100 Investment Banking Career Tips 

Don’t walk around boasting about how busy you are or how much you’ve done

Don’t save project files to your personal hard drive

Don’t leave office with work outstanding on next-day deliverables or without checking in with your project teams

Don’t go to your team with work that you haven’t checked or comments you haven’t turned – It’s the easiest way to lose trust. Reputations spread upward

Don’t run multiple versions of a file. You’d be surprised how common versioning issues are

Don’t start working from a read-only version and save-up without asking

Lack of attention to detail

Being reactive instead of proactive

Never, ever violate expense or trading policies. Career limiting move

Never hide rows or columns -> collapse cells in groups if you must

Beauty save = put your cursor to the top left corner on every tab before saving

Same columns (D, E, F) across tabs should refer to the same month

Color code in Excel (black = formulas , blue = inputs , green = link , red = issue/CapIQ/FactSet)

Include all source files received from clients in model. Keep notes on all inputs / assumptions you receive from clients (can be in comments or noted in far right) -> will be deleted before final version

You will never run out of rows so rather than building an overly complex formula, do one step at a time in a new row (easier to follow for other people)

If absolutely no info to calculate anything accurately use % of Revenue for everything to project e.g., payroll, marketing, etc.

In the financial model code clients as Client 1, Client 2, etc. instead of revealing their name so it could be shared with investors as needed

Typically, you set up multiple cases (base, upside, downside) -> Use Offset function and refer to the "Case_Number" cell which is on the first tab of the excel typically

Prepare a Dashboard Tab (for quick review) + a separate tab for Printing (all fonts are black) for client or to copy into presentations

Sanity check: Check annual numbers and Dashboard - Does it make sense?

Have an enthusiastic and positive attitude at all times (even at 3 am and the next morning)

Say hello in the morning and greet people in the hallways. Be respectful of your assistant

Ask a lot of questions, especially in your first couple weeks

Set up 1:1 meetings/calls when you join to get to know people, create opportunities to introduce yourself to Managing Directors (MDs) and get to know them

Be approachable

Walk into MD’s offices and develop real relationships if possible

Network internally with people outside your group. Having friends in other product groups will help you to get quick response when you work on an urgent project

Take responsibility and admit mistakes

Client is always right, even when they're wrong

Maintain positive personal and professional image even when you are very tired

Develop thick skin: high stress career, never personal

Never eat alone, grab coffee/lunch with different people every day, or order your own food but eat together in the kitchen

Ask for best templates for valuations, financial models and management presentations, in your first few months. People who seem to know a lot have the best templates and precedent files

You should almost always be available to communicate, generally from the hours of 7am to midnight. Be in the office on time, 9am latest

Goal is to sleep between 12am to 7am, unless there is a pre-scheduled call earlier than that

Don't be indecisive, always have an opinion and defend it even if you change it later, that's how you'll become a leader

Have a good relationship with analyst and associates and build relationship with VPs and above, too. Make them look good and you’ll be good

Say, we’ve (as a team) prepared this analysis even if you were the only person working on it, don’t say I’ve prepared this as you’ll make the rest of the team look bad

Give and ask for clear deadlines, often VPs/associates don’t tell you exactly when they expect to receive it back, but they have a day/time in mind

Raise hand how you can help! Ask before going to sleep if you can help with something else (yes you prefer to sleep, but it will differentiate you)

Over-communicate, respond to emails timely, drive process, take ownership (instead of simply saying, we’ll do and 3-4 hours later not sure what to do exactly -> say: We’re doing this, doing that, what do you think about this approach?

Send daily/weekly update to MDs/VPs with workstreams

If an MD doesn't respond to a question, send the email again. Or call

Ask at least one question during every meeting

Always remain calm, cool, and collected. If needed take a 10-minute break

Present yourself well both internally and externally

Respond to all emails in 15-20 minutes, to at least acknowledge that you received it and we’ll send it this afternoon / by end of the day / started working on it

Be responsible at social events and use your common sense; not an excuse for being late the next day

No social media during working hours. All electronic communication via firm's approved devices at large investment banks dealing with public client. Personal / home systems are monitored / prohibited at these firms

Take ownership, be proactive, have a daily-to-do and schedule, time

Review all workstreams daily even if only for 5 minutes. Review all your projects once a week in great detail. Check your calendar both 2 weeks ahead and back and set up to-do list and deadlines

Be diligent about updating trackers / internal databases to save others time (creds book, profile tracker, etc.). Be an expert of keeping and organizing lists (your personal to-do list, lists for each deal you’re on, etc.)

