Finance: Types of writing associated with
the major
Writing
as an investment banker
When embarking on your journey into
the business world you are faced with many opportunities to write. Depending on
your major you can face a variety of different writings that have to do with
the subject that you are studying. In specific regarding paths in business,
this paper will be covering the occupation of investment banking. I interviewed
a well rounded investment banker who has seen many years in the field. I will
be using quotes from this interview as well as quotes from various reliable
writing pieces found in online data bases. This job requires a variety of
writing that can vary greatly. Whether it be business proposals, emails,
resumes, presentations or letters to colleagues there are many types of writing
in the world of investment banking.
Non
Academic Writing
An Investment firm is a hustling and
bustling place. Ideas are thrown left and right as deals are made and proposals
are drawn up. These ideas are spread throughout the office in a variety of
ways. When I interviewed a professor in the Pappa John School of Business, who
was once a former investment banker for the Lehman brothers, he said that his
most common form of writing that he did every day was through mail and later on
as technology advanced, emails. The professor stated, “Every day I spent at
least two hours speaking with other coworkers on new ideas. We would converse
with each other through notes and through letters.” (Richmon) This means that
when he worked he had to write down his notes and ideas so that he was later able
to share with his coworkers. He also had to speak to clients by way of letters
and emails as well. He said, “In order to talk to them I had to keep up to date
with my work and constantly send letters in the mail to my clients. The common
misconception with Investment banking is that everything is all numbers. That
is far from the truth. With investment banking you have to woo your client. You
have to make them like you. Which means you have to keep up good contact with
them so that they know you care about them” (Richmon). This was a shock to me
as I thought that being an investor meant you just had to work with the numbers
and that was the majority of your work. But from the interview, I learned that
not only is communication important, it is more important than a good majority
of the numbers in finance. An investment banker has to be able to keep a good
relationship through communication with their clients. Communication is key and
should not be overlooked when becoming an investment banker.
There are many other forms of non
academic writings in the office place with an investment banker. I asked the question,
“What kind of writings do you present as an investment banker”. His response was,
“When you work as an Investment banker, proposals are a big part of your work
load. Proposals can be presented to a range of people, including your clients, colleagues
or your boss. These proposals are usually power points or presentations that
are used to convince and persuade your audience on an idea that you or your company
might have” (Richmon). As stated in the quote these proposals are used to
convince. The goal of this type of writing/presentation is to gain your
audiences faith in the project that you are trying to accomplish. The
presentations will include data and facts presented in power point form or any
form that you may choose that can be presented to a large audience.
Other forms of non academic writings
that an Investment banker has to do include write ups on reports, quarterly reports
and many types of excel type documents used for recording data that comes from
the field. The fact that I learned from the interview that had the most impact
on was that Finance and investment banking isn’t all math. It has a lot to communication
and relationships and that is something to think about when considering a job
in finance.
Academic
Writing
As an investment banker your day to
day work is closely related to the stock market. Your proposals and ideas all originate
from how the stock market is doing. You have to be up to date on your sources
or else your writings will have no validity. Your clients, colleagues and especially
your boss need you as a banker to make sure that your sources are valid or else
the firm loses credibility and you could lose your job. You can stay up to date
on the stock market through cell phone apps, online market reviews and many
other sources that recap the day to day events that have happened in the stock
market. One that I found was called “Marketwatch.com”. The website gave the
daily averages for all of the top stocks, including the DOW jones, the NASDAQ
and many any more important stocks that are analyzed every day by big firms
such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. These websites would be a big help to an
investment banker.
Another form of writing that
investment bankers use or help with are publishers that make shows that recap
or give advice on the stock market. An example of this would include the show “Mad
Money” with Jim Cramer. Jim is a former investor who now hosts his own show
that speaks on the day to day ups and down of the stock market. As a former
investor, Jim knows a good amount about the stock market. He uses his knowledge
as an investor to help other investors make assessments on the market on how
they should invest their or their client’s money. There are many other
investors who use this type of production whether it be on a TV show or through
and online blog. Most are very informative.
One last piece of academic writing
has to do with publishing’s by newspapers like the New York Times. Investors
create short articles that update other investors that read newspapers on
current events happening in the stock market. An example can be found with the
New York
Times.
It is titled “Business and Finance” and contains updates from September 14,
2015. Events include: “Bank of America is
under growing pressure from investors to make broader changes in its board.”
and “Facebook is
seeking to bring virtual-reality to the cellphone with an app to support
360-degree videos.”. Updates like these can be useful to investors
because they give them insight to what a company is doing and how it will
affect the market. All of these academic sources are created by and used by
investors and they all can be beneficial when used correctly.
Conclusion
Contrary to popular belief there is
quite a bit of writing in the world of finance. Whether it be academic or non-academic,
there are lots of ways to write when working with finance. When writing as an
investment banker it is important to remember that its not always about the
numbers, but also the people that are going to be reading your writings. Those
people are the ones that matter the most. Those are the ones that need to be
sold by your writing. Finance isn’t always a number game and that’s crucial.
Reference Page
Business & Finance. (2015, September 14). The
Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
Mad Money with Jim Cramer. (2015, September 15).
Retrieved September 15, 2015.
US
Market Overview. (2015, September 14). Retrieved September 15, 2015, from
Personal
Interview: Brian Richman
By first impression, I thought your paper was well thought out and organized. What I would improve on however, is your wording, thesis, personal interview quotations, and your last sentence in your conclusion mainly. Even though you had some very good quotes in your personal interview, I would avoid saying things like "He said" and I asked this". Even though your conclusion was "fire", I would work on your last sentence, because it did not tie up the whole paper, but instead made me a little confused. And lastly I would just in general work on your wording in multiple places throughout your paper. You have good thoughts, you just need to make them flow better.
ReplyDeleteYour paper has a good introduction. After reading your thesis I felt that I could understand where you were headed with your essay. Your thesis is also well worded as it isn’t an argument but rather an informational claim. I would suggest you add more background information on investment banking in the introduction.
ReplyDeleteThe general paragraph structure of your paper is done well. Almost all paragraphs have a topic sentence that clearly states what will be covered in the following sentence. I would suggest you merge paragraphs three and four as they cover generally the same idea and have very similar topic sentences. Also, I would revise the topic sentence of the second paragraph under the Academic Writing headings. I would also recommend trying to include more transitions from paragraph to paragraph.
Overall the flow of your paper is logical. The headings provided make reading and comprehension easier. You also did a great job of citing quotes from your interview. Professor Richman seems to have a lot of relevant experience, which adds to the credibility of your paper. Check to make sure all the quotes have correct in-text citations and that your reference sheet is correctly cited as well. When you revise your paper, make sure to focus on paragraph transitions, correct APA formatting, and removing redundant phrases. For example, “The professor WAS ONCE A former investment banker,” could be changed to, “The professor IS a former investment banker.”