Investment Banking days
The Investment Banking Days (IBD) is an annual event at HSG. In this 2-week long event (October 1 – October 12’07), various investment banks come to campus and conduct workshops and interviews for prospective interns and full time positions for the following year.
(http://www.investmentbankingdays.com/)
This event is NOT exclusive to the MBAs but is more for the Bachelor’s , masters and PhD students of St Gallen. While we MBA students were invited to the workshops, only few interviews were offered primarily because the Investment Banking in Switzerland is a small market for experienced hires like MBAs. Fresh graduates and less experienced people are preferred because they can start from scratch as analysts.
MBAs on the other hand, are advised to apply at the London Office as the Big Ben is a bigger financial hub. However, my friends were also able to obtain individual contacts, dinner invitations and recommendations from I-bank representatives, who they had impressed during the workshops… so these are leads you could convert..
The MBA office also held an MBA only Apero with these bank reps for better access to the banks..
So u see.. it depends on ur skills and abilities.. one more thing, I banks prefer people from quantitative backgrounds (Economics, Mathematics, Commerce.. etc) and also professionals with prior Finance /I banking experience.
This year the following I-banks have come to campus.. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Citi, HSBC, Dresdner Kleinwort, Pricoa Capital, Sal Oppenheim, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lehman Brothers, Société Générale, Exane, PW Partners, Bank am Bellevue & Rothschild.
The workshops are usually about current issues.. here’s the list of the workshops:
MSREF - Private Equity Acquisition Process -Morgan Stanley
M&A - Defence Strategies in a Competitive Bid Situation -UBS AG
M&A Workshop -Lehman Brothers
Convertible Bonds - Financial analysis and workplan of a transaction -Barclays Capital
Different perspectives on an M&A target -Citi
Managing Credit Risk in volatile Markets -Goldman Sachs
Lunch & Learn: Corporate Finance in der Praxis -JP Morgan
Women's Round Table - Manage your career -JP Morgan
Grow or go? M&A issues for a global company -Rothschild GmbH
Cross-Border M&A, an example from the Healthcare Industry - Bank of America
Managing at the Top: Global Markets at Deutsche Bank -Deutsche Bank
Your step into the Financial World - M&A in Practise -Deutsche Bank
Stepping into the global footprints of HSBC with Investment and Private Banking -HSBC Bank plc
Investor Solutions Case Study -Dresdner Kleinwort
Independent Financial Advice -PW Partners
How to Sell Innovative Structured Products? -Société Générale
And each of these I banks are conducting interviews for short listed candidates… We also had a few fun events.. like Go-Karting (sal Oppenheim)…
The benefits of this event are very evident:
Banks get to know good candidates.. candidates learn about prospective I-Banking roles and the university leverages its popularity in a win-win manner. I spoke to these bank reps about St Gallen.. and they unanimously said that they love St Gallen.. and that’s why they come here every year in droves!!
How practical is St. Gallen for career changers? For people in their early 30s for example (not very "young" per MBA definitions) and from a different background, e.g., marketing.
Also, from this post it seems MBAs compete with students in other Masters programs and the PhD program. Is this true?
Like many other Indian applicants to St. Gallen, I am a bit worried about the placements for non-EU citizens. Especially due to the 13 month visa period.
Could you please comment on the placement record for your batch, were there any non- EU citizens which had to go back , etc.
Will earnestly wait for your reply.
Thanks.
Regards,
Sputnik
Cheers
Apples