100 Investment Banking Career Tips 

Clients like personal contact, get to know your client, but keep things appropriate

If you dial in to a call and are waiting for a third party (buyer, client) to join, draft a polite email with the dial-in info and send it around 2-3 minutes after the scheduled start time. Stay on for at least 10 minutes before hanging up

If the senior banker still doesn't join, call them on their mobile to conference them in. Small talk or on hold until they join; don't start without them

Practice what you would say to client if you were the MD, (but if MD doesn't show up, don't start the meeting)

Do your homework before we make a call to a buyer. Who are we calling? Does someone else in the firm know them? What level are they? What is their bio?

Speak up. Speak clearly. Ask at least 1 question

Don't limit conversations to "checking the box" topics use the time as an excuse to learn a bit more about the business, be ready to have some commentary about the market and be conversant on our recent deals even if they're not yours

Don't ever bad mouth colleagues or anyone on the client side, if they complain just nod and smile

Take many notes, use laptop if possible, as hard copies disappear and hard to refer back to them 6-12 months later

Be proactive about follow-up requests

Logistics matter for client meetings. Do we have the address and floor? How gets the car? Get the driver’s cell phone number at the beginning of the day if applicable

How many attendees are coming and what are their titles? Do we have their contact information?

Is there a projector in the room or do we need to provide? I there a spare bulb?

Is the meeting space clean and reserved?

Is there lunch provided? Do we have food and refreshments? How about dinner reservations?

Who is driving the presentation and on what laptop is it on? Is the room big enough for the number of attendees? If logistics are messed up, we look bad.

Have we printed hard copies? Who will carry them to the meeting? This is your responsibility

Bring business card, laptop and phone chargers, pen and pencil, corporate credit card, calculator

Always carry something to write with and on to take notes or your laptop

Know how to dress appropriately

Ask one question every meeting

Don't schedule meetings too close to one another (buyers might run into each other)

Have we sent briefing materials to the client about the counter party? If the client wants to change hotels for the meeting, is there a change fee and have we told the client? If it's a closing dinner, should there be a seating chart? 

Story about behavior in a pitch mirroring behavior on a deal. Meet with the company ahead of time. Send follow-ups. Invite to dinner. Send more follow-ups. Ask questions

The first few weeks of a new client are particularly sensitive. Overdeliver. Think of additional things we can do so that they trust that they have our full attention

During trainings, team meetings sit in the middle / front

Attendance at internal events is just as important as attendance at client meetings

Clarify binding and cover format

Tabs before section dividers

Flip through presentation to make sure there are no errors

If delivery is needed, try a courier service

If news is sensitive, pick-up the phone, it is better telling over the phone (especially if we missed something) than sending the bad news via email that can be easily forwarded and shared

Keep it clean on email and chat because everything is monitored

Don’t ever badmouth other employees or clients. Using initials is not a loophole

Don’t express valuation viewpoints about clients or companies you are pitching to (e.g., “no way they’re worth $500M” or “I’d be surprised if we get any bids” or “I couldn’t find any research so invented the growth rate”) – these messages are monitored, archived, and may be used as evidence if there is a lawsuit involving counterparties

If you inadvertently receive or distribute an email containing confidential or material, nonpublic information, contact the Control Group immediately for appropriate next steps

Don’t take shortcuts around any legal, due diligence or risk processes. Elevate any concerns or problems you encounter in these areas to more senior people as soon as you identify a potential problem

Don’t be political

Don’t assume anything

Don’t decide yourself the priority of work assignments. Always ask

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?