Investment banking courses may take several forms, depending on where the course is being taught, what aspect of investment banking is being covered, and whether or not the training is focused on a degree or certification program. Some investment banking classes are taught in traditional classroom environments, hosted by universities, technical schools, or training companies. Other courses are taught online, using websites with audio or video to convey the lessons, information, and tests from the teacher to the students. For students whose schedules do not allow for regular training sessions, there are also self-study packages available for self-guided investment banking training.

An investment banking course will tend to focus on increasing the student’s depth of knowledge in a specific area of investment banking, or building the essential skills needed for productive financial data analysis and modeling.

The following topics are examples of the types of available investment training classes:

• Introduction to Valuation Models
• How to Avoid Common Valuation Models Mistakes
• Financial Market’s Impact on Valuation Models
• Types of Capital Structures
• Basic and Advanced Financial Modeling using Excel
• Corporate Valuation Methodologies
• Leveraged Buyout Modeling
• Analyzing 10K Forms
• Mergers and Acquisition Deals

Investment banking courses can be found to suit any level of experience with the financial industry, from general introductory classes to advanced instruction in specified types of transactions, areas of the market, or specialized sub-disciplines of financial modeling.

Investment banking courses and financial modeling training can open up new opportunities for rewarding and productive career paths in the financial industry. Most entry-level investment banking jobs are analyst positions, which are responsible for collecting data about markets and possible investments and, often times, fairly menial tasks. Analysts work with this data to produce predictions of market behavior or the performance of financial assets, and then provide recommendations based on these predictions to managers and associates. Analysts with several years of experience may be promoted to associates, where they may be responsible for developing client relationships, putting transactions together, coordinating research, managing analysts and other subordinates, and other tasks.

Graduates from recognized M.B.A. degree programs may also be hired directly into associate positions. Associates with several years of experience may be promoted to the managerial or director level, where they will make decisions to guide company policy, coordinate recruitment and promotions, and approve investments and other transactions.

Salary increases for investment banking jobs is also dependent largely upon experience and performance. Although wide compensation ranges exist depending on the firing firm, analysts generally are paid between $60,000 and $150,000 (including bonuses) during their first year, with this range increasing to $120,000 to $300,000 by the third year. An investment banking associate will generally make between $150,000 and $250,000, including bonuses, during their first year, and may be paid between $250,000 and $450,000 by their third year of experience.

A director may earn over $400,000 and many times over a million dollars per year with bonuses. Salaries above the director level in the investment banking industry are limited only by the success of the firm and the state of the market, providing an excellent incentive for motivated and hardworking finance professionals to advance their investment banking careers in this exciting and competitive field.

The self-study approach to investment banking training offers several advantages to finance professionals looking to augment their existing skill set or knowledge base, or to workers in other fields who may be interested in an investment banking job. Unlike other types of training which may be more structured, such as instructor-led online seminars and traditional classroom-based courses, self-study courses allow the student complete control over the scheduling of the training and the pacing of the course. This allows the student to schedule around factors such as work and childcare, to make the best use of their time in mastering the material.

This same lack of structure can, in some cases, pose a problem to students accustomed to the guidance, schedules, and benchmarks associated with more traditional forms of education. Some individuals may find that completely self-guided courses are difficult to complete, without the external impetus of deadlines and class sessions, others may find that other time-sensitive priorities interfere with the continuity of self-guided study. However, these difficulties can be overcome given sufficient motivation and focus on the part of the student, as many individuals find that the material can be interesting and rewarding to learn.

Self-study courses generally take the form of online training modules, software-based training modules that can be installed locally on a computer, or book-centered training packages. Online training modules often include pre-recorded video instruction sessions, supporting material provided in the form of web pages, and links to real-life examples in news reports and press releases of the subjects being covered. Many online courses also assist the student by keeping track of their progress through bookmarks and milestones, allowing the student to pick up easily where they left off in each session. Online self-study courses such as those provided by Breaking into Wall Street may also offer online quizzes to allow students to test their knowledge as they proceed through the material. Online courses also have the advantage of being available anywhere that the student can obtain internet access.

Installable software training packages provide many of the benefits of online self-study investment banking classes, in particular making large amounts of training data available in a portable format. These packages also frequently include organizational tools such as bookmarks and progress indicators, as well as quizzes to help the student assess their retention of the material. Because these modules are locally installed, rather than accessed via the internet, they are accessible even when internet access is disrupted or unavailable, but are therefore only accessible at the workstation or laptop upon which they have been installed.

For students who prefer not to spend hours in front of a computer, or who may not have consistent access to a computer during the time available for training, books can provide a useful and practical alternative. Books such as “Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers and Acquisitions” by Rosenbaum, Pearl, and Perella and “Distressed Investment Banking – To the Abyss and Back” by Owsley and Kaufman can be extremely helpful to individuals looking for self-guided training options that are not computer-dependent. While this option does not provide many of the interactive features of computer-based learning, an investment training and financial modeling course pursued using books and manuals is a much more comfortable option for many students, and a wide range of books can be found on the subject of investment banking.

