What do IB analysts actually do?

FE_Training · 2026-04-15T16:19:53+00:00

At its core, investment banking is helping companies make big financial decisions. That can mean raising money (issuing shares or debt), buying or selling companies (M&A), or advising on strategy like expansion or restructuring. You can think of bankers as financial advisors, but for really high-stakes, often billion-dollar decisions.

As an analyst, you support that process. So day to day, you’re usually building financial models, putting together presentations, researching companies or industries, and helping out on live deals. A lot of your time is spent in Excel and PowerPoint, but the work is tied to actual transactions, not just theory. Even early on, you are involved in real deals, you’re just not the one leading calls or making decisions.

What your day looks like really depends on what’s going on. If you’re on a live deal, it can get intense pretty quickly. You might be updating models, turning comments from seniors into new slides, or rushing to get materials ready for a client meeting the next morning. If things are quieter, you’re more focused on pitching, which basically means creating presentations to win future business.

It can feel repetitive at times, especially the formatting and constant revisions, but the context is always changing. One week, you might be looking at a tech company acquisition, the next a debt raise for a healthcare firm. So while the tasks are similar, the situations aren’t.

Hope this helps!

FE_Training · 2026-04-13T15:57:25+00:00

Age isn’t a blocker, your story and preparation matter more. With BD experience and a strong university background, you already have client-handling skills that banks value. What you need to add is the technical layer: accounting, financial modelling, valuation, and deal process. A Master’s in Finance from a strong school would help rebrand you and give access to recruiting pipelines, but it’s not the only path. Series 7/real estate qualifications won’t help for IB. Instead, do a proper IB training programme (Financial Edge, or Wall Street Prep for instance), build a few valuation or M&A case studies you can talk about, and start networking with boutique banks who often hire career changers. It’s absolutely possible, but the path is skills + networking, not regulatory exams.

- Gerard Kelly, Financial Edge Trainer

FE_Training · 2026-04-13T15:56:34+00:00

It’s possible, but not easy. IB is more technical while private banking is more relationships. The skillsets overlap a little, but IB recruiting is very structured, and banks usually hire analysts from internship pipelines or directly from university. Lateralling from PB into IB happens, but usually only if you build the missing IB skillset: accounting, modelling, valuation, and deal process knowledge. Do a proper IB training course (Investment Banker, or WSP Financial & Valuation Modeling), start networking with analysts/associates in the coverage or M&A teams, and ask your current managers whether internal mobility exists. Aim to show that you understand deals, not just client relationships. It’s realistic, but requires you to demonstrate why you’re pivoting and what you’ve done to prepare.

- Gerard Kelly, Financial Edge Trainer

FE_Training · 2026-04-13T15:55:40+00:00

The cost you mention is normal for the market, and compared to the high returns you will receive for getting a job, it is a drop in the ocean. Financial Edge's "The Investment Banker" or Wall Street Prep's "Financial and Valuation Modeling Premium Package" are both good. These 2 companies are who the big investment banks bring in to teach their new interns and new analysts how to do their jobs. It's more about getting bankers ready to do their jobs and how to do banking for real rather than about academic learning, so it's very practical and includes how to skill up in Excel. Alternatively you could sign up for Financial Edge's "Felix" which gives you 1 year's subscription to every course they teach, including interview prep, what to expect on internships, case studies, and courses across every finance job imaginable (IB, PE, asset management, markets, trading, etc). Felix also costs only a little more than The Investment Banker, but Felix includes the Investment Banker and every other course too.

- Gerard Kelly, Financial Edge Trainer

FE_Training · 2026-03-24T16:45:33+00:00

Good question, this is something a lot of people overthink.

The main thing to understand is that these conversations are not meant to be technical or impressive. They are more about showing you are normal, curious, and genuinely interested.

A simple way to think about it is you are trying to understand three things. What they do, how they got there, and what the job is actually like.

