Online Series in Investment Banking

The Online Series in Investment Banking provides a broad and comprehensive curriculum that exposes students to the many facets of the investment banking industry. The concepts and analytical tools offered in this sequential program lay the critical groundwork for graduating college seniors who are planning on pursuing a career on Wall Street in corporate finance, equity analysis, or investment management. The program also prepares professionals in other fields to facilitate career changes and become established in the highly competitive and rewarding investment banking profession.

Offered in collaboration with Global Window Partners, the Online Series in Investment Banking consists of a series of online self-study courses that are presented in an intuitive, easy to navigate format allowing students to effectively absorb the material. Each of the six core courses consist of three to five self-study modules, with approximately 7.5-15 hours of learning time per course. The individual elective modules present approximately 2.5-3 hours of learning time per module.

Students successfully completing the Online Series in Investment Banking receive a testimonial certifying their completion. Successful completion is defined as successfully completing the performance assessment and Knowledge Review questions, Q&A, and Quiz.

Note: It is highly recommended that students complete Accounting X 1A and X 1B or its equivalent, as well as X 100 Business Economics or its equivalent, prior to enrolling in the program.

Download the PDFs here for:

• Online Series in Investment Banking

Required Courses (Six Courses):

Elective Modules (Choose Four):

Students may enroll in the online self-study courses anytime during the regular academic quarters. Upon enrolling, students are automatically directed to the courses and, after initial login and launch of module, are given access to each individual module for a total of 21 days or a maximum of seven (7) launches, whichever comes first.  Windows and high-speed Internet connection are required.

For more information, call (310) 206-1689 or email echerkez@uclaextension.edu.

To view a list of all online self-study courses available this quarter click here.

For frequently asked questions about our online self-study modules click here.
Counseling Fee/Application Fee: $ 75

Students successfully completing this program receive a testimonial certifying their completion. “Successful completion” is defined as earning the grade of C or higher in all credit bearing courses of the curriculum, as well as successful participation in any experimental non-credit courses, unless more rigorous requirements are stated above. The repeat of courses is permitted.

To establish an enrolled status in this program, click here.

Open Enrollment or Apply for Admission?: Open Enrollment
Federal Financial Aid Available: No
Extension Grant Availability: Yes
Estimated Duration (Full Time): 2.0 years
Internships Available: No
All courses available online: Yes
Program ID: TT305

Please note: counseling and application fees, if any, are not refundable, and may be renewable if completion is not attained by the estimated normal progress as determined by your advisor. Students may be subject to retroactive assessment of counseling fees if course work is already underway.

All programs at UCLA Extension require professional-level English language proficiency in listening and note-taking, reading comprehension and vocabulary, written expression, and oral presentation. If you would like to refine your English language proficiency prior to beginning one of our programs, we offer English as a Second Language programs and an array of classes in Communication and Learning skills.

UCLA Extension reserves the right to amend its training curricula by providing course substitutions that in the opinion of our staff are of equal or enhanced educational value. Within the temporal limits covered by counseling fees, students are entitled to complete programs with the curriculum substantively fixed as of the date they enroll.

UCLA is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). The courses within this program have been developed and are administered in accordance with regulations of the Academic Senate of the University of California.

After a few interviews, here are my impressions on a large firm vs small firm in the financial sector -

1. Small firms have had more prying questions. More details for every word on your resume. They are more specific in their needs and requirements for you. Small companies simply don’t have the budget to send you off to analyst/associate training for 3 months. They want you to have the required skills before you show up, and they want to use you right away.

2. Large firms are just the opposite. More structured, yearly internship rotational programs, months of training if necessary. More general (but can be equally difficult) questions. Willing to shape you into what they need, willing to wait for you to develop necessary skills.

Conclusion? QLC’ers should start off at a big firm to utilize the training and resources. The common saying holds - Better to start off big then go small - difficult to go from small to large.

Here’s a list of tech’s top 10 worst jobs.  It just goes to reconfirm that you don’t need a  college degree, let alone an advanced graduate degree, to do a job, you just need them to land you these jobs.  Even if its a crap job, you’ll still be working for google, facebook, yahoo… It may not be fun, but someone qualified is going to do it. Here’s one example - an operations and sales account management type position at google.

