Investment Banks help companies and governments issue securities, help investors purchase securities, manage financial assets, trade securities and provide financial advice. The leading investment banks including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are said to be in the bulge bracket.

Other investment banks are regionally oriented or situated in the middle market (e.g. Piper Jaffray). Others are small, specialized firms called boutiques which might be oriented toward an industry vertical, bond-trading, M&A advisory, technical analysis or program trading. Firms have lots of different areas and groups within them. In most firms, there is sales and trading which works with owners of securities, investment banking which works with issuers of securities (firms and governments) and capital markets which goes in between the other two.

Further Information on Investment Banking

• Surfing the Cataclysm: Finding Investment Banking Jobs in 2009
  
• Skills & Talents Required in Banking
  
• Getting in the Door
  
• Job Options in Investment Banking
  
• Salaries for Bankers
  
• Links, Books & Resources to Learn More
  
• Facts & Advice About Investment Banking
  
• Top Investment Banks and League Tables
  
• Job Market Outlook as of Feb 2009
  
• Job Listings
  
• Life as an Analyst
  
• Life as an Associate
  
• Headhunter List
  
• Investment Bank List
  
• Making a Trip to New York
  

Best Resources

Investment Banking Explained: An Insider's Guide to the Industry

Provides a complete overview of investment banking in its modern form; defines key terms and discusses the functions of investment banks.

Guide to Boutique Investment Banks: 2009

One of the best places to find a job in the tough market of 2009 is to talk to smaller niche investment banks that have not been as impacted by subprime mortgages, bad loans etc. This guide provides key information including recruiting contacts for the top boutique banks.

Investment Banking Insider's Guide.

Wall Street, where dreams are made and destroyed. While many want to enter, few are given the opportunity. This book serves as a pragmatic guide with tips on what to do as you try to break through what may seem to be an impenetrable door.

Monkey Business: Swinging through the Wall Street Jungle.

By John Rolfe and Peter Troob.

Many a starry-eyed megalomaniac has followed the siren song of Wall Street. Money, prestige, and power await them as they waltz off into the promised land...or so they think. The promised land, it turns out, is always one more twenty-hour workday ... Monkey Business is the hilarious confession of two young investment bankers.

My Life as an Investment Banker

An online 12 part story.

Flocking to Finance

Harvard Magazine, 2008

Working the Street: What You Need to Know About Life on Wall Street

by Erik Banks. A very practical guide to use once you have your banking job.

Investment Banking Career Links

• Banking Basics from Citigroup
• Find Investment Banking Jobs on thousands of job sites with one search. Provided by Indeed.com, "a one stop shop for job seekers" (Wall Street Journal).
• Vault
• WetFeet

Goofy, Grim and Philosophical Links for the Post Bailout Economy

World Financial Center in Shanghai

• An Investment Banker's Take on Life
• Bankers Ball
• Botirvoy's Blog
• Dealbreaker
• Financial Rounds
• Leveraged Sellout
• Mergers and Inquisitions
• New York Daily News Banker Commentary
• Paul Krugman's Blog
• The All Nighter
• Suprime Writedown League Table
• The End
• Vanity Fair's: The Lost Age of Bankers
• Wall Street Bonus Matrix
• Wall Street Folly
• Wall Street Pink Slip
• Job Loss League Table - which banks have fired the most?

Investment Banking Videos

• Barbarians at the Gate
• Boiler Room (ahem, what not to do)
• Bonfire of the Vanities
• Charlie Rose with Felix Rohatyn
• Dot Con (great video about IPOs)
• Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
• Introduction to Financial Markets
• JP Morgan Biography
• Learn Finance
• Rogue Trader
• The Bailout
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• Wall Street
• Wall Street's Shadow Market
• Wall Street Warriors