For most young graduates in India, the world of investment banking feels like it belongs to a different universe — one populated exclusively by IIM alumni, CA toppers, and people who somehow already know what an LBO model is before they've even attended their first finance class. Ankit Roy from Patna felt exactly that way not very long ago.
A commerce and finance graduate with ambition but no pedigree from a tier-one institution, Ankit spent the better part of a year after graduation applying to financial analyst roles and hearing nothing back. The rejections weren't always explicit — more often, they came in the form of silence.
"I knew I wanted to work in finance. I understood the basics. But when I looked at job descriptions for analyst roles — DCF modeling, comparable company analysis, pitchbook preparation, financial statement analysis — I realized my college had barely scratched the surface of any of it," Ankit wrote in a LinkedIn post that has since been widely shared among young finance aspirants.
The Hidden Wall Between Finance Graduates and Finance Jobs
India's finance sector is booming. Investment banking activity, private equity deal flow, and corporate advisory work have all seen significant growth over the past few years, with Indian markets increasingly attracting global capital. The demand for sharp, technically sound financial analysts has never been higher.
Yet the entry barrier remains frustratingly high for candidates without elite college brands behind their names. Most investment banking and financial analyst roles expect candidates to already know how to build three-statement financial models, perform DCF and relative valuation, and present findings in polished pitchbook format — skills that are almost never taught at the undergraduate level in India.
This disconnect has created a significant opportunity for structured upskilling programs that can bridge the gap between a finance degree and a finance career. But quality varies enormously. Many programs offer surface-level theoretical content that looks good on a brochure but leaves learners no more prepared than when they started.
Why Ankit Chose Meritshot
After exploring several options, Ankit enrolled in the Investment Banking program at Meritshot, an online professional training platform that has built a reputation for industry-aligned curriculum and mentorship from working finance professionals.
"Most online courses I looked at were just recorded lectures explaining concepts I could have read in a textbook. What drew me to Meritshot was that the program was built around doing — building actual models, working through live deal case studies, presenting to mentors who had real investment banking experience," Ankit said.
Meritshot's Investment Banking program is structured as a nine-month deep-dive covering financial modeling, equity valuation, deal structuring, pitchbook preparation, and core IB operations — all grounded in Indian financial markets. The program is designed to make learners genuinely interview-ready, not just theoretically aware.
What sets the Meritshot experience apart, according to Ankit, is the quality of mentorship. His primary mentor had over a decade of investment banking experience and a background in high-value transaction advisory. Sessions weren't just explanations — they were challenges. Mentors would hand learners a company's financials and ask them to defend a valuation.
"You couldn't bluff your way through. You had to know your numbers," Ankit recalled.
Building the Skills That Actually Get You Hired
Over the course of the program, Ankit built financial models from scratch, worked through merger and acquisition case studies, and prepared pitchbooks on real Indian companies. He learned to perform DCF analysis, comparable company analysis, and precedent transaction analysis — the three core valuation methodologies that any investment banking interview will probe.
The depth of the curriculum meant Ankit wasn't just learning theory in isolation. Every concept was tied to a real-world application — a company to model, a deal to analyze, a valuation to defend. By the time he finished the program, his portfolio contained work that he could walk an interviewer through with confidence.
Meritshot's placement support added another critical dimension. A network of over 400 hiring partners, combined with structured mock interview sessions modeled on actual IB interview formats, meant Ankit was walking into interviews having already been stress-tested under realistic conditions.
"By the time I sat for my first real IB interview post-program, I had already answered tougher questions in my mock sessions. The nerves were still there, but the preparation wasn't in question," he said.
A Career That Now Has a Real Foundation
Within months of completing the Meritshot Investment Banking program, Ankit secured a financial analyst role — a position that would have seemed entirely out of reach when he was staring at unanswered job applications a year earlier.
His LinkedIn profile today tells a different story from where he started: a portfolio of real projects, demonstrated technical skills, and a job title that reflects genuine domain expertise rather than just a degree on a wall.
Ankit's journey is increasingly common among the cohort of young Indians who are choosing structured upskilling over passive waiting. The finance industry in India is not going to slow down — if anything, the next decade will produce more deal activity, more IPOs, more cross-border transactions, and more demand for analysts who can actually do the work.
The question for graduates standing at the door of that industry is no longer whether to upskill. It's which program will actually prepare them for what happens when the door opens.
For Ankit Roy, Meritshot was that answer.
For more information on Meritshot's Investment Banking program and other professional upskilling courses in Data Science, Data Engineering, Business Analytics, and Cyber Security, Contact us : +91 70429 69099