There are generally three approaches to this question. You can list a number of reasons (e.g. 3) and explain each reason. This approach is the most easy and logical. However, you can also tella story about how you became interested in investment banking, and mention a few concrete reasons during the story.
Finally, you can do a combination of both: tell a story about how your experience led you to be interested in investment banking, and then list a number of specific reasons related to your interest.d
There are many reasons one may wish to enter investment banking, including:
- Opportunity to work and learn from the smartest people
- Ability to execute a large amount of transactions and learn the deal process inside and out
- Passion for finance; IB provides exposure to sophisticated deals as well as financial modeling
- Fast-paced environment
- Collegial team environment
- Meritocracy; people who “sharpen their teeth” move up
- More responsibility than almost any other entry level job
- Passion for client presentation: as you move up, your job becomes more and more like a sales role, since you spend a lot of time pitching potential deals to large corporations
It is a faux-pas to say you just want to go into IB to go to PE or some other exit opportunity.