Investment Banking Job Description

What it takes to break into investment banking

Written by Scott Powell

Read Time 4 minutes

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Investment Banking Job Description

This investment banking job description was inspired by the responsibilities outlined by a list of investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS, and Barclays. To ensure you have the skills required for the job, check out CFI’s investment banking courses now!

Investment banking job description theme

Key Responsibilities

Development of various types of financial models to value debt and equity for mergers, acquisitions, and capital raising transactions.
Perform various valuation methods – comparable companies, precedents, and DCF.
Develop recommendations for product offerings, private equity transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and valuations.
Conduct preparation and review of materials used in the financing of clients, including investment memoranda, management presentations, and pitchbooks.
Develop relationships with new and existing clients in order to expand the business.
Perform due diligence, research, analysis, and documentation of live transactions.
Create presentations for client portfolios.
Affinity for current events, critical issues, and relevant news.

Relevant Skills, Knowledge, and Experience

MBA (Associate position) or equivalent education, training, and work-related experience.
Bachelor’s degree (Analyst position) from a target school, or equivalent
Three or more years of experience (Associate position) in a finance or business background, particularly on the quantitative side
Ability to work in a fast-paced, team-based environment with minimal supervision.
Working knowledge of deal structuring and closing principals.
Strong communication and networking skills.
Impeccable research, quantitative and analytical skills, especially in explaining market events.
Proven proficiency in Microsoft Office products, especially Microsoft Excel and VBA.
Ability to organize and track overlapping tasks and assignments, with frequent priority changes.
Strong financial modeling skills.

To ensure you have the skills required for the job, launch our investment banking courses now!

What is Investment Banking?

Investment banking is the act of raising capital for firms, through either issuing debt or selling equity. Investment banking also includes the peripheral tasks of managing M&A, advisory, and other corporate finance services. In fact, smaller firms may not have specific investment bankers, and the same roles may be handled by the corporate finance departments.

Investment bankers are expected to have an excellent grasp of the investment climate, with knowledge of popular investment vehicles. Should a company wish to perform an IPO, investment bankers are often key contributors to this process. It is the job of the investment banker to maximize investment returns, and therefore, attempt to set the IPO at the highest price possible.

Also known as i-Banking, investment banking is one of the most sought-after positions in the court of financial service positions.

Roles of the Investment Banker

An investment banker may undertake several activities for a client, but the key task of the investment banker is to raise capital through issuing securities, whether debt or equity.
Investment bankers are aggressive salespeople (at the more senior level). This means that an investment banker should ideally have strong communication acumen and a large network to reach out to. Naturally, strong people skills will aid in the job of an investment banker.
A paramount responsibility for the investment banking Analyst or Associate is the analysis of financial data to support their capital generation. Assessment of transactions and financial activities, such as the performance of bonds and stocks, will help the investment banker properly price and value the securities they are working with.
Investment bankers will also present results to their clients, for the purposes of decision making. A good investment banker will provide facts that give their investors better abilities to make choices. Investment bankers will educate the clients as much as they will persuade them.

Typical Credentials of an Investment Banker

An investment banker will have impeccable quantitative skills, and be able to perform complex financial modeling. Because the nature of the job is so fast-paced, the ability to perform a valuation on the spot, while working on other items, will allow an investment banker to succeed.

i-Bankers often hold a degree in finance, or sometimes accounting. However, simply holding a degree does not guarantee a job in investment banking. Tenacity, persuasiveness, and networking and communication skills are imperative to the position. Additionally, investment banks will often look for graduates coming out of top-tier schools, such as Harvard or Dartmouth, where liberal arts degrees are much more common.

This investment banking job description is inspired by the responsibilities outlined by companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS, and Barclays.

To ensure you have the skills required for the job, launch our investment banking courses now!