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Rating: Summary: Very good book...do not miss. Review: I would highly recommend this book to anyone going into, or thinking of going into investment banking. I am now an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and this book was really helpful to me landing the job (and getting integrated)The excerpts from leading investment bankers is extremely useful and really helps for interviewing or just getting integrated into a new investment bank. Especially useful was the chapter written by the head of investment banking from Merrilly Lynch. The book is short and very easy to read. I highligh recommend it for anyone interested in investment banking.
Rating: Summary: Description is misleading -- a disappointment Review: There is not much to this book - 80 pages of large print, double-spaced text. The book is organized into 10 sections - one for each "bigwig" that was interviewed. You get the impression that each contributor was asked to talk for 5 or 10 minutes about something - anything - that pertained to their job. More disturbing is that the final 4 contributors are not investment bankers at all, but are venture capitalists (who talk about venture capital), so 40% of the book has nothing to do with investment banking. Finally (and rather remarkably), I don't think the book gave any advice on actually becoming an investment banker - wasn't that the point? Two stars is probably a generous assessment, but the book does shed some light on what investment banks actually "do," and the traits of good investment bankers - albeit very senior ones, since the job description of a junior banker is very different from senior one (read: crunching numbers v. generating M&A ideas & maintaining relationships with CEOs). As an addendum, I cannot resist adding the straightforward advice to job-seekers that I think was missing from this book. Show you have the smarts and work ethic it takes by getting solid marks in school, preferably at a school with an ivy league type reputation. Show from past experience that you work well in teams and that you are keenly interested in corporate finance. Hone your resume and practice interviewing endlessly - also learn as much as you can about each bank and what sets them apart. The bottom line is that the harder you go after a job in i-banking the better your chances are.
Rating: Summary: Misleading title -- a disappointment Review: There is not much to this book - 80 pages of large print, double-spaced text. The book is organized into 10 sections - one for each "bigwig" that was interviewed. You get the impression that each contributor was asked to talk for 5 or 10 minutes about something - anything - that pertained to their job. More disturbing is that the final 4 contributors are not investment bankers at all, but are venture capitalists (who talk about venture capital), so 40% of the book has nothing to do with investment banking. Finally (and rather remarkably), I don't think the book gave any advice on actually becoming an investment banker - wasn't that the point? Two stars is probably a generous assessment, but the book does shed some light on what investment banks actually "do," and the traits of good investment bankers - albeit very senior ones, since the job description of a junior banker is very different from senior one (read: crunching numbers v. generating M&A ideas & maintaining relationships with CEOs).
Rating: Summary: Misleading title -- a disappointment Review: There is not much to this book - 80 pages of large print, double-spaced text. The book is organized into 10 sections - one for each "bigwig" that was interviewed. You get the impression that each contributor was asked to talk for 5 or 10 minutes about something - anything - that pertained to their job. More disturbing is that the final 4 contributors are not investment bankers at all, but are venture capitalists (who talk about venture capital), so 40% of the book has nothing to do with investment banking. Finally (and rather remarkably), I don't think the book gave any advice on actually becoming an investment banker - wasn't that the point? Two stars is probably a generous assessment, but the book does shed some light on what investment banks actually "do," and the traits of good investment bankers - albeit very senior ones, since the job description of a junior banker is very different from senior one (read: crunching numbers v. generating M&A ideas & maintaining relationships with CEOs).
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