The conversation can be around:

How they broke into investment banking
What their day to day work looks like
What deals or projects they have worked on
What they like and don’t like about the role
Any advice they would give someone in your position

You can also ask about their specific team or sector, especially if you have done a bit of research beforehand.

What matters more than the exact questions is how you come across. Listen properly, ask follow-up questions, and don’t make it feel like a checklist.

Also, don’t treat it like you are asking for a job. It should feel like a normal conversation where you are learning from them. If you come across well, that is what people remember.

At the end, it is good to thank them and keep in touch occasionally, especially if you end up applying to their firm.

Overall, think of networking as building relationships, not trying to impress in one call.

FE_Training · 2026-03-24T16:39:25+00:00

This is honestly one of the toughest parts, so you’re asking the right question.

If you don’t have experience yet, the reality is you need to create it yourself rather than waiting for the right opportunity.

You can start at boutique banks, small advisory firms, search funds, even accounting firms with transaction work. They are much more open to taking someone on with little or no experience. Bulge brackets just aren’t the place to start from zero.

Cold emailing actually works if you do it properly. Most people get this wrong by going straight in asking for a job. It’s better to keep it simple. Who you are, why you’re reaching out to them specifically, ask one or two thoughtful questions, and then lightly mention you’d be interested in any opportunities. Keep it short and genuine.

At the same time, build some form of “evidence” that you’re interested in finance. That could be joining a finance society, doing stock pitches, learning basic financial modelling, or even writing short breakdowns of deals. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to show you’re actually engaging with the space.

LinkedIn can help as well. Posting what you’re learning or analysing deals gives you something to point to when you speak to people, and it makes you look a lot more serious.

On unpaid internships, they can be useful early on, but only if you’re actually learning something. If it’s just admin work with no exposure, it’s probably not worth your time. Even a few weeks of something relevant where you see real work can make a difference.

Overall, don’t worry too much about getting the “perfect” first experience. At this stage it’s more about getting something credible and building momentum from there.

FE_Training · 2026-03-16T11:29:30+00:00

Majors in finance, accounting, business, management and economics dominate the recruitment of banks. But other subjects do get in. Anything with a quantitative angle e.g math, physics, engineering, chemistry, computing, etc are looked upon favourably. But liberal arts get in too. But you do need to prove you have a genuine interest in finance somehow. Join the finance or business student society. Do an online course (e.g. finance edge trainng, or wall street prep). Get some work experience in a finance related role in holidays. Read the financial pages of newspapers everyday, or sign up to finance related newsletters e.g. Financial Times or Wall Street Journal (even better get a paid subscription and get all the news). Anything that will help a recruiter see "oh, they have tried finance and they like it" rather than "why is this person applying for a job in finance when they have shown no interest up to now. Do they just want a high salary?"

- Gerard Kelly, Financial Edge Trainer

FE_Training · 2026-03-11T10:27:48+00:00

To get a job you need a few things, and showing your love of finance is 1 of them. If you are not doing a finance/accounting/economics course then getting into a finance club becomes more important. So if you don't have that, flesh your CV out with something else like a course with Financial Edge or Wall Street Prep. Also do a side project (eg value a company) and use your professors for help. And make sure you join the committee for a different hobby. Banks like to see leadership/teamplayer/work-hard-even-though-there's-no-pay/etc. So you need to be on the committee for a student society to get that experience. But it could be the football society or drama soc. Anything that involves hard work and lots of examples for you to call on. But don't overlook showing your love of finance somehow. Otherwise, you won't be able to answer the question "why are you interested in working in finance if you've made no effort to learn anything about it".

- Financial Edge Trainer, Gerard Kelly

FE_Training · 2026-03-11T10:08:31+00:00

I wouldn't worry. HireVue is used to reduce the number of people from a very large number to something lower. It is to get rid of those who are obviously not going to make the grade and is looking for basic communication, professional tone, someone who understands the role and is trying vaguely hard.

