What might you be doing?

Investment Banking recruits analysts for four key business areas for JPMorgan:

• Country Mergers & Acquisitions teams
• Pan-European Sector teams
• Country Capital Markets teams (Debt and Equity)
• Securitised Products team

Whatever role you have, there will be common themes to the work and you will balance your time between marketing and executing transactions within investment banking, drawing on the firm's broad range of global resources and senior expertise.

As an Investment Banking analyst, you'll learn to carry out in-depth company and sector research, analyse the data and draw financial and strategic conclusions from your work. You will then present the results to the client creatively and persuasively, ready to clarify and debate any given aspect with confidence.

You will very quickly be working in small teams alongside senior JPMorgan professionals and clients, absorbing a vast amount of industry, country and product knowledge. Your contact with clients - often the CEOs or CFOs of large corporations and government representatives will be an education in itself and the experience and accessibility of everyone around you will make the whole process happen at a phenomenal rate.

Country Mergers & Acquisitions teams

As an analyst in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), your primary focus will be working on M&A transactions within your specific country and across all industry sectors as we promote a broad base of exposure. On a deal team, you will work alongside senior M&A colleagues with knowledge of executing M&A transactions in that country as well as colleagues from the Pan-European Sector teams with a detailed understanding of executing M&A transactions in that industry. The local M&A teams are based in Milan, Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow and London. Within the local M&A teams, your M&A knowledge and skills will combine in a role at the forefront of client interaction and the building of long-term relationships.

Pan-European Sector teams

As an analyst in a Pan-European Sector team, you will use your acquired sector expertise as well as your M&A and Capital Markets knowledge to come up with creative transaction ideas to assist our clients in their strategic development. You will then work closely with our local M&A and Capital Markets teams to execute the transaction itself and co-ordinate the efforts of each of the various teams involved.

You'll help value the target, assess its merits, define the negotiation arguments and tactics with the M&A team, assess the acquisition's impact on the client and work closely with Capital Markets team to determine the optimal financing structure. 

As you gain more and more insights into a particular industry across all countries in Europe and work across all of our product groups, your front-line position with clients will incur enormous responsibility. It's hard to imagine a more effective route into the corporate finance arena.

Country Capital Markets teams

As an analyst in the Debt Capital Markets team, you will play a central role in the raising of debt financing. The team will rely on your analytical and time-management skills and expect you to take rapid ownership of key components of the interaction with clients. You will be actively involved in all aspects of new business solicitation, developing new ideas and pricing new issue opportunities. You will need to develop your skills quickly.

You will be closely involved in the debt financing execution process and would be expected to co-ordinate the production and distribution of bond pre-marketing materials such as investor presentations, Bloomberg roadshows or loan information memoranda. You will work closely with the bank and bond syndicate teams, help focus the respective sales forces on the transaction and assist them in answering credit related questions. You will co-ordinate the documentation process with lawyers and the internal Transaction & Execution group, as well as due diligence sessions with management. As a core part of the team you will also assist with the marketing of the transaction internally and to other potential issuers.

As an analyst in the Equity Capital Markets team raising equity for a new company for example, you will start by writing recommendations on the nature and structure of the transaction. The next part is to work with management to prepare the company's marketing materials, craft the company's equity story, structure the institutional marketing campaign, organise the offering process with lawyers and accountants and start assessing the level of demand from targeted investors as well as providing continuous feedback to the client regarding investor sentiment and equity market conditions. It involves constant communication with the Pan-European Sector teams and Equity Sales, Trading and Research to understand the company's strategy and valuation. You will also need to comprehend investor views on the story and communicate with syndicate banks to organise the marketing of the offering.

While working on an equity derivatives trade as an analyst, you'll become a key liaison with the client, understanding their needs and assisting in cultivating the client relationship on an ongoing basis. By understanding the client's objectives, you can then advise them on a wide range of derivatives solutions, using our trading and research capabilities to provide them with the optimal solution to their needs.

Securitised Products team

From day one you'll be involved in the marketing and execution of securitised financing solutions for a broad range of clients. Your analytical skills will be put to the test when it comes to assessing and modelling cash-flows and it will be a steep learning curve as you come to understand all the components that make up these highly structured transactions. Whether it's marketing an idea to a client, liaising with rating agencies and lawyers during an execution, participating in the roadshow for investors or placing bonds in the capital markets you'll be expected to co-ordinate and take responsibility for these processes like any other member of the deal team. You'll work closely with a broad range of professionals from different areas of the bank including the asset-backed securities syndicate, credit risk management, various swap desks and the illiquid trading desk to name a few. You will gain a broad understanding of all the bank's products that can be put to use in securitisation.

Being part of a global team means that coordination with our offices worldwide is key. It is this broad, intensive experience that will equip you with the technical skills and knowledge to both advise our clients in a first-class manner and ultimately excel in the bank as a well-rounded investment banking analyst.

Can you do this?

Diversity is essential within the Investment Banking business area, which is why JPMorgan recruits from a wide range of backgrounds and many degree disciplines. We've seen bankers with an art or humanities based degree thrive just as well as those from an economics or finance background.

However, there are personal qualities and core skills that are key requirements for a role in investment banking. The starting point is to have a genuine interest in financial markets but you'll also require a proven academic performance and the ability to demonstrate solid numerical and analytical skills. Fluency in English is essential since it's our primary business language, but if you have another European language so much the better.

We are looking for people with real enthusiasm, evident team working and communication skills and a genuinely global outlook. Teamwork and project management skills are critical given that any project typically involves not only various groups within JPMorgan, e.g. M&A, Sector Teams, Capital Markets, equity research and syndicate but also the company's management team, the counterparty, lawyers, auditors, other syndicate members and consultants. You'll need the self-confidence required to assess and understand our clients' needs and the creativity that sees the right solution is identified and delivered thereby exceeding their expectations.

Our analysts take on a high profile role and early responsibility in one of the world's most competitive industries - you'll be accountable for the quality and accuracy of the work you produce right from the start. The hours can be long and the stress levels can be high. Investment banking is a lifestyle choice, so be sure that you have the stamina that will keep you focused and committed to seeing projects through regardless of the pressure.

The good news is that you'll work within a culture renowned throughout the industry as one of the most supportive and proactive. You'll always be able to seek out guidance from people around you and the opportunities to develop your technical and personal skills will come quickly.