How to prepare to work in investment banking and strategy consulting?

There are many of you, following the recruitment post in my old post, who asked me what needs to be prepared for this profession if you are an outsider. I have the following suggestions regarding the most basic preparations:

A. Professional Knowledge

1. Corporate Valuation: Read McKinsey’s Valuation book or learn Valuation from Damodaran (go online and Google it). If you want a quick route, go online and take the 2 Valuation courses from Wall Street Prep, and that will do. (https://www.wallstreetprep.com)
2. Business Strategy:

1. Contemporary Strategy Analysis by Robert Grant
2. Blue Ocean Strategy

B. General Industry Knowledge

1. Go to CafeF and Stoxplus: Understand the financial status of companies;
2. Read the Annual Reports or annual strategy presentations of major companies in Vietnam, such as Masan, Vingroup, and Vinamilk. Read to understand what their competitive advantages are and why they are unique.
3. Go to SlideShare: Look for and read pitching documents from companies. Especially read the Masan Group CEO’s presentation on business strategy (from a few years ago, extremely interesting).
4. Read McKinsey Insights to understand global management, strategy, and product trends.
5. Read DealStreetAsia and TechCrunch to know what is happening in the investment community, fundraising stories, and companies.
6. Study corporate law and understand securities law very thoroughly. Anyone who works hard will only take 1 week to read and understand it all. (However, when going deep into the stage of drafting documents and negotiating terms, you will definitely need a top-tier lawyer. M&A/consulting lawyers are completely different from lawyers in other fields, so they cannot be used interchangeably.)

C. Certain Skills

1. Presentation skills: It is best to watch product launch videos of Steve Jobs or learn Steve Jobs’s presentation style.
2. Writing skills: If you have studied for an MBA or PhD, remember how to write an executive summary in a concise and succinct manner.
3. Document formatting and presentation skills: For this, you must look at sample templates of certain company documents you have worked on (information memorandum, strategy consulting notes, teaser). This skill is not difficult, but you must practice. Anyone with an aesthetic eye, logical mindset, and scientific thinking usually finds it very easy to do.

D. Broad External Knowledge

Working in this profession, you must possess deep, specialized expertise, but broad general knowledge. You must regularly browse to see what is happening in the world and how it affects the Vietnamese and global economies.

Strangely, many young people these days are very lazy to read about the general world situation. Asked, they know nothing. Asking what Brexit is? What the US–China trade war is about? How the Vietnamese economy is currently assessed by experts? Is the 4.0 Revolution in Vietnam real or merely hollow rhetoric?

Will Ho Ngoc Ha get married again? How does Le Quyen confide about work and her husband—is it as tense as in the newspapers? Why is the Dr. Hoang Cong Luong case so important? Who is the current President of Vietnam, why do many people like him, and for what reasons? Why can’t the story of a female teacher beating children or an entire province swapping exam papers prove that the Ministry of Education’s capability is overall bad?

Many of you read nothing at all. You have very narrow interests. Therefore, talking to you is extremely boring and disappointing.

That general knowledge is very important for you to possess multidisciplinary insight when consulting and conversing with clients. Remember that your clients are C-levels (CEO, CFO, CMO, etc.); they are extremely intelligent and knowledgeable. They will not want to talk to foolish people who waste their time. They will love talking to you (and subsequently signing contracts) if you can share their concerns.

E. Experiences in the Consulting Profession

1. Whatever you do, you must “get your hands dirty”: Be ready to carry the briefcase and serve the bosses. Volunteer to join any and all deals. Do not use the excuse “I am very busy” to hide away.
2. The phase of strategy consulting and negotiating company acquisitions is the most interesting phase. Do not skip it. At that time, you will learn a great deal from how to negotiate, understanding terms, when to yield (genuinely or falsely), when to be ready to walk away from the game, then managing your clients’ expectations, speaking so the client understands without becoming greedy (when doing M&A), or having to change the client’s mindset (when doing strategy consulting).

F. To Gain Inspiration for Working in Consulting

1. Watch the following movies to understand the financial world: Pretty Woman, Barbarians at the Gate, Wall Street (both parts).
2. Watch the Series: Suits to learn negotiation, battle layout, and argumentation.
3. The best part of the investment banking or strategy consulting profession is that you always learn something new, are always exposed to extremely intelligent and successful people (your clients), and therefore, each time you finish a hard deal, you become richer in experience and more capable.
4. Like a rolling snowball, the more it rolls, the thicker it becomes. And you will find your work extremely interesting. Even if you no longer work in this profession later on, you will have reached a much higher level and be able to work in many other professions.

Wishing you success!

Nguyen Quoc Toan