本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Unlike US, Canadian Capital Markets is much smaller with fewer players in the market. There are only these few firms on the Bay Street.
The Investment Banking Interviews are squeezed into first 3 weeks of Oct each year. Every year, graduating MBA students start scrambling in September to look for jobs in financial industry.
I Banking jobs are notoriously difficult to find. It is the toughest jobs to find on the street. Each year, there are over 1000 MBAs graduating from Canadian Business Schools, yet, each firm only hires 3 to 5 associates for IBD and 3 to 5 associates for sales and trading. In a good year, there are only 30 to 50 positions available in this field. The competition is fierce and I consider myself lucky to have interviews with all the major firms on the street.
RBC Capital Markets, aggressive, tricky and started from the moment they shake hands with you, they were assessing you and they stares into your eyes looking for weakness. Questions were tricky, aside from standard valuation type of questions, they were trying to trick you into making mistakes and assessing you if you could work under stress.
Format: two on one interviews.
One Round: 1 VP from Merger & Acquisition and another one is an VP from Equity Capital markets.
Another round: 1 associate just came back from New York, 1 Director.
TD Securities, the only home grown I banking division, 1st round, met an associate and a director. They made decision the same day and called me back for second round, which is the so called Super Saturday, which is a series of interviews with 5 individuals on a Saturday morning or Sat afternoon. The second rounds were tough fights. 5 I bankers with different personality, some aggressive, some subtle, some approachable. At the end, it was exhausting. The decision was made in the same afternoon.
BMO, met a director for first round, who was a very nice and approachable guy, similar as TD, the second round was the so called "Super Sat", 20 or so final round candidates are brought to BMO head office, wined and dined and bombarded by senior bankers.
CIBC, interviewed with a head trader and securitization guy. Loved them. Brought me to second round, met 4 MDs in second round.
Scotia, well, i would say, they were the most unprofessional one, they put an HR lady with an Associate for the first round. Which I have never seen such combination before. The HR lady knows shit about finance.
Genuity, if you know the history, you know where they came from. A bunch of extremely smart individuals there, met co-head Merger and Acquistion, an Alumini of my school and another guy, who is Oxford PHD, nice but aggressive.
Take aways, i was honored to be interviewed by all these bankers. Got a bunch of business cards haha and some offers...
Anyway, I've always been asked on how to break into this field. My answer is: it is a Beauty Contest. Different individuals like different beauty, same thing applies to the bankers. They like you, you are in. If it happens that they were in a bad mood that day, you are out. Simple like that. There is no rationale on how they make decision, but the truth is that they make decision very fast. Very often, the same day. Also the Markets determine the number of hires. If the market is doing well, the number of hires may increase 1 or 2 each firm. If the market is not doing well, they may not hire anyone at all!更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
The Investment Banking Interviews are squeezed into first 3 weeks of Oct each year. Every year, graduating MBA students start scrambling in September to look for jobs in financial industry.
I Banking jobs are notoriously difficult to find. It is the toughest jobs to find on the street. Each year, there are over 1000 MBAs graduating from Canadian Business Schools, yet, each firm only hires 3 to 5 associates for IBD and 3 to 5 associates for sales and trading. In a good year, there are only 30 to 50 positions available in this field. The competition is fierce and I consider myself lucky to have interviews with all the major firms on the street.
RBC Capital Markets, aggressive, tricky and started from the moment they shake hands with you, they were assessing you and they stares into your eyes looking for weakness. Questions were tricky, aside from standard valuation type of questions, they were trying to trick you into making mistakes and assessing you if you could work under stress.
Format: two on one interviews.
One Round: 1 VP from Merger & Acquisition and another one is an VP from Equity Capital markets.
Another round: 1 associate just came back from New York, 1 Director.
TD Securities, the only home grown I banking division, 1st round, met an associate and a director. They made decision the same day and called me back for second round, which is the so called Super Saturday, which is a series of interviews with 5 individuals on a Saturday morning or Sat afternoon. The second rounds were tough fights. 5 I bankers with different personality, some aggressive, some subtle, some approachable. At the end, it was exhausting. The decision was made in the same afternoon.
BMO, met a director for first round, who was a very nice and approachable guy, similar as TD, the second round was the so called "Super Sat", 20 or so final round candidates are brought to BMO head office, wined and dined and bombarded by senior bankers.
CIBC, interviewed with a head trader and securitization guy. Loved them. Brought me to second round, met 4 MDs in second round.
Scotia, well, i would say, they were the most unprofessional one, they put an HR lady with an Associate for the first round. Which I have never seen such combination before. The HR lady knows shit about finance.
Genuity, if you know the history, you know where they came from. A bunch of extremely smart individuals there, met co-head Merger and Acquistion, an Alumini of my school and another guy, who is Oxford PHD, nice but aggressive.
Take aways, i was honored to be interviewed by all these bankers. Got a bunch of business cards haha and some offers...
Anyway, I've always been asked on how to break into this field. My answer is: it is a Beauty Contest. Different individuals like different beauty, same thing applies to the bankers. They like you, you are in. If it happens that they were in a bad mood that day, you are out. Simple like that. There is no rationale on how they make decision, but the truth is that they make decision very fast. Very often, the same day. Also the Markets determine the number of hires. If the market is doing well, the number of hires may increase 1 or 2 each firm. If the market is not doing well, they may not hire anyone at all!更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net