Set Objectives for Your Investment Banking Training

The next step in determining what type of training is right for you is deciding what your objectives are. In order to succeed in an investment banking course, it helps to have your goals clearly defined. To determine what format of investment banking or financial modeling course will best suit your needs, you should determine:

• How long you are willing to invest in training (i.e. by what date do you want to complete your training?)
• What job, promotion, or position do you want to hold?
• Are there external benchmarks that you want to reach with your investment banking classes (a degree, certifications) ?
• What is your tolerance for risk, stress, and long hours?
• How much money do you want to make over the course of your career?
• How important are specific financial modeling skills to your career advancement?

Answering these questions will help to narrow down what kind of investment banking courses will help you reach your goals. Knowing how long you want to dedicate to training will tell you if you should pursue a four-year degree, a one-year certification, or a five day seminar. If you are currently working in a non-investment banking field, knowing what kind of position you want to hold, or what company you want to work for, will help you decide whether you need an extensive survey of investment banking topics, or whether a basic introductory course in business and accounting fundamentals will be sufficient.

If you are an investment banking professional and wish to develop your prospects for promotion or enhance your familiarity and skills within a certain specialty, this will help you to target the course topics that will be most helpful to you. If you are seeking a particular degree or certificate, this will help to narrow your search to investment banking courses or training materials that are associated with that degree or certificate. Knowing your own tolerance for risk, for job stress, and for putting in long hours will help you figure out what kind of investment banking environment you want to work in, which in turn will help you with your choice of topics when choosing an investment banking course.

For many students, a university degree program is the ideal setting for investment banking training. The traditional university educational format lends itself to a gradual and progressive survey of investment banking, wherein the student starts out with a broad introduction to challenges and opportunities offered by the field of finance. Over the course of a degree, the student has the opportunity to take on increasingly specialized investment banking and financial modeling courses, acquiring a rich and detailed skill set from instructors with broad knowledge and experience in the field. By bringing together students, professors, and industry professionals, university courses provide an environment conducive to learning, allowing students to share insights and benefit from the presence and assistance of other individuals interested in or expert in the same field.

Traditional university courses also offer a high degree of structure, both in the context of individual classes and in that of the degree program. Courses are instructor-led, providing both guidance and responsive feedback to questions. Class schedules, assignment deadlines, and regular examinations to assess learning progress help the student to remain focused and provide direction for the budgeting of time and resources in the learning process. The structure of course offerings themselves can also serve as a guide to learning, offering a progression of successively more advanced and more specialized courses to build upon investment banking fundamentals and provide the student with exposure to potential career directions. The Finance MBA programs of the University of Wisconsin and New York University are examples of degree programs structured this way, offering courses that provide exposure to the specialties and sub-fields available in the industry.

Taking classes in a traditional university setting provides the further benefit of helping the student to make connections both with future co-workers and with potential employers. The business schools at many universities, such as Cornell and Yale School of Management, include career development as a part of their degree programs. Universities offer networking events, interview preparation, internship placement, and hiring recommendations in order to give their graduates the best possible chance of finding employment. These additional career services provide students who take investment banking training and financial modeling courses in a traditional university setting with a decisive edge over other candidates when competing for preferred positions with investment banking companies.

The traditional classroom setting can be beneficial to the learning process by placing the individual in a shared learning context where questions can be asked and answered immediately, and where one can gain understanding of the material from contact with fellow students. However, many working professionals have difficulty in adapting work and family schedules to classroom-based course offerings, prompting many universities such as New York University to make courses and course materials available online. While online courses may lack the immersive quality of a classroom-based course, the ability to take courses from any location is a significant advantage for many prospective students. As demand grows among working professionals for greater flexibility, more business institutions are working to provide additional options to fit a wider range of schedules and circumstances.

The financial industry is reinventing itself in response to market forces. The world of investment banking is a discipline that offers plenty of opportunities for exciting and lucrative careers within the financial industry for hardworking and highly motivated individuals. In this period of financial upheaval and market uncertainty, there is significant demand for skilled, disciplined, and highly trained professionals.

People from many different backgrounds looking for career options find that an investment banking course can provide fascinating new directions to pursue. Whether you are just starting out and looking for a challenging and rewarding field in which to work, looking for a new career path to augment or replace your existing job, or just looking for investment banking training to help you get ahead in your current job, investment banking courses can be extremely productive. Many different kinds of investment banking classes are available, tailored to different schedules, budgets, and levels of previous education.

Evaluating Investment Banking Courses Based on Cost, Quality and Time

Once you have figured out what goals you wish to achieve through investment banking training, how much money you can budget toward an investment banking course, and how much time you have to devote to training, all of these factors can be taken into account to create a list of options that suit your needs. Each possible limiting factor can be applied to the full spectrum of investment banking classes to narrow down the field, allowing you then to decide which course to take based on reviews and recommendations.

