Investment Bank
Analyst
Analysts are the most junior ranking professionals of Wall Street Firms. These are Bachelor degree-holders who have joined investment banks on a two-year contract. These promising undergraduate degree holders are the “l(fā)aborers” of the organization， working on unbelievable tight schedules-even by Wall Street standards. While analysts are spread across business functions in the investment bank， the largest concentration is in the corporate finance department. Analysts perform most of the number crunching， writing and putting together of corporate finance term sheet or prospectus of initial public offering deals. This incredibly hard working group of young professionals hope to use their experience obtained through working for a prestigious Wall Street firm or global financial institution to gain entry to a top business school for their MBA after their two-year stint. MBA candidates with prior Wall Street experience are most highly sought after by Wall Street firms and major management consulting firms.
Associate
The entry-level position for MBA in investment banking firms is known as associate. They will generally spend about 6 months to 9 months on a structured training program specific to their business area. Thereafter they will perform the actual line functions， such as sales & trading， corporate finance， research， asset management， etc. The above-mentioned broad categories are further divided into more specialized product areas. For example， within the sales & trading， there are equity and fixed-income divisions; and in the fixed-income area， there are government securities， corporate bond， high-yield securities， etc.
Junior Investment Research Analyst
Underwriting business is an important business of global financial institutions， especially the investment banks. For major state-owned enterprises in China， the prowess of these global financial institutions have unmatched distribution and risk management capabilities to handle global issuance of their initial public offering or secondary offering. The firm that wins the particular mandate is known as the lead manager. This will put them on top of the “Tomb Stone？ scoring big on the annual league table and earning big fees typically ranging from 3% to 5% of the proceeds raised. The lead manager will be “obligated” to the issuance company to initiate research coverage of the issue， and thereafter， duty bound to continue on going professional coverage as a professional to institutional clients who bought the issue. Junior investment research analysts are employed to assist the senior analyst in carrying out their research coverage of these companies.
Securities Salesperson
They constitute the largest number of professionals within the investment banking industry. This is the phenomenon in most of the major financial centers in the world. The securities sales professionals at institutional stock-broking firms manage extraordinary complex relationships between two organizations. There are two main types of securities salesperson： 1） Institutional sales， mostly employed by major investment bank at their institutional sales division， servicing major fund management firms .2） Individual sales， employed by retail stock-broking firms serving active retail clients or high net-worth individuals.
The services provided by securities salespersons include the provision of timely information such as investment research， the upcoming underwriting calendar as well as interpretation of material corporate developments. While some might argue that given the advent of technology and electronic delivery， the role of securities salesperson has been marginalized. China Securities Regulatory Commission （CSRC）， working with other authorities， including the People’s bank of China （PBOC） and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange （SAFE）， promulgated the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors scheme （QFII）， Which had been in force from December 1， 2002. Four categories of foreign institutions， namely Fund management company， Securities company， Insurance company and Commercial Bank have to meet stringent criteria before they may apply to be QFII. Approved QFIIs are allowed to invest in securities （excluding B shares）， treasuries， convertible bonds and corporate bonds listed in China’s stock exchanges and other financial instruments as approved by CSRC.
Prior to the QFII scheme， foreign institutional investors have been focusing on the H shares， Red chips and B shares markets for a China play. Institutional salespersons primarily service their clients out from Hong Kong. As part of their value added services， many of them （institutional salespeople） are organizing field trips， taking clients to visit company management and view production facilities of B shares and H shares companies in China. It may take a while for QFIIs to seriously consider investing in the A shares market given the high valuation and quality of the respective companies， but it is clear that global securities firms would need to hire and develop more professionals who have the knowledge and skill-set to engage the China market.
Furthermore， in a marketplace like China’s capital market， where information barriers exist and efficiency is much to be desired， the role of securities salespeople will be crucial in adding value to the fund managers’ investment process. The key is how to be efficient， differentiated and have the ability to “pool” resources for your clients.