With the rapid development of capital markets and financial services, the investments and securities major has become one of the most popular and promising majors for college students in recent years. However, the competition is also very fierce. Only graduates from top universities with excellent academic performance, rich internship experience, and bilingual skills can land jobs in top investment banks and get high salaries. The average starting salary of investment banking analysts is around $85,000 to $90,000.
Internship experience is critical to getting high-paying jobs in investment banking
The investment banking industry is extremely competitive, so having good internship experience is vital for students to land full-time offers from banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Citi, Credit Suisse, etc. Students need to actively apply for summer internships during their sophomore and junior years. The banks tend to convert around 70% of interns into full-time employees if they perform well. The interns can better understand the real workflow and company culture through the internship program.
Financial modeling, valuation skills are highly demanded
Besides internships, students also need to master financial modeling, valuation, Excel, PowerPoint and other technical skills before applying for investment banking jobs. Recruiters look for candidates who already have hands-on experience building DCF models, LBO models, comparable companies analysis, precedent transactions analysis, etc. Taking online courses, creating your own models and getting modeling certifications can help a lot.
Bilingual skills give huge advantage in international banks
Almost all major investment banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS, Deutsche Bank, etc require fluent English since many teams are international and deals involve foreign clients. Therefore, investments and securities majors who are fluent in English will have significant advantage. Overseas education background, high TOEFL and IELTS scores are big plus.
Analytical and quantitative skills are highly valued
Besides the technical skills, investment bankers need to have exceptional analytical and quantitative capabilities to analyze financial data, build complex models and draw insights for clients and deals. Majors like Financial Engineering, Computational Finance, Financial Mathematics have an edge here compared to plain Finance majors. Courses in financial econometrics, derivatives pricing, machine learning are quite useful.
In summary, the investments and securities major offers attractive high-paying career paths but the competition is extremely fierce. Only graduates from top schools with outstanding internship experience, modeling skills, bilingual communication abilities and strong analytical capabilities can land analyst roles in prestigious investment banks and get the high starting salaries over $85K.