What is Investment Banking?

Thnx Satyam!

@Satyam:-

Good link. Videos on Valuation by Prof. Aswath Damodaran and Fin.markets by Robert Shiller are excellent.
Thanks :-)

Many Financial Research firms as well as KPOs have come up in India. How easy or difficult is it to shift from these companies to the bulge bracket finance firms?

- Neetu

I had the same question as Neetu...

Also, what does Verity(UBS affiliate), hyderabad do?...tht's a KPO right?....howz it?

I am not sure about Verity specifically but in general if you see people from Evalueserve, Copal Partners or Aranca, then many of them are now working in bulge bracket firms. They are good training grounds and then people move on. I think even the KPOs understand that high performance individuals won't stay there forever.

But there's a lot of negativity around KPO's...Just makes me feel it's gonna hurt when it comes to profile value, especially if sb is planning to join a top MBA college....I'm not too sure if those colleges would look upon the KPO exp as something good...it usually the people who don't get into I-banks that end up in KPO's right??...

Obviously if someone gets into Goldman Sachs, then she won't join a KPO. It's just a backup in case you don't get the best. It's better than going to a IT firm and coding in Java.

As far as top-bschools are concerned, they look for good experience. There are many students in top bschools from Evalueserve. McKinsey has a KPO called McKinsey Knowledge Center. I know some people from Mck that have gone to top 10 bschools. I am not saying that the KPOs will be great but then if you don't get an option to join the best ibanks, what do you do?

I agree with time4apogee that there is a lot of negativity about KPOs especially because it sounds like BPOs. :D

We cannot generalize this but will depend on the specific situation. So your ultimate decision will depend on the name of the company and how it is perceived by other employers/bschools. Also the role and the chance to switch to a better company.

@ Neetu: LOL!! ( I wanted to mention the same thing..You stole my words) ;-)

Well, if a person wants to enter a top global MBA program where even people with exp with top IB, PE and asset management firms get rejected, how does he stand a chance with KPO wrk ex??
I remember speaking to a person working in a top-10 IB. He had 2 yrs wrk ex with a KPO. When he was mentioning his work ex, his voice dropped very low when he mentioned about his KPO wrk ex. It just goes to show he's not quite comfortable talking about it. Even the tone of his voice just made me feel he did it out of desperacy. SO yes, if you can't get into IB's KPO is still better than coding in Java. But from the provile value perspective I'm still not convinced. KPO's wrk ex might do damage as well. In the end, I'm still confused :-(

This is an interesting discussion. While no one doubts that KPOs are not a preferable option to traditional ibanks. The question is what do you do in this kind of market?

Also you have to see that in case you take up a KPO job, how do you exit in a short period of time?

My friend from IIT, got a job in a manufacturing firm. He was bored to death with cranes and motors. He decided to join a KPO and worked for a Hedge Fund client. The client was impressed by his work and somehow he was able to get into the Hedge Fund and now is in US.

So looking back, he made a good decision of getting out of the manufacturing co. However it was a risky move. As all you finance folks know, high risk can lead to high return.