eFinancialCareers

A summer internship isn’t the only way to get an advanced taste of i-banking. You could also try pitching your wits against other students in competitions which replicate the real world of finance.

J.P. Morgan runs two of these contests each year, in which student teams simulate the management of either a portfolio or an M&A deal.

The competitions draw on students’ theoretical knowledge, teach them teamwork and immerse them in the bank’s culture and work ethic. The bank in turn gets a microscopic view of the students’ calibre and skills.

The Asia-Pacific legs of the M&A contest (which J.P Morgan calls “The Deal”) take place in Australia, India and China.

In Australia in 2008, teams from five universities had three weeks to submit a proposal advising on a possible takeover in the luxury-goods sector.

Then, in the first elimination-round, the universities selected their 10 best submissions. From these J.P. Morgan chose five teams, who presented their case to a panel of bank and university staff.

In the final round, the top teams from each Australian university competed with each other and were judged only by JPM bankers.

The winning team from Australia (and the other countries) was sent to Hong Kong for workshops and real exposure to the workings of the bank.

The 2008 The Deal was won by three University of Sydney students: Kevan Shah, Jack Lin and Nicholas Zipfinger, all in their second year of commerce/law degrees, majoring in finance. They were one of the youngest teams, having only studied one introductory finance subject.

All teams were thoroughly immersed into the frenzied life of an M&A banker: they had three weeks, in term time, to digest 700 pages of documents, do all the research and jointly shape a proposal. Long hours and sleepless nights were part of the steep learning process.

“Without the benefit of having already studied technical analysis, we had to come to terms quickly with things like debt covenants, EPS accretion, and their significance in an M&A context. Now we know what they signify - how to assess and judge and use them,” says Lin.

Shah adds: “The team is vital, but so is the variety each individual brings to discussions. You quickly see how important it is to have a team that really works together.”

And for the future? “It really helps us, wherever we work, and will help with our careers. It showed JPM our initiative, application, teamwork and ability. We have all benefited,” says Shah.