5 answers
Rishi
Student
Aadampur, UP
3
Questions
Asked
491 views
Any good Investment Banking course recommendations for beginners?
I’m from a non-finance background and currently exploring options like Intellipaat (IIM Ranchi), Coursera, and Udemy. Are these courses actually helpful for breaking into IB, or just theory-based?
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5 answers
Anuj Gupta
Software Engineering
443
Answers
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Anuj’s Answer
Start with research and real conversations. Reach out to professionals on LinkedIn, attend events, and take a course to get a real taste of the work. Then make decisions based on evidence, not assumptions.
Jocelyn Wu
Sr Tax Consultant
2
Answers
Seattle, Washington
Updated
Jocelyn’s Answer
Hi Rishi, thanks for your question. Here are some good options I think it is worthy to look at:
Free Podcasts -
1, The M&A Science Podcast — strong for deal process, diligence, and transaction strategy
2, Acquired — excellent for understanding business models, strategy, and long-form financial thinking
3, Odd Lots — good for markets, macro, and how finance really works behind the headlines
4, Capital Allocators — more investor-focused, but great for learning how capital decisions are made
5, Chat With Traders — useful if you want market structure and trading perspective
6, The Diary of a CEO or How I Built This — less technical, but helpful for business judgment and communication
And some free courses from Youtube -
1, Aswath Damodaran’s channel — probably the best free resource for valuation and corporate finance; very dense, but excellent
2, Wall Street Prep YouTube — practical modeling and interview basics
3, Breaking Into Wall Street clips / lessons — useful for finance recruiting concepts
4, Corporate Finance Institute (CFI) videos — good for fundamentals and accounting refreshers
5, Nate O’Brien / Financial Education-style channels — helpful for basic financial literacy, but lighter on true IB technical depth
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Free Podcasts -
1, The M&A Science Podcast — strong for deal process, diligence, and transaction strategy
2, Acquired — excellent for understanding business models, strategy, and long-form financial thinking
3, Odd Lots — good for markets, macro, and how finance really works behind the headlines
4, Capital Allocators — more investor-focused, but great for learning how capital decisions are made
5, Chat With Traders — useful if you want market structure and trading perspective
6, The Diary of a CEO or How I Built This — less technical, but helpful for business judgment and communication
And some free courses from Youtube -
1, Aswath Damodaran’s channel — probably the best free resource for valuation and corporate finance; very dense, but excellent
2, Wall Street Prep YouTube — practical modeling and interview basics
3, Breaking Into Wall Street clips / lessons — useful for finance recruiting concepts
4, Corporate Finance Institute (CFI) videos — good for fundamentals and accounting refreshers
5, Nate O’Brien / Financial Education-style channels — helpful for basic financial literacy, but lighter on true IB technical depth
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Yang Chen
Finance
2
Answers
Allen, Texas
Updated
Yang’s Answer
I assume you're interested in the front office roles in the IBD (m&a, levfin, dcm, ecm, etc.) and also assume you are still in college and hopefully sophomore or junior (senior or post-graduate is a completely different story)...
Grind hard to make sure you have near-perfect GPA
Outreach to alumni, as many as possible
Get them to have a coffee chat or lunch with you so you can hear first hand their experience, tips, and also try to make an impression of how you are passionate about the career path and are a great fit
Try to get them introduce you to other analysts or associates for coffee chat and connection
Learn the game so you are fully prepared during the on-cycle recruiting if you are at a target school
Otherwise, try to get one of the associates who you connected the most to give you a warm referral during the recruiting season
To be honest, I think the people skills, GPA, and school name are much more valued over certificates from certain courses...
Hope this helps :)
Grind hard to make sure you have near-perfect GPA
Outreach to alumni, as many as possible
Get them to have a coffee chat or lunch with you so you can hear first hand their experience, tips, and also try to make an impression of how you are passionate about the career path and are a great fit
Try to get them introduce you to other analysts or associates for coffee chat and connection
Learn the game so you are fully prepared during the on-cycle recruiting if you are at a target school
Otherwise, try to get one of the associates who you connected the most to give you a warm referral during the recruiting season
To be honest, I think the people skills, GPA, and school name are much more valued over certificates from certain courses...
Hope this helps :)
Denise Gonzalez
Retired
4
Answers
Alpharetta, Georgia
Updated
Denise’s Answer
Hello Rishi, Investment Banking is very broad and depending on the path you would like to take it will require a different training. You need to choose first which side do you want to take, sales or research. From there, what you were looking at was mostly analytics, projections, data, create products, support investment managers, etc, etc. Or, you could go into sales, face clients and use the resources offered to you to make sound advisory. Either way, commitment, practice and networking are also a must. I would try to look for opportunities in houses like JPM, Citi, or investment companies like Fidelity or Blackrock. Most of the large corporations offer internships to help you decide what would you like to pursue
Hetal Patel
29
Answers
Updated
Hetal’s Answer
Courses from Intellipaat (with IIM Ranchi), Coursera, or Udemy help with basic finance concepts but are mostly theory-based. They don’t directly get you into Investment Banking. Real entry depends more on financial modeling skills, internships, and networking.
Thanks for the advice.
Rishi