From Analyst to Associate and Beyond: How to Get Promoted In Investment Banking

So, what happens if you’ve lost your mind and suddenly don’t want to move into PE, go to a hedge fund, or become a venture capitalist?

You continue on in banking, and move from Analyst to Associate – and beyond.

If you’re in the US, you might be wondering why you’d ever want to do this – but in other parts of the world exit opportunities are less hyped and many bankers actually remain bankers.

Plus, if you don’t get any buy-side offers you’ll have to stick around in banking anyway – so here’s how to get promoted and how to avoid turning into Patrick Bateman in the process.

Why Would You Want to Get Promoted?

Planes, Trains and Capital Equipment: What You Do In the Industrials Group at an Investment Bank

One question I’ve gotten a lot over the years is what different groups at a bank do.

Yes, everyone knows that M&A is supposedly more technical than other areas, but what about other industry and product groups?

Some of that has been answered with coverage of ECM and related groups – and today we’re going to fill in more of the puzzle via an interview with a reader who works in an industrials group.

Here’s what it’s like, how it’s different from other groups, who does the work, and how you get recruited into these groups:

How to Use Investment Banking Informational Interviews to Break In

I’ve referenced informational interviews many times, but have never given a step-by-step tutorial – or even said what exactly an informational interview is.

So let’s change that.

There’s more detail within Breaking Into Wall Street, but I wanted to put this guide out there to answer the most common questions on informational interviews – and show you how to use them to break into investment banking.