No, it is considered asset management or investment management.

Thank you for the post. Quick question. Is a role at “HSBC Global Asset management – Investments ” also considered investment banking?

I know that it is not a traditional group when we think of IBD. But is it still considered Investment banking?

Yes, in some cases it is easier for banks with large Balance Sheets to do deals, but it’s not like a bank is going to turn down a deal just because it doesn’t also win the financing mandate.

If you know what you’re talking about, it’s fine to bring up modeling experience. Just make sure you know some of the numbers and how your work affected the deal.

-“In the current environment (2020), though, that’s far less of a factor, and banks are more than happy to earn just the advisory fee if someone else is providing the financing.” Can you elaborate on that? Isn’t that easier for banks with large balance sheet (BAML, JPM, Citi) to do the deals?

– Can you add more color on why it’s not great to speak about the modelling experience in interviews? If I did the prelimianry valuation analysis (DCF, comps, LBO, etc.) in the internship, what should be an ideal flow to talk about in the interview?

Thank you very much Brain! Really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading!

This is a profound introduction for people who hope to work in M&A. Even I have worked for 3 years in the IB, I still cannot make so clear and well-organized explanations about the differences between buy-side and sell-side or between targeted and broad deals. I really enjoy reading and watching all the materials on your website.

Expectations are similar for anyone who claims to have worked on a deal – rationale, industry background, multiples, key analyses. You don’t need to know all the numbers of course, but you must be able to explain the reasoning at each step and why certain moves were made.

We cater to what the market wants to read about and buy. Training the Street began in 1999; Wall Street Prep started in 2004; Analyst Forum begin in 2000 (?); WSO began in 2006. There were plenty of people obsessed with financial modeling long before we sold a single course, or those companies would not have existed. Just look at online discussions from those years to get a sense of this.

I agree with you that financial modeling is not an important skill in terms of advancing up the hierarchy. The problem is, you can’t really “teach” the actual skills that are required in an online setting, which is why everything in this market is geared toward interview prep and modeling. This is also why online courses for topics like programming, Photoshop, Excel, etc. can be effective, while ones on fuzzier topics that depend on heavy human interaction tend not to be.

One of the points we try to make clear in all these “career” and “group” articles is that yes, you need to know the technical side to get in and to recruit for PE/HF roles, but you’re not going to move up to the Associate or VP levels because you’re really good at Excel (nor will you advance in buy-side roles because of technical skills).

However, everyone still asks about the percentages of time devoted to different types of work, so we always have to address modeling somewhere.