Manage your seniors and remind them to deadlines, they might have more important things to track

Verify time zones when scheduling meetings (Outlook has a great feature for that)

Always keep mark-ups. Scan them to your drive just in case

As an associate, talk to analysts instead of sending emails all the time and hiding behind your desk

Always add value, don't just pass on task blindly. Own the process. It's easier to tell than you may think who actually does work 

Never delegate a task you personally don’t know how to do

Don’t just copy client slides and reformat them, always think about how the presentation flows from one page to the next. Typically, we can re-use many client slides, but we need to create a few new from scratch to connect the story and flow

Imagine that you are a PE firm: Would you invest? What things we might not want to mention and what is not clear?

Think like you were the Founder, what would you do? How would you approach this problem?

Always think about: what else could we do for our client? Our job is to make people love us

No task is to small. Even your MDs do administrative tasks occasionally. “Managing Analysts” do not succeed

Under-promise and over-deliver, especially around deadlines

Always flag hardest tasks and do them first, this way you can ask questions immediately if anything is unclear before seniors log off around 10-11 pm. Easy tasks can be done at 2 am without additional instructions and without a fully functioning brain 

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Forward your desk phone when you’re OOO and learn how to use the conferencing feature on your office phone or cell phone

Set up the same signature line (format/size) on your cell phone and laptop. It will make it less obvious if you respond from a gym or from a dinner party

When you get staffed to a new client, start pulling together a very draft shell immediately with a lot of TBU/placeholder slides to move the project along and you can immediately ask questions and show that you are proactive

Don’t delay process. Act confidently even if you are not, make decision even if only 90% sure unless you are sending it directly to the client

Have a sense of urgency, act immediately when you get a task from supervisor

Don't be afraid to speak up, you’re paid to have an opinion -> Always have an opinion and defend by a reason or story (you can change your mind later), don't look ambivalent as it will make you look weak

Take good notes and always bring your notebook and calculator with you to VP / MDs’ offices

Don t answer your phone on speaker to external callers.

Always print and leave physical copies of decks on VP / MDs’ desks after you turn comments

If a senior banker asks to leave a printout copy in their office, leave it on their chair, not desk

Make comprehensive list of questions to efficiently make use of senior bankers’ time

Know how to negotiate an NDA

Organize your thoughts before leaving a voicemail. Be concise. Speak slowly and clearly and repeat your telephone number twice

Be patient with yourself. It takes time to come up to speed. You are not supposed to understand what’s going on in your first 6 months

Always use spell check

Request vacation in advance and send reminders 2-week and 1-week in advance. Send a to-do list and timeline to your team about project status on your last day before vacation

Don’t take on too much and don’t over-commit. Remember everything will take longer than expected

Create folder and subfolders in your inbox. Check with your team for best practices

Communicate if a task is taking longer than expected

If you know you will not be able to deliver work on time contact your staffer or manager immediately

When you work with other groups, make sure you are viewed as a partner

Spend time researching the Company – as juniors you can add a lot of value here when meeting with senior bankers, and it will be noticed

For public companies, equity research (especially initiating coverage), earnings transcripts, investor presentations and S-1 filings are a great place to start

Couriering books to a senior banker: Make sure books are in an opaque envelope for confidentiality + Leverage assistants to find out where a banker is staying (if traveling); don’t wait till late at night for this

When there is a question to CEO try to answer yourself how I would answer and pay attention how the CEO answered the smaller the gap is the more ready you are

If you are an associate, review every turn, don’t let analyst cut you out and send it to VP or above directly

If you are an associate, don’t let VP cut you out, you need to be visible to directors and MDs

Most important thing is to move along the processes and client interaction timely (HR and admin emails can always wait) and prioritize MDs emails

Set your voicemail announcing yourself, otherwise the client will not leave you message

This is one of the most important steps in our clients live. Treat it as such

Treat the firm like an owner

Treat your clients like they hired YOU specifically

Treat banking like it is your long-term career even if it isn't. I promise you'll have more fun (in addition, recognize that it is the long-term career for some and be mindful of that)

Once you have at least 1 year investment banking experience it is pretty easy to find a position at a bigger bank where you most likely get paid more and have a chance for a PE exit. See www.wallstreetconnector.com to start the process​​​​​