For each training option available to you, either in your geographic area or online, it is important to determine the answer to these questions:

- Is the course within my budget?
- Is the course schedule compatible with my schedule?
- If the course is taught at a training center or university, can I get to it?
- Is the topic of the course something that will help me in my career, or help me get the job I am seeking?

Once these questions have been answered, you should have a shorter list of courses that match the criteria of your professional goals and your personal situation. The next step is to find out which courses or training materials are regarded as delivering quality results.

Choosing an investment banking course is a decision whose factors must be carefully weighed, in order to maximize the benefit of the training to the career path and overall situation of the student. To ensure that the training pursued is applicable to the student’s career, within an appropriate budget, and of a format suitable to the material and to the learning style and life circumstances of the student, it is important to evaluate methodically any investment banking courses one may be interested in.

Before selecting a course, these steps should be followed to ensure that the training embarked upon is the best possible fit for the needs of the student:

• Evaluate your personal situation
• Set objectives for your training experience
• Evaluating based on cost, quality and time commitment
• Review feedback from others online
• Select the best fit

Each of these steps will be explored in detail in order to illustrate the optimal strategy for selecting investment banking classes.

For finance professionals seeking to improve their understanding of specific areas of investment banking, or looking for ways to boost their employment marketability or increase their chances for promotion, a specialized financial modeling course can be extremely useful. Training companies and other private institutions that focus on investment banking are good sources of advanced classes in the more specialized areas of financial modeling aimed at meeting the needs of finance industry professionals who are already well-versed in the essentials of financial modeling.

The Breaking into Wall Street Training provides a thorough survey of advanced financial modeling topics, including the following:

• Comprehensive Valuation Analysis
• Integrated Cash Flow Modeling
• LBO (Leveraged Buyout) Modeling
• Merger (Acquisition) Modeling
• Distressed Security Analysis

The New York Institute of Finance provides advanced courses on the following topics:

• Advanced Excel Charting & Graphing Techniques and PowerPoint Integration
• Advanced Financial Modeling, Enhancements and Segment Build-up
• Advanced Segment Build-up Modeling
• Advanced Valuation Modeling – Fundamental and Relative Valuation
• Complex LBO Modeling & Enhancements

The Wall St. Training company, another private training firm specializing in the finance industry, offers these advanced financial modeling courses:

• Advanced Financial Modeling
• Advanced Segment Build-up Sensitivity Modeling
• Fundamental Valuation Modeling
• Complex Trading Comps Analysis
• Deal Comps Analysis

Classroom-based investment banking classes tend to be structured, taking place according to a set schedule and in a pre-determined location, and are generally led by an instructor who presents the material and handles questions and discussions in order to facilitate integration of the course material. Many students find structured teaching extremely helpful in learning and retaining the course material, and benefit as well from the presence of an instructor who can be consulted about points of uncertainty.

For other individuals, preset schedules and locations may present difficulties if conflicts emerge with existing professional duties, family concerns, or other responsibilities. For these students, an online financial modeling course is often a better fit. Online courses allow the student to participate from any location with internet access, and often provide other conveniences such as viewable recorded lectures, supplementary investment banking course materials, and online tests to aid the student in evaluating their retention of the material. The decision between a classroom-based financial modeling course or an online course can be made based upon the circumstances and preferred learning strategies of the student, allowing them to choose the optimal learning format for the skills or knowledge they wish to acquire.

Individuals employed in the finance industry who are interested in taking an investment banking course or a financial modeling class may find that their company is willing to make the training available on-site. Companies have found that on-site training for employees provides a good return on the investment by saving on travel expenses and taking advantage of volume pricing, while also improving the productivity of the company workforce. On-site training also ensures that all employees are receiving the same message, facilitating the sharing of new skills and information, and may aid in retention by demonstrating to employees a willingness to help them develop their careers.

Employees working in financial firms who are interested in taking investment banking classes should consult with their employers to determine if employer-provided training is available. Many of the companies who provide classroom training and online training also offer instructor-led on-site courses, for fees customized to the client firm.

For employees, on-site investment banking training can be a much better arrangement than obtaining classroom-based training or online training on an individual basis. In the case of corporate training, the company pays the training fees, and will sometimes also pay for tests for accompanying certifications. Corporate training also tends to be customized to the needs of the company, increasing the likelihood that what is learned will be used and retained. On-site employer-provided training is generally held in the office to minimize travel expenses and other delays, resulting in a much more convenient training experience for the employee. Employer-provided training also tends to be scheduled during the business day, eliminating the need for employees to fit training into their schedules after hours.

Some companies may ask employees to sign a contract in which the employee agrees to payback the cost of training if they leave the firm by a certain date. Investment firms do this to protect their training investment and is usually a fair trade off for having the cost of the education covered.