Heeral Kothari | JP Morgan

Heeral Kothari currently works at J.P. Morgan as an Investment Banking Analyst with the Diversified Industrials, Transportation & Healthcare (SEA coverage) team and has been working at J.P. Morgan since November 2018. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Heeral was an article intern at S.R. Batliboi & Co LLP (member firm of EY), Kolkata where she worked from March 2015 to March 2018. She holds a degree in Chartered Accountancy from ICAI and a B.Com (Hons) degree from J.D. Birla Institute, Kolkata. She will be sharing her experience from her stint at J.P. Morgan focusing on sharing insights about the Investment Banking Industry in India.

Interview

How did you recruit for this role? What would your advice be for potential candidates aspiring to get here? (Recruiting strategy, cycle, process etc.)

I was interviewed on the basis of a recommendation put in by an employee already working with J.P. Morgan at that point of time. There was an opening in the DIT & Healthcare (South East Asia) team; I had 2 rounds of technical interviews spanning over a week- each round lasted for 1hr-1.5hrs, post which I was recruited.

Advice to candidates

• Please be thorough with your CV and your career goals. Investment banking is known to be an industry which is extremely demanding, hence candidates should be aware of the intricacies of the industry they wish to build their career in.
• Note, the openings at boutique firms and bulge bracket firms are rarely made public. I would suggest to keep checking job openings on Linkedin, but more importantly to get in touch with relevant consultants who specialize in recruiting for finance jobs (eg. Michael Page, Native etc).
• Potential candidates may even choose to cold call existing employees who are part of the teams they wish to interview with

What are the key skills that are required for this role?

• A strong base in finance is a must for this role as the work entails number crunching, financial statement analysis and valuation to a great extent.  
• It is important to track the performance and news of certain sectors/ companies in the capital markets on a timely basis; this practice will help in identification of trends that will help in understanding the financial needs of the corporates better
• Necessary to have strong communication and networking abilities along with strong project and time management skills
• One should also be comfortable with working on MS-office or similar software packages as a major part of job responsibility entails creation of presentations or slideshows and relies on comprehensive documentation as well

What is the typical feeder profile (typical previous work experience) for this industry in general and for your firm in particular?

• A typical feeder profile for this industry would be one containing a MBA (in Finance) degree from a top tier management institute.
• A degree such as Chartered Accountancy also helps, however, since CAs don’t usually have the privilege of being interviewed by IBs in their campus placement interviews, they need to resort to cold calling to land a job in a boutique/ bulge bracket bank
• In terms of work experience, freshers are generally recruited from campus placement interviews and may/may not have relevant work experience in the field of finance. However, for lateral hires it is imperative that they have industry/ product work experience relevant to the team they’re interviewing with or comparable work experience in modelling, valuation etc.
• For my firm in particular, internships are usually given to interns from established engineering institutes and full-time roles are given to such intern converts or CAs/ MBAs

Is there an education path that is preferred for getting a role in this industry?

Yes, as specified earlier- an MBA (with focus on Finance) degree from a top tier management institute will give a candidate an edge over others. Alternatively, CA is another qualification, which is sought after in potential candidates. If one has cleared 2 or 3 levels of the CFA program, that is recognized as well

What is your total team size and what is the typical team staffing on a case/deal?

My team consists of 10 members (Incl. associates & analysts). Typical team staffing on a case would be of 1 person or of maximum 2 people.

What is a typical day at work for you?

I usually clock in 12 hrs on an average day and apart from working on the pitches/ mandates I have been staffed on, a lot of time on a daily basis goes into checking market updates, tracking earning releases and corporate announcements, and reading up on M&A intelligence /news surrounding the clients I regularly cover. Whenever I get a breather, I also try to brainstorm around potential funding or buy side/ sell side M&A ideas for my clients

What are your key responsibilities and deliverable on a case/deal?

On a case/ deal- key responsibilities usually include executing pages on buy side or sell side pitch books, pages such as those covering industry overview, company overview/ profiles, valuation of target etc. Other responsibility screening potential targets or buyers, identifying key investment highlights for buyers, creating and updating Comparables/ charts etc. From time to time, we are also expected to develop valuation models, conduct liquidity analyses of companies etc.

What is the typical exit that people get from this role?

People usually move to private equity/ venture capital funds from the investment banking industry. There are people who develop an interest in equity research as well after spending time in this industry because of the time spent on reading broker research and analyzing the same. Other exit options include switching to an advisory role in corporate finance or a strategy oriented role in corporates, start ups etc.

What are the pros and cons about this role?

Pros:

• Investment banking is a highly sought after, prestigious career option. The compensation is great. When you are working for a big bank, the salary will exceed your expectations.
• There is constant networking with people who are highly qualified and well connected with the current happenings of the industry.  Even when it comes to client interactions, IB teams usually interact with the CXOs of the company- so there’s a lot to learn and imbibe from them!
• There are wide prospects if you decide to leave investment banking i.e. switching to private equity, consulting etc.

Cons:

• The hours are long and strenuous.
• An analyst is expected to be available and responsive, most of the time (including when on leave), and can typically work 80-90 hours a week, including weekends
• Investment Banking is really competitive because it pays better than nearly every job and has great exit opportunities

What are your typical work hours in a week (including weekends)?

An analyst can typically work 70-80 hours a week (including weekends)

How do the responsibilities evolve as one grows in this industry into senior roles?

• As one grows in this industry, one is expected to have strong industry or product knowledge in the particular sector/ product being covered.
• Plus, networking and maintaining a good client relationship with the key client is imperative if you want your bank to be the preferred banker for the top corporates in the industry – hence, seniors are expected to be aware, updated and in regular contact with their key clientele.
• Also, as seniors- you are expected to focus more on idea generation as well as take on more complex modelling/ valuation assignments.
• A senior would also be expected to have strong managerial skills in terms of time and team management as he/she would be juggling multiple pitches/ mandates at once

What would be your advice for people aspiring for a similar role?

• Start developing your CV once you have completed your graduation and try to gather relevant work experience so that you are already one step ahead of other potential candidates
• Show an interest in capital markets, and current affairs especially those related to M&A intelligence/ funding rounds of companies relevant to your geography/ sector
• A past internship in valuation/ modelling or exposure to a finance oriented course (especially if you’re from a science background) is a great value add
• Also focus on developing other skills such as MS-office skills ( you will be working on creating powerpoint presentations 80% of the time); Additionally, be comfortable with databases like Factset, Thomson Eikon, CAPIQ, Bloomberg etc. as you will be expected take a lot of inputs from these databases in your day-to-day work