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Investment Banking in Dubai: The New York of the Middle East?

Investment banking in Dubai stands out for attracting remarkable hype on social media. You’ll find influencers on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and other sites constantly praising Dubai and claiming it’s the best place to work or start a business. It’s almost like the city has its own PR department and never-ending marketing campaign. If you’re interested […]
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Investment Banking in Singapore: The Best Gateway to Asia for the Non-Chinese?

I’ve found that two main groups care about investment banking in Singapore: Students who are from Southeast Asia and are considering whether they want to work in Singapore, NY, London, or other places. People who want to work in Asia but have no chance of winning an offer in Hong Kong and see Singapore as […]
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Investment Banking in Australia: Impossible Barriers to Entry, or the Best Place for a Long-Term Finance Career?

When it comes to investment banking in Australia, it’s easy to find complaints online. These complaints center on a few aspects of the banking industry there: Recruiting – People often claim that it’s much more difficult to win interviews and job offers, that nepotism is widespread, and that there aren’t many “side doors” into finance. […]
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Investment Banking in Hong Kong: The Financial Center of the Future World Order?

The first thing to understand about investment banking in Hong Kong is that it’s unlikely you’ll ever be able to work in investment banking in Hong Kong. In the 1990s and 2000s, bankers from other regions could transfer to HK or start their first jobs there without a strong connection to the region or Asian […]
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Investment Banking in London: Equally Attractive Alternative to New York?

In addition to Prime Ministers that serve for only 44 days and questionable weather/food, the United Kingdom is also known as a global hub for investment banking. Many would argue that investment banking in London is second only to New York in terms of compensation, exit opportunities, deal flow, and “prestige.” Banks in London advise […]
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Investment Banking in Canada: Promising Career Launchpad, or Wintry Wasteland to Avoid?

We covered investment banking in Canada a long time ago on this site, but things have changed over time – and the original article was light on details and numbers. Although there are some advantages to IB in Canada, it’s almost always better to start a finance career in the U.S. or U.K. I can […]
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Investment Banking in New York vs. Chicago vs. San Francisco vs. Los Angeles: How to Pick Your Poison

I published an article on this topic of investment banking in New York vs. Chicago vs. San Francisco vs. Los Angeles vs. Houston vs. other cities a long time ago – but a fair amount has changed since then: Remote / hybrid work means that some of the advantages and disadvantages of different cities are […]
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Mexico Investment Banking: Recruiting, Careers, Salaries, Exit Opportunities, and More

A long time ago, we used to get questions about living and working in different countries. If the economy wasn’t so great in the U.S. or Europe, maybe it made sense to go to an emerging market and find work there. But ever since the pandemic began, these types of “How do I work in […]
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Investment Banking in Europe and Asia: London vs. Frankfurt vs. Hong Kong

We’ve covered investment banking recruitment in different regions in previous articles, but there’s one problem with that topic: things change over time. For example, I wrote many regional articles on this site pre-Brexit, pre-pandemic, and pre-“political tensions in Hong Kong.” While those events do not directly affect interview questions, they do affect the recruiting process […]
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Investment Banking: Vancouver Edition

If you work in finance in Canada, do you have to be in Toronto? It’s like asking whether you need to be in New York in the U.S.: No, but you’ll probably have to go there at some point, especially if you want to reach the top ranks. But there are advantages to regional offices. […]
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Investment Banking in Latin America: Never-Ending Internships or Never-Ending Bonuses?

Should you go straight to the source? In other words, if you cover emerging markets such as Latin America or Africa, is it better to be based in those regions, or to work in the nearest financial center, such as New York or London? You might think it pays to be local, but that’s not […]
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Energy Investment Banking in Houston: Pathway into Private Equity, or Another Reason to Move to New York?

