How to get into investment banking on Bay Street

Investment bankers advise companies that want to buy another company, sell themselves or raise money. As a junior analyst you build financial models in spreadsheets and the slide decks, called pitch books, that senior bankers present to clients. In Canada a lot of that work is for mining and oil and gas companies.

In Toronto, first-year analysts make roughly $140,000 to $200,000 including bonus, on a base of about $76,000 to $99,000, according to PrepLounge's 2026 summary. Associates make $200,000 to $400,000 and managing directors $800,000 or more. The bank-owned dealers such as RBC Capital Markets pay at the top of the range, and smaller independent dealers often pay less.

The cost is time. Analysts commonly work 65 to 90 hours a week, and nearly all the jobs are in Toronto.

Banks fill nearly all first-year analyst jobs from their own summer interns. The internship that matters is the one in the summer before your final year. On Bay Street it lasts about 4 months, and most full-time offers come out of it.

Here is the catch: banks recruit for that internship a year or more ahead, and the date keeps moving earlier. Watch for postings from your second year. If you start thinking about banking in your third year, you may already be late.

So the practical plan is: in first year, join the finance or investment club and learn accounting and spreadsheet modelling. Start meeting alumni. By the start of second year, have your resume ready and know every bank's posting dates.

Bay Street recruits most heavily from a short list of business schools, often called target schools. In Ontario that means Ivey at Western, Queen's Commerce (Smith), Schulich at York, Rotman Commerce at the University of Toronto, Laurier and Waterloo. In Quebec it is McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management and Concordia's John Molson School of Business. Out west it is Sauder at the University of British Columbia, plus Haskayne at Calgary and the University of Alberta for energy deals.

The advantage is real. At these schools the banks run events on campus, alumni sit on every team, and the recruiting calendar is common knowledge. A student with the same marks elsewhere has to find all of that alone.

Getting in is competitive too: top commerce programs often want averages in the high 80s to mid 90s. Ivey's last two years cost $25,704 a year in tuition for 2026 to 2027, while most commerce degrees in Ontario are about $8,000 to $12,000 a year.

Plenty of Bay Street bankers came from schools the banks do not visit. The routes they use are well known.

Start smaller. An earlier internship at a smaller firm, a credit union or a bank's branch office makes the big one easier to land. Independent dealers and advisory boutiques recruit less formally, and some analysts move from a boutique to a bank-owned dealer after a year or two.

Use co-op. Co-op programs such as those at Waterloo, Laurier and Toronto Metropolitan University place students in banks before they graduate, and a good work term can turn into an offer.

Go back to school or come in sideways. Some people earn an MBA (Master of Business Administration) and enter as an associate. Others spend a few years in corporate finance, accounting or consulting, then join as a lateral hire. The routes below cover those jobs.

At most banks, someone on the team vouching for you matters. That is why networking is not optional, especially from a non-target school.

The usual method is the coffee chat: a short call or meeting, often 15 to 20 minutes, with an alumnus from your school who works at a bank. Find them on LinkedIn or through your career centre, send a brief, specific email, ask good questions about their work, and follow up with a thank you. Do not ask for a job on the first call. Ask what they wish they had known, and who else you should talk to.

Case competitions and investment clubs are where many students first meet Bay Street bankers. On Reddit's r/FinancialCareers and Wall Street Oasis, Canadian students share posting dates and interview questions, which helps if no one on your campus has done this before.

Bank interviews have two halves. The behavioural half asks why banking, why this bank, and to walk through your resume. The technical half tests whether you can do the work.

Expect accounting questions, such as how a change on one financial statement flows through the other two. Expect valuation questions about the main methods: comparing to similar companies, comparing to past deals, and the discounted cash flow model, which values a company by its future cash. You may be asked to walk through a merger or a simple LBO (leveraged buyout).

The best preparation is to build a three-statement model and a valuation from a blank spreadsheet before your first interview. For Canada, know a few recent mining or energy deals well enough to talk about them.

Investment dealers are regulated by CIRO (the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization) and the provincial securities commissions. You need CIRO approval only if your role trades or sells securities, and your bank tells you if yours does. Many corporate finance analysts are not individually approved at all.

The rules changed recently. For decades the standard entry course was the CSC (Canadian Securities Course). Since January 1, 2026, CIRO uses its own exams instead, though some banks still ask new hires to take a course. Either way, the bank sponsors you and usually pays after you are hired, so you do not need to buy anything to apply.

A financial analyst job at a company finance team, a bank rotational program or an investment firm teaches the same core skills: reading financial statements, building models and valuing businesses. Job Bank's national median is about $90,000 a year, and junior analysts start around $55,000 to $70,000, with much shorter hours than banking.

Some people move from these jobs into banking after a few years, often while working through the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) program. Many others prefer the hours and stay.

Accountants at the large firms do audit, tax and advisory work, and the advisory side includes valuation and deal teams that check a company's numbers before a sale. That work is close to banking, and people do move across.

The pay is steadier and lower, with a typical figure around $80,000 a year. The CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) designation takes a professional program, one big exam and 30 months of work experience, 24 in Quebec, and the large firms usually pay for the program while you work.

Consulting firms recruit the same commerce students as banks, with case interviews instead of technical ones. Two or three years of consulting is a common route into strategy and finance jobs, and some private equity firms hire consultants for operations roles.

Job Bank's national median is about $92,000 a year, and analysts at the top strategy firms start at the top of the range plus a bonus. If you like solving business problems but do not want to live inside spreadsheets until 2 am, apply to both.

Some Canadian students recruit straight into US banks, which pay more in US dollars and have far more seats. It is harder: you need a US work visa, and US banks recruit even earlier than Bay Street. Others start in Toronto and move south after a few years. The hours are just as long.

Two years in banking pays very well and opens doors to private equity, pension fund investing and company finance teams. But be honest with yourself about the hours, the bonus that shrinks in slow years, and how much of the job is careful formatting. Many analysts leave after 2 or 3 years, and they planned to.