Finance & Commerce
How to become a Investment Banker
Also known as Corporate Finance Analyst, M&A Analyst. Everything below comes from the same database our assessment scores against.
The route in
1. Undergraduate
3 years- Qualifications:
- B.Com Honours, BBA Finance, B.A. Economics, B.Tech any branch
- Entrance exams:
- CUET, IPMAT, University merit
- Typical cost:
- ₹1.5 lakh to ₹20 lakh
2. Postgraduate
2 years- Qualifications:
- MBA Finance, CFA, M.Sc. Finance
- Entrance exams:
- CAT, XAT, GMAT
- Typical cost:
- ₹5 lakh to ₹30 lakh
Subjects you must have taken
Mathematics. Without these the direct route is closed, though a bridging or open-school route often reopens it.
What does a Investment Banker earn in India?
Entry level
₹10 lakh – ₹25 lakh
per year
Mid career
₹30 lakh – ₹120 lakh
per year
Indicative. These bands are an editorial estimate assembled from public reporting, and have not yet been reconciled against a named dataset. Treat them as a shape, not a promise — the same title pays very differently across a service company, a product company and a start-up.
Outlook
Hiring demand
Stable — steady, predictable hiring.
Exposure to automation
Medium. Parts of this role are already being automated, and the work is shifting toward the pieces that are not. Expect the job to change rather than disappear.
What does a Investment Banker do?
What this actually looks like
A day as a Investment Banker
What you would actually be doing
- Building and re-building financial models as assumptions change through the night
- Preparing pitch material for a meeting that may last twenty minutes
- Reading company filings and industry data to work out what a business is worth
- Sitting on calls where you speak rarely and take notes constantly
- Turning a senior banker's comments around before the morning
Who you work with
- A small deal team, very intensely
- Clients' senior management and their advisers
- Lawyers, accountants and regulators on the same transaction
What you work with
- Spreadsheet models, built from scratch and audited line by line
- Market data terminals and filings databases
- Presentation software, to an exacting house standard
Where and when: A city office, with hours that are genuinely long and unpredictable, especially while a transaction is live. The intensity is the defining feature of the early years, and it is not exaggerated in the stories you have heard.
Working conditions
- Typical hours
- 12 to 14 hours, weekends common
- Remote possible
- No — this is on-site work
- Travel
- high travel
- Physical demand
- low physical demand
Reality check
Before you choose investment banker
A report that only lists what is appealing about a career is an advertisement. This is the other half.
What people like about it
- You work on transactions that are reported in the press
- Pay rises steeply and early relative to almost any other route
- The analytical training is exceptional and transfers widely
- You build a professional network that opens doors for decades
What is genuinely hard
- The hours in the first years cost you sleep, relationships and health if you let them
- Entry is concentrated in a small number of institutes and is intensely competitive
- Much of the early work is formatting and checking rather than deciding
- Deal flow depends on markets, so job security moves with the cycle
- Who tends to enjoy this work
- Can hold accuracy at two in the morning, take a senior person's criticism without losing momentum, and genuinely enjoy the mechanics of valuing a business rather than only the idea of the industry.
- What the education journey is really like
- Usually a commerce, economics or engineering degree followed by an MBA from a well-regarded institute, or a professional qualification such as CA or CFA. Where you studied matters more here than in almost any other field in this report, and that is worth knowing before you plan around it.
Other legitimate ways in
The first route does not always work, and it is not always the best one. These are real alternatives, not consolation prizes.
Analyst programme route
- Strong undergraduate degree, or an MBA from a top institute
- Analyst or associate at an investment bank
- Vice president and above, or exit into private equity or corporate development
The highest-paying graduate route in finance, and the hours are genuinely as bad as reported.
Boutique and domestic advisory
- Finance qualification — CA, CFA or MBA — with modelling skill
- Boutique advisory, domestic bank or corporate finance team
- Deal leadership, or your own advisory practice
Smaller deals, more responsibility earlier, and considerably more sustainable hours.
Who may not enjoy being a Investment Banker?
Nothing here is a judgement about you — it is what the job is like, listed so you can decide whether it is what you want.
- The hours look like this: 12 to 14 hours, weekends common.
- It cannot be done remotely. The work needs you physically there.
- Travel is a constant feature of the job rather than an occasional trip.
- The route is long: about 5 years of study before you are earning from it.
The four hardest things about the work itself are listed above, under what is genuinely hard. If those and the points here describe things you would rather not sign up for, that is a real answer and worth having before a stream or a degree is chosen around it.
What skills does a Investment Banker need?
What the job actually asks for, split four ways. The assessment tells you which of these your own scores already speak to.
Technical skills
- Financial modelling and valuation
- Transaction structuring and deal documentation
- Due diligence and information memorandum preparation
- Pitch construction and market analysis
People skills
- Sustaining accuracy through very long hours
- Handling senior clients early in your career
- Absorbing a deal collapsing after months of work
Digital and AI skills
- Advanced spreadsheet modelling
- Market data terminals and research platforms
- Presentation and data room tooling
Industry knowledge
- How bulge bracket, domestic and boutique banks differ in work and pay
- What the analyst to associate to VP progression actually involves
- Where bankers exit to — private equity, corporate development, entrepreneurship
If Investment Banker appeals, also look at
Chosen by how far the interest pattern and the weighted activities of each one overlap with this. The reason is printed so you can disagree with it.
Finance & Commerce
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use quantitative.
Finance & Commerce
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use quantitative.
Finance & Commerce
Uses the same quantitative and accuracy & verification skills. You get in a different way.
Finance & Commerce
Uses the same quantitative and sell & grow skills. You get in a different way.
Business & Management
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use quantitative.
Streams this is reachable from
Exams worth knowing about
Where an exam has its own page, it lists every other career it opens — useful if this one turns out not to fit.
Where this qualification also leads
The degrees on this route open other doors too. Worth knowing before you commit to one destination.
Who tends to be happy here
People who rate these highly tend to stay in this work. If none of them sound like you, that is worth taking seriously.
- Achievement
- Recognition
Are you sure Investment Banker is the career you want?
Everything above describes the job. None of it tells you whether it fits you. So it is worth asking plainly, before a stream or a degree gets chosen around it.
- Not sure? Then this is exactly the question the assessment exists to answer. It compares you against Investment Banker and 196 other careers, and shows the arithmetic behind every score, so you can see why rather than being handed a verdict.
- Quite sure? Then double-check anyway. Being certain is not the same as having checked, and the cost of finding out late is counted in years rather than in the 45 minutes this takes. If it confirms what you already think, you carry on with a reason instead of a hope — plus the education route, the entrance exams and a ninety-day plan.
And if it does not line up, nothing closes. Investment Banker stays on your list with the gap named and a route attached, next to the careers your profile already reaches — so the answer is something to act on either way.
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Last verified 2026-08-01. This is a career-guidance instrument. It is not a clinical or diagnostic tool. It does not measure intelligence, IQ, or a person’s worth. Its results are one input among several, and are intended to be interpreted with a trained counsellor.