to them or, at minimum make it seem like you are genuinely interested in their career, the better results you’ll get.
They might not be able to help you get a job, but there’s always the chance they know someone who can help you out.
So how can you effectively get some to chat with you?
Think about it like this.
Most people in high up positions (MDs, PMs, Founders, etc) grew up before the internet even existed.
The majority are just plain… old. Crazy right?
Meeting of the managing directors
So what’s a clever, old school but damn effective way to connect with them?
Letters. Physical Letters in the mail.
If you want to stand out, get past their inbox, past their executive assistant, just write a damn letter.
This is what I used to get my last job.
50 different letters to different funds. 8 different interviews. 4 job offers.
It’s a very effective method.
Here’s how it works:
Step #1:
One page. Typed up. Printed on nice resume paper.
And no, don’t include your resume in the letter.
Don’t act desperate.
We go more into detail on how to write the letter in the Wall Street Career Bootcamp.
Step #2:
Find a full-size envelope to put it in. Should be the size of the letter
Step #3:
Write the person’s address on the letter, but put Private & Confidential at the top
That way the executive assistant won’t open it
Step #4:
Go to USPS, FedEx, or UPS and mail it in one of those big envelopes
Why put your letter (already in an envelope) in ANOTHER envelope?
Simple: Everyone opens a FedEx