Spring Break
A presentation of the world of I-banking
by Myriam Barthes
News | 9/25/07
Posted online at 3:52 AM EST on 9/25/07
Sitting on stage next to their leather briefcases and wearing elegant suits, BlackBerries in the pocket, two alumni shared their experiences from Wall Street jobs with Brandeis students who are interested in pursuing investment banking.
About 60 students gathered to glean career advice from Donnie Phillips '06 and Noah Rabinsky '05, both investment banking analysts at two of Wall Street's premier firms, at the International Business School last Tuesday.
Both started off by explaining the paths they took to reach their current positions.
Phillips graduated from IBS in 2006 with a Masters of Arts and a concentration in finance. As an undergraduate at Brandeis, he majored in economics and philosophy. He has been an analyst in the Evercore Partners' Mergers & Acquisition department since July 2006.
Rabinsky majored in philosophy and politics, an academic background that would have ordinarily made him a perfect candidate for law school. After he donated many hours to networking spent on the phone, however, he obtained an internship at JPMorgan, joining the firm's Technology, Media & Telecom Group in 2006 following their training program.
Although they pointed out that graduating from here makes it "incredibly hard to find a job" in investment banking, Phillips and Rabinsky said that Brandeis taught them to take a step back and to learn how to think.
Not all the economics classes Phillips took were relevant for an investment banking job, he said. He named financial accounting, corporate finance and financial modeling as the essential background for any career in his field.
Both emphasized the importance of networking in the job-searching process. Talk to everybody and anybody to create a global network, including alumni, family, friends, professors, career centers and neighbors, Philips and Rabinsky advised.
They also explained that work and personal life become intertwined in the arduous field of investment banking. The typical day for an investment banker is exceptionally intense, they said. Starting at 9 a.m, one is lucky to leave work before midnight, with work weeks lasting between 80 and a 100 hours. Rabinsky said that he was home for just four hours during Labor Day weekend, to sleep.
"[Working in investment banking] is a long term investment," they said.
Then, after an hour-and-a-half of lecturing and fielding questions from students came to a close, the speakers were abruptly drawn back to their working world by a buzzing BlackBerry.
About 60 students gathered to glean career advice from Donnie Phillips '06 and Noah Rabinsky '05, both investment banking analysts at two of Wall Street's premier firms, at the International Business School last Tuesday.
Both started off by explaining the paths they took to reach their current positions.
Phillips graduated from IBS in 2006 with a Masters of Arts and a concentration in finance. As an undergraduate at Brandeis, he majored in economics and philosophy. He has been an analyst in the Evercore Partners' Mergers & Acquisition department since July 2006.
Rabinsky majored in philosophy and politics, an academic background that would have ordinarily made him a perfect candidate for law school. After he donated many hours to networking spent on the phone, however, he obtained an internship at JPMorgan, joining the firm's Technology, Media & Telecom Group in 2006 following their training program.
Although they pointed out that graduating from here makes it "incredibly hard to find a job" in investment banking, Phillips and Rabinsky said that Brandeis taught them to take a step back and to learn how to think.
Not all the economics classes Phillips took were relevant for an investment banking job, he said. He named financial accounting, corporate finance and financial modeling as the essential background for any career in his field.
Both emphasized the importance of networking in the job-searching process. Talk to everybody and anybody to create a global network, including alumni, family, friends, professors, career centers and neighbors, Philips and Rabinsky advised.
They also explained that work and personal life become intertwined in the arduous field of investment banking. The typical day for an investment banker is exceptionally intense, they said. Starting at 9 a.m, one is lucky to leave work before midnight, with work weeks lasting between 80 and a 100 hours. Rabinsky said that he was home for just four hours during Labor Day weekend, to sleep.
"[Working in investment banking] is a long term investment," they said.
Then, after an hour-and-a-half of lecturing and fielding questions from students came to a close, the speakers were abruptly drawn back to their working world by a buzzing BlackBerry.
Be the first to comment on this story