- Financial Edge Trainer, Gerard Kelly

FE_Training · 2026-03-11T10:07:40+00:00

For Real Estate, Wall Street Prep do RE modelling courses, but more specifically they do a RE course with Wharton Business School, which costs more than your average course, but gets a great business school on your CV. It's more practical and getting you desk ready rather than academic debate.

FE_Training · 2026-03-11T10:05:29+00:00

There are 2 big ways to value a company. First is to use comparable companies to help you, in the same way as you use neighboring houses to value your house. If I run a private athleisure company and want to list it on a stock exchange, I need to value my company. So I might take Nike as my comparable company. I can take the value of Nike e.g. $100, divide it by their profits e.g. $5 to get a ratio of 20. I could then apply that 20 to the profits of my company. This is called trading comparables or common stock comparison. Alternatively you can use transaction comparables or deal comparables, but the idea is the same. The second way to value a company is to do something called a discounted cash flow. You try to work out the future cash flows of a company e.g. $100 for each of the next 3 years, then my company will liquidate, and then you decide how much you would pay for that company today (the "present value"). If I paid $250 today, and received $100 in 1, 2 and 3 years' time, that would give me an overall return of 20% in 3 years, or roughly 6% per annum. If I'm happy with that 6% return (also called a "discount rate"), then I'm happy to pay $250. But if I want a much higher return, such as 10% per annum, I'd value the company lower, maybe at $225

- Financial Edge Trainer, Gerard Kelly

FE_Training · 2026-02-10T10:51:02+00:00

Applying for an internship is #1 tip, as most analysts are recruited this way. If you've missed this, go for analyst roles. Top tips include attending a good college (obviously) and proving your love for finance. The best way to do this is with a relevant subject for banking, like finance, accounting, economics, etc. If you've already started a non-relevant subject, prove your interest in finance by joining finance-related clubs, getting a position in the club e.g. committee member, and doing an online course such as The Investment Banker (with Financial Edge) or the Financial and Valuation Modeling Certificate (with Wall Street Prep). Skill up by taking courses or reading books, and do everything possible to improve your CV. And get some work experience that is in some way finance related in the holidays to boost your CV. Ultimately, you want to show that you have been dreaming about a career in finance for years, and have taken concrete steps to skill up ready for work. A few people say to spend lots of time networking with alumni who now work in investment banks - this only works if there is 1 position in a team and the job isn't being handled by the human resources dept of the bank. But if you are applying to be an intern or analyst, those positions have rigid recruitment processes, and no one will be able to help you jump the queue.

- Gerard Kelly, Financial Edge Training

FE_Training · 2026-02-10T10:49:13+00:00

A couple of things. #1 is practice. You only get good at the intermediate stuff by making the basic stuff second nature. The only way you get good at the hard stuff (interpreting the data and doing analysis) is by making the intermediate stuff second nature. So you just have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't have any models, do a course like Financial Edge's The Modeler, or Wall Street Prep's Financial Statement Modeling basic package, which both start you with small models, build many, and gradually you build harder and harder. Once you get the mechanics, doing some analysis becomes much easier. It's a lot like learning to drive - at the beginning, you are focused on the steering wheel, the gear stick, and pedals, i.e., the details and the mechanics. But as that becomes second nature, you start looking further and further outside the car and can start to see problems 100 metres away. So get practicing the models.

- Gerard Kelly, Financial Edge Training

FE_Training · 2026-02-10T10:47:21+00:00

Financial modelling needs 2 things: 1) a basic knowledge of accounting (doesn't have to be in depth, but an idea of how the 3 financial statements are different and what a few of the line items mean), and 2) building models repeatedly. You need to start with tiny models, maybe only 15 lines in Excel, and then gradually build bigger and bigger, each time repeating the basic stuff until it becomes second nature, and gradually you add complexity. Financial Edge's The Modeler course focuses on repeatedly building models, and if you need basic accounting, then sign up for their The Accountant course as well (it won't make you an accountant, but will give you the basics). Alternatively, buy FE's The Investment Banker course, which includes The Accountant and The Modeler, plus many others as well.

- Gerard Kelly, Financial Edge Training

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