Is Your IB Application Strategy Smarter than Others?

James, a local HK student, was determined to get into investment banking but he faced a number of limitations. With a GPA of 3.2, no relevant work experience, and not being a native English or Mandarin speaker, he was worried about getting into the highly competitive industry 😥.

Investment banks often prefer to hire native English speakers but with a growing number of banks taking on clients with strong ties in China, more native Mandarin speakers are being hired too.

He joined our coaching program, and we held tailored career advising and roadmap planning sessions with him to provide him with the advice he would need to attain his goal. With our help, James was able to secure a summer internship (in operations) for a large bank, and a winter internship (in M&A) for a boutique bank while he was still in his second year of university 💪💪 . We also suggested that he defer his studies for six months to take a placement for the benefit of his CV. During this time, he studied hard to boost his GPA, and after a lot of effort, he managed to raise it to 3.5 😎

In terms of interview preparation, we worked with James on a number of areas.

💡He had failed interviews in the past due to a lack of technical and industry knowledge. We encouraged him to continue applying, to gain more interview experience and advised him to enhance his industry insights.

💡We discovered his accounting knowledge was a bit weak, so we focused on helping him improve on this too.

💡We then taught him how to speak about his M&A experience more and encouraged him to learn about investment banking deals so he could discuss them in interviews.

In the end, all of James’s hard work paid off, as he landed an IBD offer from a BB bank 🏆🏆

Each person’s journey is very different, which is why we create highly tailored career roadmaps. With our combined efforts, he proved that even with no work experience, language barriers, and a low GPA, you can still achieve your dreams, as long as you put in the work!

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We help university students like you to get into Investment Banking, Banking, Property/ Conglomerate and Advisory/ Consulting.

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