Student Clubs Devoted to Investment Banking
Student clubs can play a pivotal role in helping navigate the job search process successfully. Only a couple of top business schools offer clubs focused exclusively on investment banking (as compared to the many schools that offer a finance club that organizes activities for a range of finance-related career paths, i-banking being just one).
At Chicago Booth, the Investment Banking Group (IBG) is one of the largest student groups on campus, serving as a link between students, Career Services and investment banks. It holds year-round activities including conferences, seminars, company-sponsored workshops and other means of preparing for the recruiting process.
The annual IBG Conference features career panels of industry professionals and hosts company representatives from many leading banks. The club’s Bank Week, meanwhile, gives students the opportunity to travel to New York City to visit participating host banks, which welcome them for lunches, presentations, cocktails and other networking events. Students often also schedule informational interviews during these visits, and those interested in careers in sales and trading can sit on trading desks during the trip, witnessing daily processes and firm culture firsthand. IBG members also participate in the London Banking Days joining students from seven other business schools for a two-day trip to visit London banks.
Chicago Booth’s IBG also brings industry professionals to campus to conduct valuation and modeling seminars designed to help first-year students become immediate contributors in their summer banking internships. Valuation 101 teaches the fundamental valuation techniques and concepts as applied on Wall Street, giving students valuable context and vocabulary for job interviews. And in Financial Modeling 101, each student builds a financial model from scratch, putting his or her accounting, finance and Excel skills to work.
CBS also features an Investment Banking Club (IBC), which maintains strong ties to Wall Street and provides more than 100 networking, recruiting and informational events each year. Area investment banks co-sponsor events with the IBC and participate in merger and acquisition case studies, panels and interview workshops.
The IBC also runs internal programs helping first-year students explore the industry, hosts social gatherings and puts on events such as a Training the Street Workshop and the Interview Power Prep Session with Professor Donna Hitscherich. Together with the club’s case presentations, résumé reviews and mock interview preparation, these events complement the school’s other strengths in preparing its students for investment banking careers.
The IBC also takes CBS students to meet with U.K. investment banks as part of London Banking Days. This two-day event includes panels on banking, sales and trading, and private wealth management, as well as an evening networking event. Participating firms have included Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Credit Suisse and UBS.
