I would recommend reading our coverage of how to get into IB and what to do as a university student to win internships:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/how-to-get-into-investment-banking/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/how-to-get-an-investment-banking-internship/

Certifications will not help you much next to high grades, a good university, and solid finance internships.

Please see these articles for some ideas:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/breaking-into-investment-banking-accountant/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/lateral-hiring/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/private-equity-internship-to-investment-banking-networking/

You normally need a “steppingstone” role in between because accounting is quite different from IB. You can also think about areas like business valuation firms or corporate banking to make the switch.

Hi Brian, thanks for your useful article! I’m an accountant in a start-up small company and graduated from a QS top 100 university in year 2020. I am currently 25 and have completed ACCA and CFA after graduated. I’m now seeking to switch into IB, but I have no any related internship experience..Could you give some advice on how to get an analyst job in IB?

Certifications are not going to help. The market for IB in India is quite bad, and you don’t have a great chance of winning real IB roles unless you went to one of the top 2 IIMs. See:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-india/

If you already completed an MBA from an unknown school and you already have research experience and equity/mutual fund advisory experience, I’m not really sure of your best option at this stage. My advice would be: “Leave India and go to a market with more front-office jobs.” But if that’s not possible, you might think about boutique banks there or maybe Big 4 firms or something else related to IB that is less competitive than winning jobs at the biggest firms.

The biggest issue here is that you are going to get A LOT of questions about why you want to move into IB if you already started 4 companies. If they were even modestly successful, you should have so much money that it’s not really worth it to work in IB (i.e., $5-10 million+ or at least $1 million+). I’m not trying to pry or ask you for a number, just explaining how bankers will think about this (even if they don’t state it directly).

So, you really need to nail down an answer to this question before you do anything else. If/when you have that, start thinking about networking, interview prep, learning the technical side, etc. See:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/mba-investment-banking-recruiting-process/

I am 30 years old and starting my MBA program (Cornell, SC Johnson) this year. I am an entrepreneur having started 4 startups. Never had any finance related job, experience or exposure. I am looking to switch to IB post MBA. What can I do to recruit succesfully in IB post MBA?

The point of this article is that if you think about everything you could do to improve your chances of winning job offers – going to a better university or business school, improving your grades, getting better work experience, networking, etc. – earning a “certification” should be near the bottom of your list.

“You literally said that working in IB is just impossible for me, but also because you said that the ONLY way to enter in IB is by having studied in Harvard or related universities.”

Where, exactly, was this stated in the article? Your chances are much higher coming from a top university, yes, but it’s not impossible from others. We deal in probabilities, not certainties.

Your chances are “low” if you go to a university that most banks are not familiar with. But people do get in from this background; it’s just that they need to do more networking and start earlier. We’ve covered this topic dozens of times since I began writing this site in 2007, and I’m actually a bit tired of people bringing it up and acting like we haven’t addressed it. See:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-recruiting-timeline/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/no-return-offer-investment-banking/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/international-student-investment-banking/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/last-minute-investment-banking-recruiting/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/how-to-get-into-investment-banking/

I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the IB recruiting process, why it starts so early, and what banks are looking for before jumping to conclusions.

As for your chances: they are not good if you’re planning to graduate from a top 29 university with a 3.0 GPA in a country with a relatively small IB industry (vs. places like the U.K., U.S., or even France/Germany).

The best way to improve your chances is to complete a Master’s degree at a top university in the U.K. and use that plus some off-cycle finance internships to get in. The CFA might give you a marginal benefit, but it’s not a top-priority item vs. everything else on this list.

I write this comment because I do not know if you just wanted to create discussion or because you really think that it is impossible for an engineering student (specifically Civil Engineering) to enter in IB, even with a 3.0 GPA from a top 29 university in the subject of Civil Engineering with a CFA level 1.