I recently interviewed with an investment management firm based on the west coast. They are a traditional stock&bond money manager with more than 2 decades of outperforming their respective benchmarks. Although they also offer some leveraged/alternative funds, they are primarily fixed income, with equity funds growing as well.

My impressions: The job is not so much technical, but “fit with the company culture.” Bottom line - They have to like you. We had a chat about California, Southern vs Northern, UCLA/USC, etc.

Some introductory (1st round) questions:

1. Circumference of the Earth? (Use time zones, known distances/speeds)
2. Square root of 0.9? (Use the fact that sqrt of numbers < 1 increase, and sqrt of 1 is 1)
3. How many pennies fit inside this cup? (Use approximation of a roll of pennies from the bank is 50c worth, or 50 pennies)
4. Explain the concept of a linear equation in layman’s terms, as to your grandma.
5. Where have you visited recently? (London) What is the currency? (pound) Exchange rate? ($1.97) If I buy something in pounds how much is it in dollars?

There were more, but I cannot remember them anymore.

Personal: Thomas Fang … born in Austin, Texas … parents are Jyh-Chen and Chi-Jen Fang … has a younger brother, Patrick … hopes to attend grad school and receive his MBA … intends to major in electrical engineering or computer science.

Hmm, that last line sounds awfully familiar..

Dear Mr. Bracken:
Joseph Rebas suggested that I forward my resume to you for your consideration. I am a second-year MBA student at the Anderson School at UCLA, and I am currently working as a summer associate at J.P. Morgan in New York.
As Joseph may have mentioned, I am in the top 5% of my class at Anderson, and I was recently elected President of the Investment Banking Club. In and out of the classroom I have consistently demonstrated my capacity to make a positive impact regardless of the situation. My analytical and personal skills are ideally suited to investment banking, and I am confident that I would be an asset at Merrill Lynch.
I will call you next Wednesday to discuss next steps. If you do have any questions regarding my resume or qualifications, please do not hesitate to call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. I look forward to speaking with you.
Sincerely: Tim Walinsky

Dear Ms. Carsen:
I am in the second year of an Accounting and Finance degree at the London School of Economics and am looking for a summer internship at your company. During my degree programme, I have become very much interested in how investment and corporate finance institutions operate, and I would like to use my internship to learn more about the interactions of markets and how individual business units operate.
I am attracted to ABC Investments because of your dynamic work force. I’d like to be part of a team that can participate in joint ventures with notable firms like Lehman Brothers on projects such as the one on Izodia, taken up last year. My analytical skills are strong, and I can solve problems accurately in high-pressure conditions. I can also interpret numbers to come up with relevant ideas and suggestions. In addition to English, I speak French and German which are both widely spoken in continental Europe, and my Russian and Ukrainian may be useful since there is a great scope of investment opportunities in eastern Europe.
I am available for interviews any time and can start the internship programme as early as 20 June 2004. I plan to call for an appointment next week. If you’d like to contact me in the meantime, please call xxx-xxxx. I appreciate your consideration.
Yours faithfully,
Kathryn

Tell me about the three classes that have best prepared you for a successful career in consulting.

As is typical with interview questions, there is a wide range of good answers to this question, and your response will obviously be based on your academic focus. Just as you do with your work experiences, think about what your class work has taught you. An effective answer will not only demonstrate that you have paid attention in class, but also that you understand the key skills required for consulting.

Interviewee: Thanks for asking this question. On the surface, it may not be apparent why a history major would be interested in or equipped for consulting, but there are several classes that have helped prepare me for this job.

The interviewee does a nice job of deflecting a potential “gap” in his resume (his major). If you feel that your academic focus is not directly related to the job, you will need to do two things: 1) find a way to relate it; and 2) make sure that the interviewer hears your story, even if she does not ask you about this issue directly.

