How can I get a internship in investment banking with no experience?

Question

Hi there PrepLounge,

I'm really passionate about starting a career in investment banking, but I’m worried because I don’t have any prior experience in this field. I’ve done a few finance-related courses and some internships in other areas, but nothing directly related to investment banking.

What steps can I take to make myself a competitive candidate for an internship? Are there specific things I can do to stand out, like learning certain skills or focusing on networking? Any advice would be really appreciated!

Answer 1

Dear candidate,

Similar to consulting, investment banking had high standards for entry but the application skills and experience from consulting are very transferrable.

A) Network immediately. Get referrals and ask for internship opportunities. You might pick specific areas that are close to your interests to make it easier for you, for example would you want to trade or focus on M&A?

B) For Ibanking practise additionally finance know-how. You might be asked specific finance questions during the interviews and must be able to answer them correctly.

C) I offer a specific prep for this that focuses on you applying core skills of creating positive finance right during the interviews it is exciting and very competitive. For example Ibanks like it a lot if you have additional hobbies like trading or you have your own company along your main career. From this I have also learned one of the most important aspects: truly enjoy the field. The best is when candidates really enjoy solving finance questions directly. You can for example easily land internships in trading if you trade yourself, etc. Most importantly there is a wealth of easy high caliber qualifications you can get in Finance next to your work like the CFA etc and. You can get in by leveraging venture capital or private equity experience. For example why not look at internships in parallel there, it makes it easy to land your best Finance role.

Very best wishes

Best regards

Answer 2

Hi there, First, you need to define what area of finance you would be interested in. Finance is much broader than con... (read entire answer)

Hi there, First, you need to define what area of finance you would be interested in. Finance is much broader than consulting which impacts type of work, work hours, ease of gett... (read entire answer)

Answer 3

Hi there! It’s in fact hard to tell. Depends on the reputation of your university and the aggregate grade point ave... (read entire answer)

Hi there! It’s in fact hard to tell. Depends on the reputation of your university and the aggregate grade point average of your fellow students. Basically, you should try to g... (read entire answer)

Answer 4

This may be a controversial point of view, but unless you have a genuine reason to reach out to someone I wouldn't bo... (read entire answer)

This may be a controversial point of view, but unless you have a genuine reason to reach out to someone I wouldn't bother. It can be different in very small markets or for niche... (read entire answer)