Breaking into investment banking: spend $258 before you spend $7,000

If you want a banking job, start with $258, not $7,000. Sit FINRA’s $100 SIE exam, which anyone 18 or older can take without a sponsor, and buy one interview course: Wall Street Oasis’s was $158 through our link when I checked out on 5 October. Leave the $7,000 WSO Academy until you know you need a mentor, which mostly means career changers without a network.

Or read on for what each one buys you ↓

Banking prep is sold the way gym memberships are: a countdown on every page, a “value” in the thousands crossed out, and a premium tier that promises the job. Most candidates need far less than that. Here is what each price actually gets you, cheapest first, with every figure read on 5 October.

1. $100: the one item an employer can check

The Securities Industry Essentials exam is run by FINRA, the industry regulator, and it costs $100. FINRA’s own page says it is open to anyone aged 18 or older, including students, that you don’t need to be with a firm to take it, and that a pass stays valid for four years. It is also the first of two exams a banker needs. The second, the Series 79, can only be taken once a firm sponsors you, and it is $395, which an employer normally pays.

Passing the SIE doesn’t let you do the job on its own, and FINRA says so. What it does is put a regulator’s exam on your resume that an employer can verify, before anyone has hired you. Nothing else on this list can do that. Our guide to investment banking certifications explains how the SIE and Series 79 fit together.

2. $158: one interview course, bought through the right link

Once you have interviews, they decide the outcome, so this is where I’d put a small budget. Wall Street Oasis’s IB Interview Course has 27 modules, more than 250 lessons and over 1,000 practice questions. When I went to its checkout through our link on 5 October, it showed $158 one-time, or three payments of $56. The same checkout without our link was $197. The difference is a reader discount: WSO takes 20% off for people who arrive through its partners. It comes with a 12-month money-back guarantee.

Ignore the countdown and read the checkout line. WSO’s page shows a timer and a crossed-out “value” of $3,113. The number that matters is the one in the checkout box before you pay. If you’re coming from outside finance and need to learn modeling as well, WSO’s Elite Modeling program showed $398 through our link (list $497). Before you buy either, work through our free list of investment banking interview questions. If you can already answer most of them, you may not need a course at all.

3. $7,000: WSO Academy, and who it’s actually for

WSO Academy is a different kind of product: a cohort program with mentors drawn from what WSO describes as a network of more than 5,000 people in the industry. On 5 October its page listed tuition at $7,000 if you pay upfront, $8,000 over ten months, or $10,600 over 24 months. The next cohort starts on 2 November, and when I checked again on 12 October the page gave that day as the application deadline.

What $7,000 buys that $258 doesn’t is a person in your corner. If you’re a student at a school banks recruit from, you likely have alumni, career services and a recruiting calendar already, and the first two items above will carry you a long way. If you’re switching careers, or at a school no bank visits, a mentor who can tell you who to call is the hard part to find on your own. That is the case for the Academy. Since this cohort has closed, you have time to try the $258 route first. Our Wall Street Oasis review goes through the Academy in more detail.

A disclosure: WSO pays OnlineCourseing 20% when someone buys a course through our links, and $300 when someone enrolls in the Academy, which is the most it pays us for anything. I’m still telling most of you to skip the Academy. ZTM, in the box above, also pays us. Trying to break in this year? Reply with where you’re starting from (student, career changer, or already in finance) and I’ll tell you what I’d spend on first.