Not hard. People who claim it is hard, are doing it wrong. If you want to lose weight, you shouldn't eat at McDonald's every day.

In the beginning of my career, I was contacted by Standard and Poor's before I graduated from my BSc.

Some friends wanted to go investment banking. I wanted to do something different, and what S&P offered was truly interesting. After a while, I quit and went for a MSc in Quantitative Finance. Before I finished, I could have easily worked in an investment bank, as the banks were heavily recruiting at the campus. I've had an interview with guys from JP Morgan to join their M&A team in London but I was disgusted by their “elite smell”. Barf..

I decided to pursue the continuation of mathematics. So I became a quant.

This entire time, I've had interest from other firms. So after I got sick and tired of coding, I was looking around. I didn't have to struggle to get an entry in investment banking. I even missed my interview the first round (I simply overslept), yet, they still wantes me to come back.

The interviews this time around were even more easy. The first was talking about the upcoming ski-holidays during the winter and which place was better, the second was what work I was going to do. I was like, wait, interview no? Apparently it was already decided I was going to get in.

If you want to become an investment banker -

Join a target University
Course or degree doesn't matter much. Mathematics often gets you a bit of an advantage.
Apply for 100s of these investment banking workshops and seminars and internships
If you didn't get it - apply for a 100 more
Get a well written CV
1 page
No pictures
No bullshit - focus on skills and experience - rather than “what you have done”. No one cares.
A lot of people want just that one m&a ticket at Goldman Sachs. If they don't get that, they cry and moan. You need a little bit of luck, to get through for that particular job. A good friend of mine got an interview at Goldman as well as for Rothschild in London for their m&a team. Goldman was hesitant, Rothchild was not. The moment Goldman got wind of Rothchild offering the guy a position (HR talks..), they've made him a offer. Too late…