Personal Projects That Strengthen Investment Banking Recruiting

Investment banks do not normally recruit analysts based on personal projects alone. Grades, internships, leadership, networking, and interview preparation still matter. A well-executed project can strengthen your candidacy if you lack finance experience, attend a school with limited recruiting access, or want tangible evidence of technical ability.

Your project should produce something you can show or explain, such as a valuation model, investment memo, transaction analysis, or industry report. Simply watching finance courses or managing a small brokerage account is less persuasive because an interviewer cannot easily assess your process.

Often, the biggest benefit is the interview preparation you get along the way. If you research a company, build its financial statements, value it, and defend your assumptions, you gain specific examples for discussing accounting, valuation, industry trends, and your interest in banking.

Choose a project that resembles an entry-level banking task while remaining realistic for one person. Depth matters more than producing several shallow reports. One finished project with defensible assumptions usually helps more than five partially completed models.

A public-company valuation is the most broadly useful option. Select a company with accessible filings, build historical financials, forecast operating performance, and value the business using comparable companies and a discounted cash flow analysis. A discounted cash flow, or DCF, estimates value by converting projected future cash flows into today’s dollars. You can add a precedent-transactions analysis if reliable deal information is publicly available.

You can also analyze an announced merger or acquisition. Summarize the buyer’s rationale, purchase price, financing, valuation multiples, expected benefits, and major risks using public filings and investor materials. Do not claim to know management’s reasoning beyond what the companies disclosed.

An industry landscape can help if you are targeting a particular sector. Map the industry’s value chain, major competitors, revenue models, growth drivers, risks, and recent strategic activity. Pairing the report with short profiles of potential acquisition targets can demonstrate commercial judgment, although you should not present it as confidential deal sourcing.

A detailed stock pitch can also work, especially if you are active in a student investment fund. Banking interviewers care less about whether the share price later moved in your predicted direction than whether you understood the company, analyzed its valuation, identified risks, and communicated a coherent recommendation.

• Three-statement forecast and valuation of a public company
• Analysis of a publicly announced acquisition
• Industry landscape with company profiles and relevant transactions
• Research-backed stock pitch with valuation and risks
• Operating model for a business model you understand, such as a subscription company

You do not need a paid database to build a credible project. For a U.S. public company, start with filings available through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system and the company’s investor relations website. If the company is listed elsewhere, use the relevant securities regulator or exchange. Annual reports, quarterly filings, earnings materials, and investor presentations usually provide the core historical information.

An acquisition analysis requires a slightly different source set. Look for the announcement, merger agreement, proxy statement or tender offer documents, and any presentation released by the companies. For comparable-company work, record the source and date for share prices and balance-sheet data. If forward estimates are unavailable, use historical metrics or explain the limitation rather than guessing at consensus figures.

Keep a simple source log with links, document dates, and the figures you used. An obscure private company, appealing as it may seem, often creates avoidable data gaps. If essential information is missing, narrow the question or switch targets before investing more time. Your project will be easier to check and defend in an interview.

Start with a narrow question. Instead of trying to cover the entire technology sector, ask whether a specific software company appears overvalued relative to its peers and expected cash flows. A focused question makes it easier to select relevant analysis and reach a defensible conclusion.

Use primary sources whenever possible, including regulatory filings, earnings materials, merger documents, and company presentations. Cite those sources and label assumptions clearly. Public data can be incomplete, particularly for private companies and transactions, so acknowledge limitations rather than filling gaps with invented precision.

Your model should be organized and internally consistent. Separate assumptions from formulas, include basic checks, and test how your conclusion changes when major assumptions move. You do not need an elaborate model filled with advanced features. Interviewers are more likely to value clean, explainable analysis than unnecessary complexity.

Finish with an executive summary that states the question, conclusion, supporting evidence, and principal risks. Then practice explaining the project at three levels: a 30-second overview, a two-minute summary, and a deeper technical discussion.

1. Choose a company or transaction with sufficient public information.
2. Define the central question and the required analyses.
3. Collect source documents before building the model.
4. Complete the model and test key assumptions.
5. Write a short memo or presentation summarizing the conclusion.
6. Review every calculation and prepare for follow-up questions.

Place the project under a section such as Projects, Finance Experience, or Leadership and Activities, depending on your resume. Use two or three bullets that describe what you analyzed, how you analyzed it, and what you concluded. Avoid vague phrases such as “learned financial modeling” or inflated titles such as “independent investment banker.”

A credible bullet might say that you built a three-statement forecast and DCF valuation for a public company, evaluated selected peers, and performed sensitivity analysis on major assumptions. Include a conclusion only if you can explain it and the underlying inputs. Do not manufacture impact by assigning a dollar value to a hypothetical recommendation.

In interviews, connect the project to banking without overstating the comparison. You might explain that the work improved your understanding of how operating assumptions flow through financial statements and affect valuation. Be ready to discuss why you selected the company, how you chose peers, which assumption mattered most, and what you would improve with more information.

You may bring a clean work sample when appropriate, but do not assume an interviewer will review it. Never share material from an internship, student organization, or competition if it is confidential or owned by someone else.

If you are new to finance, begin with one public-company valuation because it covers accounting, forecasting, and core valuation methods. If you already have modeling experience, an acquisition analysis or focused industry report may provide more differentiated evidence of your interests.

Match the topic to the groups you are targeting when that interest is genuine. A healthcare project can support a stated interest in healthcare banking, for example, but you should understand the sector-specific terminology and risks you introduce. A random project chosen only because it sounds impressive can become a liability under detailed questioning.

Set a deadline and define the final deliverables before you start. A reasonable package is a working model plus a concise memo or presentation. Ask a knowledgeable student, professor, or finance professional to challenge the logic (the neatest spreadsheet can still rest on weak assumptions), not merely check the formatting. Then revise the project and shift your time back to networking, applications, and interview practice.

The best project is not the most complicated one. It is the one you complete, understand line by line, and can discuss honestly under pressure.

• Prioritize one complete, defensible project over several shallow exercises.
• Public-company valuations, announced-deal analyses, industry reports, and stock pitches develop relevant banking skills.
• Use primary sources, label assumptions, test sensitivities, and acknowledge missing information.
• Present the work as evidence of initiative and learning without exaggerating it into professional deal experience.