Investment Banker

Ethics, trust and integrity are often challenged in an investment banking job. Look at the sub prime crisis, the near collapse of the mortgage giant, Fannie Mae, and the restatement of financial accounts of several investment banking firms in recent years. It is often unethical (or even unlawful) practices that are the main contributors to situations like these. Discuss an instance when you had to make an ethical decision - what did you take into consideration? How did you finally come to a decision? These are insights into how you work and what the firm can expect from you in tough situations.

An investment banker's job often involves tough decisions, keeping in mind the political changes, various macroeconomic variables and the market trends. The ability to take risks is important. You need to demonstrate adequate analytical skills and how they were used in managing risk associated with a particular deal. You should highlight the logical assumptions and calculated guesses made by you while undertaking a risky project or decision. In an investment banking career, it is often more about being "roughly right" than "precisely inaccurate."

Much of your answer to this question will depend on your role - so do some careful research into your chosen department.

In M&A, you might spend much of your time on financial models related to the deals you're working on, while in a trading role you might start out by assisting more senior members of the team before being given the chance to manage a trading book yourself.

Beyond that, it's important to show that you'll be keen to take on responsibilities, but that you also recognise that your first year is about learning the ropes, which usually means include following instructions from others and completing some mundane tasks.

I had a great experience with Barclays. I worked with the Consumer Retail group in Chicago, and it was a very tight-knit group: 28 professionals including the Vice President and Managing Director. Though I enjoyed the experience and I got a glimpse of a variety of deals, it did not offer the extensive network of people that New York provides. I received an offer from the Energy group, but I know that if I instead work for Goldman Sachs, I'm going come out with a network of the best and brightest people on Wall Street.

Personally, I would prefer an industry group, simply because I think it would give me more exposure to all types of deals and investment banking products. Also, in particular I enjoyed the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications space that I worked in this summer. But honestly, I'm not too worried about what group I am in, because I have confidence that each group will offer relatively similar experience overall.

Investment banking jobs involve long hours and a lot of hard work - there are simply no two ways about it. That does not mean that firms want to hire people without a personality and other interests outside of work. Highlight activities you enjoy that demonstrate risk taking, recharging and an outgoing personality. Let you personal life reflect what investment banking firms are looking for.

During my sophomore and junior years of college, I was juggling schoolwork while essentially working full-time and trying to balance this with internship recruiting, making phone calls, setting up meetings and doing interviews. I was able to successfully balance all of this by keeping very organized priority sheets and setting daily goals for items to be completed. It was a difficult process, but it enhanced my overall sense of being able to do whatever was necessary to accomplish my goals.

I believe you should hire me because as a diligent, organized, and goal-oriented person, I will work hard in any task presented no matter how difficult or time consuming it might be. I always strive to perform the best that I can. Schoolwork is a good example- when assigned a task, I organize myself and my materials in order to work efficiently, and then set to work on the task. I perform the necessary research in order to ensure that no mistakes are made, and I check my finished work repeatedly to ensure that it is high quality. I believe my 3.83 GPA can attest to this.

Banks provide their clients with advice, assistance in arranging financing, and other services, such as access to trading on the markets, investment management, and risk reduction. Their main source of revenue is the fees they charge their clients for these services.

Some banks have departments which invest or trade the bank's own money to generate returns, though the extent to which they can do so has become more limited in recent years.

In a market where the value of assets is falling, known as a bear market, traders might consider taking short positions, that is, borrowing assets they don't own, selling them, and buying them back to return them at a later date when their price has fallen.

Meanwhile, those working in asset management or M&A might consider, or advise clients to consider, snapping up undervalued assets.

The best way to answer this is give specific examples of times where you demonstrated attention to detail, willingness to work harder than everyone else, or a time when you helped add value to the group. These are all great to mention-simply saying you did well and had great feedback isn't enough.

Tell the truth here. If you did, then great. If not, then say you did not receive an offer. There are plenty of potential reasons why a company might not hire you back: Your group was simply not hiring full-time, the poor economy forced cutbacks in the hiring program, etc.

This can be a tuition answer for some people, i.e. working hard to pay for school. Besides that, be sure to discuss any awards or academic/professional achievements you have had.

While I don't have the time or resources to do them as much as I would like, I greatly enjoy traveling and scuba driving. I find other parts of the world very interesting from a cultural and geographic perspective, and would love to travel much more later on in my life. I also participate in club hockey. I'm not good! But I have met some really nice friends through the local program and I hope one day to get better at it.

The Glass-Steagall Act was a law that separated commercial and investment banks because of the belief that the two businesses created conflicts of interest. Banks were essentially blamed for the Stock Crash of 1929 and the start of the Great Depression.

My club hockey team in college recently won the nationwide club championship that competes with 80 other colleges. This was a big success not only for the team but also for myself, because I have been successfully balancing a tremendous amount of schoolwork with interviews and practice.