Kathleen Said:

Investment Banking: G.P.A or Work Experience?

We Answered:

I'm going to be blunt.

Given your school and GPA, you aren't going to get a position in banking (especially not in the current job market). A candidate might be able to break in with either a poor school or a poor GPA, but definitely not both. To give you perspective, IB typically has 1 spot for every 100 resumes submitted. In my class of ~120 analysts, I would say at least 100 are from tier-1 schools. The ones that aren't from t-1 schools come from well-recognized schools (such as UT-Austin) or business-focused schools (such as Babson). These students had at least a 3.8 GPA. A 3.5 is the "cutoff" for schools such as Brown, Tufts, Hopkins; if you go to a school such as DePaul, you're going to need a 3.8+. Granted, your story of working full time while studying full-time is very commendable, but, honestly, it's been told to death. It seems as if any student who wanders into an interview room with a sub-par GPA already has this story in his arsenal. The work experience with big-4 is quite common and not very transferable towards banking. The CFA shows an interest in finance, but won't help your candidacy in recruiting. There are three things that banks look for (in order) when recruiting:

1. School: If you don't go to a target school (or at least a prestigious school) the bank won't look at you unless you have an internal contact vouching for you.
2: GPA: If you pass the screening for school, the next thing they look at is your GPA. If you have a decent GPA, you're fine. The difference between a 3.5 and a 3.9 is marginal, at best.
3. Prior experience: This factor isn't as important. They don't expect new grads to have a ton of work experience, so anybody at an Ivy with a 3.7+ will more or less be guaranteed an interview, even w/o prior exp. Next in line are students from schools such as NYU with any type of prior finance experience (accounting doesn't count). Finally, they may look to schools such as Tufts or Hopkins for some "superstar" candidates. By then, however, most of the class is already filled.

The only suggestion I would give would be to reach out to your professor and inquire about contacts he may have on the street. You're only way in would be to network your *** off.

Emma Said:

What should be the salary in Investment Banking(Prime Brokerage) operation with a work experience of 5-6 years?

We Answered:

That depends on the size / status of Company....25 to 30 k/ pm.