Favorite Parts Of Working In Middle Market Investment Banking As An Investment Banking Associate
Jonathan, a Middle Market Investment Banking Associate, appreciates the industry's "breadth," citing the diverse specializations within investment banking, from mergers and acquisitions to specific product groups and firm sizes. This variety, coupled with the "fast-paced career and lifestyle" and commensurate compensation, makes it an appealing, albeit demanding, career path.
Finance, Investment Banking, Mergers and Acquisitions, Middle Market, Fast-Paced Career
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Jonathan Freeman
Investment Banking Associate
Middle Market Investment Bank
CWRU
UCSD Master of Finance, UCLA FTMBA
Economics
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Finance
Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Investment banking offers diverse specializations, from mergers and acquisitions to various product groups and firm sizes (boutique to bulge bracket).
2. The industry's breadth allows professionals to focus on specific areas like debt restructuring, IPOs, or particular sectors (e.g., tech, healthcare).
3. While demanding, the career path is fast-paced, high-paying, and offers opportunities for quick hierarchical advancement.
Transcript
What do you enjoy most about being in your industry?
Investment banking itself is really broad. I'm in mergers and acquisitions, but you can be an investment banker in different groups. You can be in product groups that focus on specific things.
I'm specifically in middle market investment banking, which is for firms valued between $50 million and $1 billion. You could be at a boutique firm, or you could be at a bulge bracket where you're doing multi-billion dollar transactions, like IPOs. That's one of the things that I really like about banking: the breadth of it.
Whichever area you specialize in is kind of up to you, but banking itself is just really broad. When you're looking at it from the standpoint of careers to pursue, you can look at investment banking as a pretty broad industry within finance.
If you want to focus on debt, you can look at restructuring groups. If you want to do IPOs, you can look at groups that do that. If you like a specific industry, like tech or healthcare, you can try to get into a covered group and do transactions in those groups. Investment banking itself is broad.
Another good thing about the industry, and everyone will say this, is that you work a lot, but you also get paid a lot. If a fast-paced career and lifestyle motivates you, and the ability to quickly move up a hierarchy motivates you, then it can be a good fit, at least for a period of time.