Top 6 Skills Required For INVESTMENT BANKING

Investment Banking is a highly rewarding career, with fat salaries and great perks making it one of the most attractive careers for any aspiring finance students or professionals. Not surprisingly, with great reward comes great risk. It is one of the most competitive professions in the financial world. To be successful in this field, you have to have the guts to take on the challenges. Most importantly, you need to master these 6 skills if you want to break into Investment Banking. 1. Communication

You have to be a great communicator (both oral and written). This is the most important skill you can possess while you are planning to start your career in an IB. Learning to communicate with professionals is a very specialized one. As an Investment banker, you will be interacting with top professionals in the corporate radar, the ability to communicate your thoughts in a crisp and effective manner always gives you an edge to win clients and get deals done.

2. Entrepreneurial

If you want a cushy job with paychecks coming in every month, this is not the place you should be in. Essentially, an investment banker bridges the gap between people with great ideas and people having capital. They are the ones who get the transaction done, and to get things done you need to understand businesses by stepping into the shoes of the entrepreneurs and investors as well. Interestingly, with all the rigor and structure, the ability to be creative and innovation is an extremely highly regarded skill.

The top-performing bankers are able to approach a task or provide a solution in such a way that might eventually branch out a new service/product altogether. IB’s help businesses achieve greater top line and bottom line. 3. Relationship Building

As Investment Banking is a client-facing role, building a relationship of trust, honesty and transparency are of utmost importance. It is an intangible skill, however, very critical as one climbs up the ladder. From time to time, you get to meet investors, peer Investment bankers. Building a relationship with them even if you don’t have any business with them, will prove to be the right thing in the future.

4. Intellect & Analytical

An intellectual capability is without a doubt got to be in the top 6 skills for an Investment banker. It requires a lot of out-of-box thinking, a critical skill that helps during unforeseen situations. An investment banker should also be a quick thinker and have the ability to master skills quickly. Since it is a competitive field, getting things done at the earliest helps you to build a strong rapport with the clients. 5.Discipline

This job demands a high amount of discipline. Often it sounds tempting to stop working and live a stress-free life. If you are a person who loves to party, going out for trips, hanging out friends and living a chilled life, Investment banking is not for you. You got to do the work with great passion to be a successful Investment banker. 6. Diligence (Attention to detail)

Investment bankers work on tight deadlines, need to complete a model within a day or two. By no surprise, there will be errors in the model due to a slim timeline. However, minimizing these mistakes and putting some sanity checks or being a little more diligent while preparing the file helps to gain credibility among peers and seniors. So, from the next time double-check before sending any excel file or power point to your senior. The last piece of advice would be don’t get into Investment banks for the wrong reasons. This career is only for the people who are dead serious and madly passionate about business and getting things done. Even if you get into Investment banking for the wrong reasons you won't survive long.