The picture below depicts how an investment bank is structured, and details what you must demonstrate to your interviewer in the bottom right corner.
The main take-away from this is that the Investment Bank is split into the Investment Banking division and the Markets division. Under the Investment Banking division you have coverage groups, which have industry specific knowledge and work on many products, and you have product groups, which have product specific knowledge and work with many different industries.
Under the markets division you have sales, trading, and research. For sales you are engaging with hedge funds and other asset managers, and taking buy or sell orders from them. You are also providing them with research or trade ideas that fit in with their strategy. Traders execute the buy or sell order, and build specific experience in the securities they trade and in market structure. Researchers create research for a broad set of products, including rates, derivatives, equities, or fixed income. In each one of these roles you have the macro/micro split. In macro groups you work with more broad markets like foreign exchange, rates, or commodities. In micro groups you work with company specific securities like high yield debt, equities, and derivatives.
Steve also covered what you must accomplish if you wish to interview for a front office finance position. You must have outstanding grades, demonstrate your interest in finance, participate in case competitions, have deep finance knowledge that goes beyond the textbook, be persistent, and demonstrate that you have real world experience. You can achieve this by getting involved in Finance Society in your freshman or sophomore year, and by participating in the case competitions.
If you have any questions on this article, or anything in general, feel free to reach out to us at finance@binghamtonsa.org.
The top of this sheet goes over how an investment bank is split into Markets and Investment Banking. It further describes the groups beneath that. The bottom right box talks about the traits you must have to be an adequate candidate, while the bottom left box talks about the path to Investment Banking.