Recommended Readings:
Careers
“The Insiders Guide to the Best Jobs on Bay Street” by Joe Kan
“VAULT CAREER GUIDE TO INVESTMENT: BANKING THE INSIDE SCOOP ON INVESTMENT BANKING CAREERS” by Tom Lott, Mary Phillips-Sandy, William Jarvis and the staff at Vault
- Information about Investment Banking, Commercial Banking, Asset Management, Equity Markets, Fixed Income Markets, M&A, Private Placements, Reorganization, Corporate Finance, Institutional S&T, Research and Syndicate.
“VAULT GUIDE TO SALES AND TRADING” by Gabriel Kim and the staff at Vault
“ VAULT CAREER GUIDE TO INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT” by Andrew Schlossberg and Alexander Gorelik and the staff at Vault
“VAULT GUIDE TO FINANCE INTERVIEWS” by Vault
“Killer Investment Banking Resumes!” by Wetfeet
“Beat the Street” by Wetfeet Investment Banking Interviews
Sales and Trading
“Monkey Business : Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle” by John Rolfe, Peter Troob
“Liar’s Poker” by Michael Lewis
Leveraged Buy Out
“Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco” by Bryan Burrough, John Helyar
Investments
“A Random Walk Down Wall Street” by Burton Malkeil
“Security Analysis” by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd
“The Intelligent Investor” by Ben Graham
“Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond” by Bruce C. N. Greenwald, Judd Kahn, Paul D. Sonkin, Michael van Biema
Financial Crises and Panics
“Too Big to Fail” by Andrew Sorkin
“Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity” by Michael Lewis
“The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”
“When Genius Failed : The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management” by Rogers Lowenstein
“All The Devils Are Here” by Bethany Maclean and Joe Nocera
“Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and unknowns in the dazzling world of derivatives” by Satyajit Das
Careers in Finance
COMMERCIAL BANKING
A commercial bank’s traditional business has been to accept deposits from and loan money to individuals and businesses. Banks earn their money on the spread between the rates that they pay on deposits and the rates they earn on loans. There are different areas commercial banking managers support, such as Retail, Real Estate, Syndications, Telecom, Generalist, etc. Different banks specialize in different areas.
Typical career paths:
Retail side: Commercial Banking Teller > Commercial Banking Associate > Senior Manager > Vice President
Corporate finance side: Commercial Banking Credit Analyst > Senior Manager > Vice President
Recommended education:
CA, CMA, and good business acumen
CORPORATE FINANCE
Corporate Finance means you would work for a company to help it seek money to run the business, grow the business, make acquisitions, plan for its financial future and manage any cash on hand.
Corporate Finance in capital markets, is also called Corporate Credit or Corporate Banking, which is like Commercial Banking, but with loans greater than $10 MM. Corporate Banking are considered capital markets. There are different areas Corporate Banking VPs support, such as Telecom, Media, Technology, Syndications, Generalist, etc. Different banks specialize in different areas.
Corporate areas: financial analysis & planning, treasury, risk management, operations, and more
Corporate Banking: Corporate Banking Analyst/Associate > Vice President > Managing Director
Recommended education:
CA, CMA, and good business acumen
INVESTMENT BANKING (IB)
The term investment bank is broadly used to describe any financial institution that provides services in the areas of securities issuance and brokerage, financial advisory or asset management. So basically, an investment bank covers equity research, sales & trading (S&T), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), corporate lending, and many products and services aimed towards corporate clients.
Recommended reading:
VAULT CAREER GUIDE TO INVESTMENT: BANKING THE INSIDE SCOOP ON INVESTMENT BANKING CAREERS
Information about Investment Banking, Commercial Banking, Asset Management, Equity Markets, Fixed Income Markets, M&A, Private Placements, Reorganization, Corporate Finance, Institutional S&T, Research and Syndicate.
Recommended education:
CBV, CFA (is not relevant to most IB functions, but a lot of people have it)
RESEARCH
Research department supports the sales and trading personnel by providing information about the economy, various industries, and specific companies. Research also works with IB on deals. Equity research teams reports expected earnings and target prices of public companies. So it is particularly busy for equity research associates during earnings season.
Recommended education:
CFA
ASSET MANAGEMENT
Money managers hold wide varieties of securities for institutional clients and are on the buy side of Wall Street. Some money managers use the latest sophisticated quantitative techniques while others do very well using simple intuition. Unfortunately, it is hard to get started in money management. It is particularly hard to work for top money managers.
Recommended education:
CFA
CONSULTING
Consulting work is linked to corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and merchant banking. It is generally performed as part of the overall service given to clients or it may be tied to a specific transaction. Consulting work can take an infinite number of forms including capital structure analysis, comparables analysis and industry research. Much of the specific work is dependent on the particular client’s industry. In addition, the past few years have seen a dramatic growth in consulting work related to corporate restructuring and reorganizations.
Career paths: There are a wide range of opportunities available for consultants, such as in consulting firms, banks, government, etc.
PRIVATE CLIENT SERVICES & INVESTMENTS
This area, found in most large investment banks, provides comprehensive financial services to high net worth individuals or smaller companies. This includes wealth management, portfolio management and investment advisory services. You could be on the client-facing side or working in investment analysis and portfolio management.
Recommended education:
CSC, various courses offered by CSI, CFA
SALES & TRADING
Institutional sales and trading are highly dependent on one another. Traders make money by selling high and buying low (this difference is called the spread). They are buying stocks or bonds for clients, and these clients filter in through sales. The salesperson, however, has a different incentive. The total return on the trade often determines the money a salesperson makes, so he wants the trader to sell at a low price. The salesperson also wants to be able to offer the client a better price than competing firms in order to get the trade and earn a commission.
Recommended education:
CSC, CFA
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