How to Answer the Why Investment Banking Question

Why do you want to do investment banking?

If you ever hope to enter the field, you’ll need to have a great answer to this question – because it’s something that every single interviewer will ask you.

But other guides do a poor job of guiding you on how to answer this question.

-You want to be a lifelong learner.

-You like finance and accounting.

-You like a fast-paced environment.

None of these is “wrong” – the problem is that they’re too generic, and they don’t set you apart from other prospective bankers.

So if you want to succeed in interviews, you need to be more personal and give answers that make an interviewer remember you and more likely to “go to bat” for you in the future.

You can accomplish this with the “Big Picture” method or the “Slice of Life” method.

If you’re a career changer, you don’t have a finance background, or you can’t think of anything specific that made you interested in finance, use the “Big Picture” method.

The outline is: Background in One Industry + Experience in Finance = Success in Achieving Long-Term Goals.

Maybe you’re a healthcare policy analyst and you want to combine your industry knowledge with investment banking so you can advise companies one day; or maybe you’re an engineer who wants to go into venture capital, combining technical knowledge with finance.

If you don’t have “long-term goals,” then make up some to fit the situation – just make sure you’re consistent with what you tell interviewers.

The other method – the “Slice of Life” – is better if you’ve been a finance major, or you have some full-time experience in the field.

Here, you start off with a specific event that made you interested and then explain how that interest developed over time.

-You started day trading when you were younger since your dad was a huge fan, so you became more interested in the markets and also did several internships.

-You went to a summer leadership camp and met top female executives at investment banks, which sparked your interest in the field.

You can combine both of these methods as well, of course – just make sure that you tell a coherent story that doesn’t go on for 5 minutes.

Aim for 20-30 seconds at most, keep it brief and on point, and you’ll be well-ahead of 90% of interviewees.

Riyan Richter writes about the career search process, how to successfully network, and how to get into the finance industry at Mergers … Inquisitions, the web’s top website for investment banking and answering the why investment banking question in interviews.

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