Investment bank jobs can help one get into corporate finance position where he/she would workout ways to help companies raise funds needed for short term and long term projects as well as for continuing the ongoing processes. An investment bank performs a variety of services. They help public and private companies raise funds (in forms of both equity and debt) besides managing financial assets and providing financial advice. In addition to these common services, an investment bank also acts as an underwriter or agent, serves as intermediary between a firm issuing securities and the investor. It also assists in distribution of blocks of previously issued securities through secondary offerings or negotiations and acts as finders in private placement of securities.
Breakdown of Investment Bank Jobs:
A person getting into an
investment bank jobs has a diversified work portfolio. Nuts and bolts of some of the most important functions under the
investment bank jobs are mentioned below:
Corporate Finance (debt and equity)- Once into an investment bank jobs, a person may determine the amount and structure of fund requirements of a client. The types of fund raising equipment may be equity, debt, convertibles, asset-backs, or derivative securities or an optimal composition of any two of them. Underwriting involves guarding the process of capital raising. In the beginning he may be employed in a client's team where he will prepare registration statements and his responsibility will include attending road shows where investors are sold on securities.
Sales (Equity and Fixed Income)- Sales is the indispensable part of investment bank jobs. Sales persons collect the form from classic retail brokers, institutional salesperson and the private client service representatives. Retail brokers are responsible for selling stocks and providing stock advice to individual investors. Institutional salespeople are obliged to perform the duty of developing business relationships with individual investors who manage large group of assets like MF or large corporations. The source of money for salespeople is the commission on trades made through their firms or as a specific percentage of the asset of their clients.
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)- One working in this area negotiates favorable terms and creatively structures a merger between two organizations. In case of a buyout an investment banker helps finalize the price and structure of the deal and removes other hurdles to ensure a smooth acquisition. Merchant banking is nowadays commonly seen. This often involves taking their own investment stake while participating directly in LBOs, spin offs and bridge loans.
Syndicate (equity and debt)- This group links the sales people with the corporate finance group. One employed in this role of investment bank jobs places securities in a public offering. Syndicate also decides the apportionment of bonds in case of a corporate or municipal debt deal.
Trading (Equity and Fixed Income)- Traders undertake transactions in equities, bonds and foreign currencies. They also facilitate dealings of options and futures with traders, and large institutional investors. This kind of investment bank jobs calls for a exhaustive cognition of financial instruments, markets and human psychology. All these are important to persuade investors about why they should purchase his stock and this process of winning over may involve telling a related story to investors. This is called 'making a market' Fixed income trading positions require sound analytical knowledge to handle huge amount of inventory in a thin market.
Research( Equity and Fixed Income)- This is the most innovative part of investment bank jobs. Skilled persons are an integral part of banks as they ameliorate the working conditions for almost all the divisions of the bank by providing superb opinions. Research analysts continuously track equities and bonds to make recommendations on purchasing or selling a particular security. They cover stocks of up to 20 companies. They visit companies and keep constant telephone contacts with investors. Investment banks sometimes also hire eligible persons from a particular sector and pay them heavily to get deep insights for that sector. Analysts are of two types- quants or fundamentalists. Quants take care of the computer programs identifying undervalued securities whereas fundamentalists reports the present situation through which the company is presently undergoing. Salespeople working for the same bank take advantage of these researches to discover new ways to influence their clients. Corporate finance bankers depend very much on the analysts to be expert in their industry.
Life as an Investment Banker:
Investment bank jobs are becoming more and more lucrative with the advent of merger mania. But alas the experiences of ex-bankers don't match the usual perception. Investment banks are wooing recent college and MBA graduates to work for long hours that is to a degree not possible of conceiving. They are busy flying round the world to attend labored and dull but compulsory meetings. Investment bankers are over promoted and over paid advisors. Indeed the life of one succeeding to grab one of the investment bank jobs has become worse. Their advice has become less and less important as CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) have more and more confidence in their growing and confer less trust upon the far-cheaper in-house M&A departments. Also a huge proportion of M&A activities nowadays comprises of deals involving private equity firms of the kind of Blackstone, which relies more on the precepts of one-time M&A bankers. So arranging the financing for such progressively massive buyouts is the only task left for career oriented students taking up investment bank jobs. This is highly different from the glory days of 1980s when M&A advisors were widely known and esteemed for their ability to formulate creative and systematic plans for their clients to clinch deals that would metamorphose the appearance of the industry. The inevitable recession in this field will soon arrive because the downturn in the M&A business is destined to head in sooner rather than later. So many reputed investment bankers farewell investment banking all together and join the heaven of private equity or hedge funds.
Future of Investment Banking Jobs:
Forecasts for the current year suggest a boom in the investment bank jobs. This is because the global M&A market will be sound with US$5 trillion worth of potential transactions this year. MBA package in a reputed bank usually range to 130K region. The number of 26 years old earning $300K+ salaries is still quite high. Securities underwriting volumes this year may reach its peak this year and on top of that the stock market in America is still booming. Recruiting climate in America, Europe and Asia is growing better day by day.
Some of the major banks recruiting persons for performing investment bank jobs are:
Merill Lynch
Salomon Smith Barney
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
PaineWebber
Goldman Sachs
Barclays Global Investors
Citigroup Investment Research
JP Morgan
Prudential Securities
Lehman brothers
For further information one may view sites like vault.com, jobs.efinancialcareers.com,