Still want to be an I-Banker?

Below is an article I posted on a forum in 2006 after I accepted a Summer Associate offer from Goldman Sach HK office. Hope this is helpful for Chinese MBA candidates who are thinking about being an I-banker in HK.



[delete]...well, you probably ask the right person. I just accepted the IBD offer in HK. However, the information is only for this year (2006).

From the perspective of an international student, it is "extremely competitive" to get a IBD position even in Hong Kong. Why? Below are my 2 cents:

1. Who are going to apply IBD positions in HK?
a. People from Asia (including China, Korean, India, Singapore, etc)
b. Asian from US (ABCs)
c. Some US native students who can speak Asia language or are interested in Asia. (believe or not, this number is increasing significantly every year)

2. How many IBD summer offers in HK? (2006) Goldman (8), Morgan (around 5-7), Merrill (around 5), JP (around 6), Citi (around 5), UBS (not sure, but probably fewer than 5), Lehman (probably fewer than 5), Credit Suesse (3), DB (around 5), HSBC (around 10) --> In total, there are around 40~50 openings.

Honestly, our major competitors are those people, especially Asian from US. They are native in English, conversational to native level in Mandarin and have decent US experience. And also some people they had banking or related experience before. They are strong candidates too.

3. Maybe this year (2006) is more competitve because the media kept saying how much bonus bankers earn and therefore more people applied banking job. Goldman told me that if they pile up all the resumes they received this year from top b-school, it's higher than 4 feet.

4. As far as I know, at Wharton this year, there are around 15 people received the offer and around 11 people are pretty sure to accept the offer. Out of 15, only 6 are directly from Greater China (Mainland, HK, and Taiwan)

5. I met some students from other top b-schools during the HK career trek and Super Days. I have to say some of them are pretty strong candidates especially from those top financial-orieted schools. As I mentioned before, good MBA program could open doors for you. You will have equal chances to compete. But how to stand out among all these strong candidates, that's the question you have to think about.