Just how different are the regional offices and headquarters of a large bank? In some cases, not very. But in others, they’re more like different planets. Houston falls somewhere in between these two extremes. There are similarities to New York, especially if you’re in the natural resources group, but the recruiting process, pool of candidates, […]
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Investment Banking in India

Does it ever make sense to accept a back-office role over a front-office one? In 99% of cases, no. But one market where candidates often think otherwise is India. Banks there try to ‘sell’ you on back and middle-office roles by offering higher base salaries and claiming that these roles lead to solid exit opportunities. But […]
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What to Expect at a Startup-Focused Investment Bank in India

If you want to work with tech startups in the finance industry, you might assume that you have to be in venture capital. After all, technology investment banking groups work with larger, more established companies… right? That might be true in developed markets, but in some emerging markets, such as India, investment banks dedicated to […]
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Investment Banking in Brazil

This one is the interview that I could never quite lock down – until now. We’ve managed to cover almost every emerging and frontier market, but my attempts at featuring Brazil kept falling through. But when I sent out an announcement asking for interviews last year, I received over 200 responses, with quite a few […]
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Latin America M&A and Restructuring: Family-Owned Businesses Meet Sovereign Defaults?

If you want to work in finance and never get bored, there’s a simple solution: go to Latin America. Or at the very least, work in a US-based coverage team for Latin America. You’ll get to deal with stubborn business owners with delusions of grandeur, unreliable information, and even the occasional sovereign default. On the other […]
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Investment Banking in Calgary: Advise on Multi-Billion Dollar Energy Deals and Still Get the Weekends Off?

If you want to work on energy deals, Canada is a good place to start. And within Canada, most of the action is in Calgary – from both the Big 5 Canadian banks and the bulge bracket banks. Sure, energy deals do take place in other locations, but it’s hard to beat Calgary for the […]
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Investment Banking in France: The Best Way to Combine Wine Tasting and M&A Advisory?

If you could drink wine while working on a pitch book, would you actually want to work on the pitch book? Maybe, maybe not… but to answer that question, you’d have to work in France and advise on a few vineyard M&A deals. There’s a lot more to the industry than that, but it is […]
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Investment Banking in Germany: Save More and Get Better Work Experience Than in London… Without Any Crazy Co-Workers?

If you go into investment banking, do you have to deal with crazy people? If you’ve watched any finance-related movies or TV shows, the answer seems to be “probably.” And if you’ve read stories online, in the comments section of this site, or on forums, the answer seems to be “always.” But that’s not true […]
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Investment Banking from Russia: With Love?

When I was traveling in Europe a few years ago, everyone thought I was either French or Russian. And, of course, I knew neither language so whenever someone attempted to speak to me I stared at them blankly and used hand gestures to explain my ignorance. I have the same reaction when readers ask about […]
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How to Advise on a Mega M&A Deal in Latin America and Survive in One Piece: A Story from the Inside

You might say that working on deals in emerging markets is a little bit… different. Not only do you value and analyze companies differently, but you have to deal with all sorts of other fun: Possible government coups, hostile takeovers (from the government), and general instability. Complicated ownership structures that make the plot of Inception […]
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Emerging Power or Emerging Bubble? What You Do in the Latin America Coverage Group at an Investment Bank

Investors like growth. And now that they aren’t getting it in developed economies, whether they’re looking at industrials, consumer retail, or other sectors, they’re turning their attention south and east – to the BRIC countries and other emerging markets. We’ve been through what to expect in China and India multiple times, but Brazil hasn’t received […]
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Investment Banking Recruiting in Europe: London vs. Frankfurt vs. Milan

While you’ve learned all about recruiting in Europe before in places like the UK, Germany, and Italy, we’ve never done a direct comparison of what to expect in each region. Will you really have to go through assessment centers and similar interviews in each place? Are they only looking for locals or can you break […]
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Investment Banking: Pakistan Edition

OK, I’ll admit it upfront: while this site has featured lots of interviews from readers in “hot” emerging markets such as China and India, I haven’t gotten too many requests for Pakistan. But this is such a good interview and has such specific information that I wanted to publish it anyway. Plus, the interviewee has […]
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Investment Banking: Italy Edition

Continuing our series on finance in different regions of the world, today we go to Italy and hear from a reader who completed an MBA program there and then had an internship this past summer at a local Italian investment bank. We cover a broad set of topics, including how he decided to study in […]
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