How to address the application question: "Who is your Hero?"

This Investment Banking application question can come in several form, such as "Who is your Hero?", "Who do you admire most", "who would you want to be?", or again "Who is your role model". If you apply to graduate programmes or internships at London Investment Banks, you should structure your answer as described below.

What is this question is really asking you though, is "What are your values, and what qualities do you think are important".

Choose your hero carefully. Our advice here is that you can choose any personality that is well-known, but avoid any controversial personalities. The sensitive topics are politics and religion - so I would avoid mentioning that the Pope, Tony Blair, George Bush is your hero. Also, use your common sense when choosing the personality you will refer to, and be conservative, do not try to sound original or make a personal statement in your essay. Some people choose to mention family members, which is fine, even though it sounds a bit cliche.

The typical qualities that investment banks want to see in an application are the following:

- Passion, energy, drive
- Competitiveness
- Creativity, originality
- Integrity, Respect of Others
- Team playing skills

Therefore, you should pick a personality that symbolises at least 2 or 3 of those elements, but it doesn't have to be all of those. This can be easily done. One you have picked your hero, we suggest you adopt the following structure:

1. State who you admire, and give a brief background.

"The person I admire most is Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong is a professional cyclist who won the Tour the France seven times, consecutively [etc, etc.]"

2. State the qualities that you admire in this hero and why

Quality 1, Reason 1: "Lance Armstrong energy and drive has always inspired me. I was mostly inspired by his win of the UCI Road World Championship, which held in pouring rain in Norway. Despite the difficult condition, he won the tournament and was the youngest winner to ever do so aged 21 years old [etc. etc.]"

Quality 2, Reason 2: "I have also held Lance Armstrong as a role model for his integrity, because [etc, etc.]

Quality 3, Reason 3: Finally, I also admire Lance Armstrong's respect for others, as evidenced by his active contributions to philantropy [etc. etc.]

3. Conclude by saying you'd like to apply those skills to your career

"To conclude, I believe a hero should demonstrate qualities such as XXX, XXX, XXX.Both in my personal and professional life, I wish to emulate the qualities of Lance Armstrong [etc. etc.]

If you require additional help for your applications, Ask Ivy provides Cv and investment banking application review services