So, What Should You Do at Investment Banking Summer Training Besides Getting Wasted Each Night?

You’ve just been through a warzone to get your offer: 53 interviews, 3 weekend trips to New York, and so much time spent staring at Excel that you’ve developed a monitor tan.

But things worked out, you accepted your offer, and you’re about to start work in 2 weeks.

You just need to make it through the training program first.

But that should be the easiest part of the entire process, right? Right?

Why You Can’t Break Into Private Equity as a Foreigner in China

Despite my repeated warnings that emerging markets don’t care about you – only people who know the language, have connections, and are qualified to work there – this question won’t go away:

“I really want to work in China! How can I break into finance there? I’ve studied Mandarin for 5 years and I can read faster than Chinese people now! Show me how to get into PE!”

I’ve gotten tired of answering that one, so today you’ll hear from someone much better qualified to answer it than me: a reader who works in private equity in China.

He’ll tell you all about:

• How to network your way into the industry and how it’s different from PE in the US/Europe.
• Why foreigners are getting pushed out of the industry and why you’d have to be “crazy” to go work there these days.
• What you should do instead if you want to do business in China.
• How the pay and work culture differ from other parts of the world.

Pitch Anything: “The Game” for Investment Banking?

It’s 11 PM and you’re sitting down at a bar with a friend. You see 2 gorgeous blondes stroll over and sit down across from you (if you’re female, just imagine this from your perspective instead).

You strategize with your friend about what to say and who to approach, you think of the perfect opening line, and then you go up and make your move.

The first girl stops you in your tracks, glares at you, and says, “If you’re going to recite lines from that book, we’ve heard them all before – you can go away now.”

Ouch. What went wrong?

The problem is that it’s 2005 and Neil Strauss has just published The Game, detailing the secret society of pickup artists and the exact tactics they use to get beautiful women night after night.

It became so popular in New York that women learned all about it and instantly knew when a guy was using tactics from the book.

And now a new book by Oren Klaff, a capital markets banker based in LA, might just do the same thing for the world of business and investment banking.