You could look at our courses or start with the YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/financialmodeling

An MBA doesn’t teach you anything practical (for the most part).

If I’m an engineer looking to break into IB with no prior banking experience, what is the best starting point for learning the basics. I.E. building models, learning valuation methods, etc. Are there any courses you suggest? Will an MBA have this type of detailed coursework?

Thanks!

Yes, it makes sense to sell those skills, and some banks would be interested. But I think it will be tough to get into IB at this stage without some kind of deal experience, ideally in a pre-MBA internship if you can do one. Most career changers need something like that, even with an MBA.

I am a huge fan of your website. I became serious about breaking into M&A when I start my MBA (at HEC Paris) this year. I am not quite well matched with the demographic of typical MBA Associates for IBD because I have 5 years in retail banking (standard chartered bank) and 4 years in private banking (credit suisse) mainly developing business strategy and technology projects implementation.

I didn’t move to IBD quick enough and couldn’t do MBA earlier because of my personal matters. But I’d like to break in and try out before it becomes too late.

Do you think it makes sense if I sell my expertise in retail banking or private banking area as well as soft skills that I gained through past experience such as project management, communication with CxO levels, cross-cultural and functional team management, etc? – although I don’t have any deal experience. Do you think IBD will be interested?

Also, I have worked in Korea and Singapore, but would like to change the geography to Europe. So, London will be the first choice.

Age is not a problem for me since I am not personally committed to anyone and ready to work hard passionately in this field. And I am confident that I can follow hierarchy and get along well with possibly younger Director, etc.

Your advice and tips will be much valued. Thank you so much for your work!

To be honest, not that much has really changed. It’s not like the key industry drivers change from year to year. I’ll see if we can update some of these links or at least delete the non-working ones.

One difference is that all our courses have been updated and added to over time (e.g., we now cover airlines in the Fundamentals course).

The Big 4 firms are still really good sources for industry trends. But I know some of the other links need to be updated, so we’ll revisit and update this article at some point.

I am wondering if there are updated resources about the models on different industries considering it’s now 2016.

Since you’ve been invited back, I’d send him a thank you note and reiterate your interest in the firm. I’d then give him a call after a few days to see if he has any tips for you. Since the first round went very well, I think it’s fine to email and call him once.

I had a first round interview about a week and half ago and I was lucky enough to interview with the MD himself. I was invited back for a superday interview two weeks from today. It will have been about a month by the time I interview again. What would be something I could send in an email just to kind of stay relevant in his mind before the next round comes up? Should I send anything at all since I’ve already been invited back? Would it be wrong to ask if there is anything in particular he wants me to study up on. It’s a little bit of a niche group. Also, I felt like the first round went very well, he invited me back for the next round before we were even done with the first interview.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

You should always be able to find an opinion… try Seeking Alpha and do searches for the key deal drivers to find more, for example: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/actavis-acquires-forest-labs-for-brand-name-drugs-cm358273