What qualities do investment banks look for in new hire?

​by Girl Banker

At junior levels all banks want just one thing: someone with the right attitude. They will train you to ensure you have the technical skills but underlying all that they want a go-getter, someone who is hungry to excel. That is the fundamental requirement.

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In addition to having the right attitude, they look for:

• Someone who has some technical knowledge or appears to have the ability to learn quickly
• Personable people who will work well with others (‘team players’)
• Charismatic people with a presence especially for advisory or sales roles
• Self-starters i.e. people with initiative

Investment banks vet their applicants with extreme care. The majority of their hiring needs are satisfied through their annual recruitment of new graduates.

The vast majority of new hires are recruited after completing an eight to twelve week internship the year before they embark on full time employment. Many universities don’t emphasize this point hard enough: if you want to become an investment banker, do an internship a year before you graduate. 

That said, a résumé/CV looks more interesting if you have a variety of different experiences: one solid banking internship plus two or three other out-of-the-box experiences (charity work, other industry or business experience) will do much more for you than three banking internships. ​

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