Investment Banking recruits analysts for three key business areas:

Advisory (Mergers & Acquisitions and Industry Teams)
Debt Capital Markets
Equity Capital Markets

Whatever role you are allocated, there will be common themes to the work and you will balance your time between marketing and transactions within investment banking, drawing on the firm's broad range of global resources and senior expertise.

As an Investment Banking analyst, you will learn to carry out in-depth company and industry research, analyse the data and draw financial and strategic conclusions from your work.  You'll then present the results to the client creatively and persuasively, ready to clarify and debate any given aspect with confidence.

You will very quickly be working in small teams alongside senior Education professionals and clients, absorbing a vast amount of industry, country and product knowledge.  Your contact with clients ' often the CEOs or CFOs of large corporations and government representatives will be an education in itself, and the experience and accessibility of everyone around you will make the whole process happen at a phenomenal rate.

Advisory (Mergers & Acquisitions and Industry Teams)
As an analyst in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), your primary focus will be working on M&A transactions within your specific country.  However, there is plenty of scope to work across sectors and we promote a broad base of exposure.  On a deal team, you will work alongside colleagues with local market knowledge and expertise in executing M&A transactions in that country.  These local M&A teams, based in Milan, Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt and London provide the specific regulatory and legal input critical to the successful completion of our deals.  Within the local M&A teams your sector experience and product knowledge will combine in a role at the forefront of client interaction and the building of long-term relationships.

As an analyst in an industry team such as Natural Resources clients for example, you will leverage your industry expertise and help market our M&A, Debt and Equity products to companies in the mining, oil and gas and chemical sectors.  If, for example, a buy-side marketing effort is successful, you will help manage the transaction process, working on the transaction itself and co-ordinating the efforts of each of the various teams involved.

You'll help value the target and assess the acquisition's impact on client earnings and work closely with Debt and Equity Capital Markets to determine the optimal financing structure.  Lastly you might help Equity Research market the deal to shareholders by highlighting the acquisitions financial benefits to our clients.

As you gain more and more insights into a particular industry and work across all of our product groups your front-line position with clients will incur enormous responsibility.  It's hard to imagine a more effective route into the corporate finance arena.

Debt Capital Markets
As an analyst you will play a central role in the Debt Capital Markets (DCM) team.  The DCM team will rely on your analytical and time-management skills and expect you to take rapid ownership of key components of the interaction with clients.

You will be actively involved in all aspects of new business solicitation, developing new ideas and pricing new issue opportunities.  You will need to develop your skill set quickly.

You will be closely involved in the financing execution process and would be expected to co-ordinate the production and distribution of bond pre-marketing materials such as investor presentations, Bloomberg roadshows or loan information memoranda.  You will work closely with the bank and bond Syndicate teams, help focus the respective sales forces on the transaction and assist them in answering credit related questions.  You will co-ordinate the documentation process with lawyers and the internal Transaction & Execution group, as well as due diligence sessions with Management.  As a core part of the team, you will also assist with the marketing of the transaction internally and to other potential issuers.

The diversity of debt products and solutions, the central role and importance of debt financing to our clients and to Education, positions our analysts at the very centre of the action and you will quickly gain direct exposure to and interaction with our clients.  DCM rewards high achievers and a 'can-do' approach is essential to being successful.

Equity Capital Markets
In raising equity for a new company for example, an analyst starts by writing recommendations on the nature and structure of the transaction.  The next part is to work with management to prepare the company's marketing materials, then organise the offering process with lawyers and accountants and start assessing the level of demand from targeted investors.  It involves constant communication with M&A and Equity Sales, Trading and Research to understand the company's strategy and valuation and investor views on the story and communication with syndicate  banks to organise the marketing of the offering.

While working on an equity derivatives trade as an analyst, you'll become a key liaison with the client, understanding their needs and assisting in cultivating the client relationship on an ongoing basis.  By understanding the client's objectives, you can then advise them on a wide range of derivatives solutions, using our trading and research capabilities to provide them with the optimal solution to their needs.

On an execution, analysts take primary responsibility for managing projects including assisting in the crafting of the company's equity story, structuring the institutional marketing campaign and providing continuous feedback to the client regarding investor sentiment and equity market conditions.  Once the client has determined their preferred strategy, you remain involved in executing the solution in co-ordination with the trading team until its successful completion.

Can you do this'
Diversity is essential within the investment banking division, which is why Education recruits from a wide range of backgrounds and many degree disciplines.  We've seen bankers with an art or humanities based degree thrive just as well as those from an economics or finance background.

However, there are personal qualities and core skills that are key requirements for a role in investment banking.  The starting point is to have a genuine interest in financial markets, but you'll also require a proven academic performance and the ability to demonstrate solid numerical and analytical skills.  Fluency in English is essential since it's our primary business language, but if you have another European language so much the better.

We are looking for people with real enthusiasm, evident team working and communication skills and a genuinely global outlook.  Teamwork and project management skills are critical given that any project typically involves not only various groups within Education, e.g. advisory, equity research and syndicate but also the company's management team, lawyers, auditors, other syndicate members and consultants.  You'll need the self-confidence required to assess and understand our clients' needs and the creativity that sees the right solution is identified and delivered thereby exceeding their expectations.

Our analysts take on a high profile role and early responsibility in one of the world's most competitive industries ' you'll be accountable for the quality and accuracy of the work you produce right from the start.  The hours can be long and the stress levels can be high.  Investment banking is a lifestyle choice, so be sure that you have the stamina that will keep you focused and committed to seeing projects through regardless of the pressure.

The good news is that you'll work within a culture renowned throughout the industry as one of the most supportive and proactive.  You'll always be able to seek out guidance from people around you and the opportunities to develop your technical and personal skills will come quickly.