Careers in Investment Banking

The lucrative world of investment banking is marked by hefty pay packages and long working hours.Careers in this field are good for qualified individuals, who can deal with high profile clients andperform exceptionally well in the core area. Despite being competitive and time intensive, this joboffers an exciting lifestyle for the employees, who can bag huge incentives at the end of the day. Thejob profile in this field involves extensive traveling and grueling hours but provides the glimpse of alarger-than-life place, where big deals and fortunes are made overnight. It also provides anopportunity to learn the ins and outs of corporate finance and pick up analytical skills, which remainuseful for the rest of an individual's career.

The investment banks provide governments and giant corporations with investment services. Theseservices may include buying, selling, and trading securities or managing assets. They also provide anadvisory panel in the form of consultants for big clients, in order to give financial advice andinvestment ideas. These panels are very helpful for the clients as they suggest how to managesecurities for raising finance, take-overs, and mergers and acquisitions. These banks also deal insecurity trading, bonds, equities, and derivatives, and offer brokerage and distribution facilities.They are very different from commercial banks, which deal with the collection of deposits fromclients and provide direct loans to organizations and individuals. They also keep track of the markettrends, in order to give profitable advice on making public offerings.

Job Profiles

Following are some of the typical job profiles that are offered to the bright people, looking ahead tomake their careers in this field:

Fund Managers

These professionals look after money held by insurance companies, pension funds, and unit trusts.They research markets and apply the knowledge of analysts, in order to invest the client's money forlong-term growth. Fund managers also meet high profile clients and investors to make and discussinvestment strategies.

Investment Bankers

They belong to two departments, namely corporate finance and operations. The role of those dealingwith corporate finance is to advise companies, institutions, and governments, and help them toachieve their financial goals. They act on behalf of clients and raise money on the capital markets.They also meet CEOs, CFOs, board members, and other high profile candidates of a company andcarry out business deals. Those dealing with operations support front-office staff and deal withqueries from clients. They help the management of daily processes of clearing and settlingtransactions made in the front office and supervise the teams of clerks in the office.

Analysts

They keep track of vital market information for clients and provide them when investment decisionsare made. Their major job is to research different aspects of share prices and companies' abilities topay back their debts.

Stockbrokers and Traders

Stockbrokers advise clients on investment strategies and risk management. Their main job is topurchase and sell securities on behalf of the clients and obtain a best possible deal for them. For thispurpose, they interview clients and assess their requirements in terms of investments they want tomake. Traders deal in financial products or commodities and read the market to get maximumbenefits for their clients. They keep in touch with their own research and sales teams, in order tocome up with a good and flexible stock-trading strategy.

The high-energy, hardworking, and dynamic professionals in this field are the ones who draw bigsalaries for their work. Needless to say, their success totally depends on the ability to provideefficient and round-the-clock financial services for clients, and to demonstrate flexibility andinnovativeness in their work.