Doing Deals: Investment Banks at Work

Rating:
Summary: Not bad but there are better choices
Review: Book is not bad but expensive. For a good general overview of what bankers and other people in an M&A deal do, take a look at my work, Deal Teams by Frankel.

Rating:
Summary: I found this book the best of this kind
Review: I am currently studying at the INSEAD MBA, France. Looking for information about the investment banking industry, I have been browsing dozens of books on the subject, but very few helped me to see both the big picture and the details of how the industry works. Fiction like Liers' Poker or Barbarians at the Gate missed the technical points and presented a very blurry picture of what investment banking is about apart from psychological or philosophical concerns. At the same time, technical books like The Industry of Investment Banking were too broad in technicalities, but narrow in the cultural issues. As I was reading "Doing Deals," I found the best industry guide of its kind, the book that provides very detailed information how the internal functions are structured, how the deals are done, how bonuses are allocated, what management practices are in place, what cultural differences one should expect between firms and between different functions within companies, what is driving the people who work at investments banks, and what personal qualities and experiences are expected from potential applicants. In addition, the book gives a lot of detail in its description of the principal industry players and the differences in their strategies. While the Vault.com guide is an absolute must read for everyone, who considers investment banking for his future career, "Doing Deals" is a much more fundamental book. True, it does not provide a list of short answers to finance interview questions, therefore adjust your expectations. What it does, however, is that it gives a very thorough and detailed description of how the industry functions and a very competent and knowledgeable analysis of strategic specifics within banking firms. While the Vault.com guide is for everyone, this book is more targeted at a seriously-minded reader.

Rating:
Summary: good guide, but also read Vault guide
Review: This book is a good overview of the investment banking business, but it
is quite expensive. I would strongly recommend instead or in addition
the Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking.... The Vault guide includes more
detailed overviews of all the departments and functions of an investment
bank including corporate finance, M&A, sales, trading, private client
services, credit, etc. If you are a job seeker in investment banking
also try the Vault Guide to Finance Interviews, which contains actual
investment banking finance interview questions and answers and which I
found to be enormously valuable in my Wall Street job search.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but I've read better guides
Review: This book was useful, but I thought the Vault Reports Guide to Investment Banking was more detailed and provided an "insider" view of the firms. Plus for job seekers it has actual finance interview questions and answers.