Why Do You Want to Do Investment Banking?

Why do you want to do investment banking?

If you ever hope to enter the field, you’ll need to have a great answer to this question – because it’s something that every single interviewer will ask you.

But other guides do a poor job of guiding you on how to answer this question.

-You like learning.

-You like corporate finance.

-You’re always in search of a fast pace.

And if you want to sound exactly the same as everyone else, feel free to use these types of responses.

But to succeed, you’ll need make the interviewer think you’re an interesting person and remember who you are.

You should use either the “Big Picture” or “Slice of Life” method to accomplish this.

If you’re a career changer, you don’t have a finance background, or you can’t think of anything specific that made you interested in finance, use the “Big Picture” method.

The outline is: Background in One Industry + Experience in Finance = Success in Achieving Long-Term Goals.

So maybe you worked in healthcare, and now you want to combine finance with your industry knowledge to advise companies on transactions; or maybe you want to go into venture capital, using your engineering background and new-found finance knowledge.

If you don’t have “long-term goals,” then make up some to fit the situation – just make sure you’re consistent with what you tell interviewers.

The “Slice of Life” method is better if you’ve had solid finance experience.

With this one, you start off with the event that made you interested and then explain how that interest developed over time.

-You started day trading when you were younger since your dad was a huge fan, so you became more interested in the markets and also did several internships.

-You met top female executives at banks in a summer camp, which made you look into the field more seriously.

You can combine both of these methods as well, of course – just make sure that you tell a coherent story that doesn’t go on for 5 minutes.

Aim for a 20-30 second elevator pitch and you’ll be ahead of 90% of prospective bankers.

Riyan Richter blogs about the career search process, how to successfully network, and how to break into the finance industry at Mergers … Inquisitions, the web’s top resource for investment banking and answering the why investment banking question in interviews.

Tags: career, finance, finance interviews, interviews, investment banking, investment banking interviews