Interviewee: First, I took a course last year in basic accounting. The course taught me the essentials of accounting, but did not just focus on a strict definition of accounting such as T-accounts and debits and credits. Rather, it focused on all three financial statements and the interplay between them. I learned a lot about how to read and interpret income statements, cash flows, and balance sheets. And, because a lot of the class was taught using a “case” format, we were exposed to a lot of real life examples.

Interviewer: What do you think is the most important financial statement?

Yikes! If you mention a class, make sure that you can speak intelligently about it.

Interviewee: Well, that’s going to depend a lot on the question you’re trying to answer. If you’re interested in growth rates and share vs competition, then the income statement is probably going to be most relevant. However, if you want to know about a company’s ability to afford an acquisition, then the balance sheet is where you’re going to look.

This is a good (and correct) answer. The use of examples is clear and straightforward.

Interviewee: These skills are going to be useful in consulting. I will need to know my way around financial statements, as I mentioned, to do competitive analysis, understand company performance, and identify key areas of focus (for example, R&D).

Interviewer: OK. What about your second class?

Interviewee: This one may appear a little less relevant on the surface, but I think that the seminar I took last spring that focused on U.S. health care policy taught me lessons that I can bring into consulting. The goal of the class was to end the semester with one unified point of view on what our policy should be. There were 15 people in the class, and we brainstormed 15 different topics that we hoped would cover the health care landscape. Each person was asked to write a paper on one of the topics. I wrote about the programs in other developed nations and tried to identify the lessons that the U.S. could learn from these. Everyone presented his or her work to the group and then we spent several weeks discussing what our integrated recommendations should be. The process appears to me very similar to consulting—we had a problem that we needed to solve, we broke it down into manageable pieces, went off and did some work, came back and discussed the work, and then emerged with some suggestions. I liked this process a lot because of the teamwork involved and the ability to work together to identify solutions to a tough problem.

Fantastic—if you’re fortunate enough to have had a class like this. But if you haven’t, make sure that you discuss experiences where you’ve been part of a successful team. In consulting, your ability to work as part of a team is almost as important as your raw analytical skills.

Interviewer: Sounds like a great class. I’d love to hear about your recommendations at some point down the line. What about another class?

Interviewee: Well, there are two other classes that I think had some direct relevance to consulting. I took a class called “Introduction to Quantitative Analysis,” which focused on basic research and analytical methods—regressions, decision trees, some econometrics, etc. I did fairly well in the class, and feel that I can at least speak somewhat intelligently about these topics now.

The candidate does a nice job here of being modest. He knows that he did well, but allows the interviewer to check his transcript should she be so inclined.

Interviewee: The final class—which I loved—was on the history of the retail business in America. There are a lot of lessons that could probably be applied in other industries, but what I liked most about it were some of the anecdotes, such as what the shopping mall did to the social behavior of families, how jeans became so popular, etc. I’ve heard that consultants spend a lot of time at team dinners or waiting for flights, so maybe I could fill up some of the time with these stories.

This is a potentially risky answer it may be interpreted as too jocular. But it works in this context because the interviewee did such a nice job of relating his accounting, seminar, and quantitative analysis classes to consulting life. And, if it’s part of your personality to be a little lighthearted, you may want to see how the interviewer responds; remember, you are going to be spending a lot of time with these people, so you need to like them!

Source: WetFeet

Introductory Screening Questions for Citi North America:

Describe your prior educational background and why you chose that educational path.  

What do you find most interesting or exciting about finance or the financial markets?  

What was your favorite course (graduate or undergraduate; business or non-business) and why?

What is the most influential book that you have read and why?

        What is the most important thing that I should know that is not on your resume?

One of my closest mentors and bosses spent the early years of his career as a politician.  Later on he became a successful technology entrepreneur. Now he’s a community leader and early stage company investor.  Although he’s a gifted software guy, I’d say that his political skills have contributed just as much if not more to his success than his technical skills have.  This guy is amazingly lucid when he communicates.  His opinions and comments are always spot on and he always formulates great arguments to back them up.  He’s also amazingly laid back, approachable and encouraging.  I’ve got lots to learn from this guy. This just goes to show me that political savvy in the workplace will take you places.

Source: WSJ April 19 2008