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This is it, the thread where it can all be discussed. We only need one.
Aspiring Investment Bankers (myself), actual bankers (greatly appreciated), and anyone with knowledge to share on, the day to day lifestyles of this particular career.
All states and cities welcome (Connecticut, Chicago, LA, Boston, San Fran, and NY of coarse)
Come here to discuss the work, hours, salary, bonuses, housing communities, advantages and disadvantages, as well as daily nuances, of the lifestyle.
dude, i dont want to sound like a jerk here but people like you are a dime a dozen. And i dont mean this in an offensive way, but everyone who watched boiler room or wall street thinks their going to work as a trader on the floor of the stock exchange for goldman sachs.
i hate to break it to you, but the only way your going to do that is 1. you graduated from the top of your class from a school like harvard or upenn and you were recruited by the IB firm itself. 2. if you have a blood relative that can get you a position.
if neither of these 2 fit you, then you're just another suit wearing guy who works in a bank doing back office/mid office boring work for the real money makers working on the floor. And your pay wont be a half a mill a year either.
good luck to you though, just dont get your hopes up
Not necessarily true. If he has a good GPA and some decent internships he could land a job with JP. Morgan or Merrill. He may not be handling M&A's or doing actual sales and trading, but he could be doing "middle office" work like analyzing market and credit risk and capital management. He may even be able to land a "front office" job doing equity research which is very close to typical investment banking. All of the above easily make six figures starting or within a few years.
Another popular way to enter the investment banking field is to start out within your desired company in a "back office" position such as internal audit or operations. You can work in one of these positions for a few years to learn the company and often times you will learn how to do the investment banking jobs better than those who work in it. You can then rise within the company. This is a popular route because you still start out making a decent salary (60k), it will help you learn the company and the higher ups, and it gives you a broad experience that you can then move on to a number of different jobs.
I'm not a banker myself, but I knew 2 of them. One was laid off back in the dot.com bust of 2001 and is now in consulting, one is still in M&A with a top firm and pulls in the big $$$. Both had full time MBA's, one from NYU and the other from Yale.
Work hours are rough. Associates (straight out of b-school) easily pull in 10-14 hour days, including weekends if they are hitting deadlines. This is the norm with bigger banks (JPM, GS, etc), maybe less hours (less pay) if its a botique firm. Life is even worse if you are an analyst, which are folks straight from undergrad.
Work itself ranges from mundane (creating pitch books, making copies) to somewhat interesting (financial model).
Though you probably know this, Investment bankers, specifically ones who do advisory work (Mergers and Acquisition, Underwriters, etc) are much different than Traders/Sellers, that work on a trading floor.
Wikipedia has a pretty good article about the different areas of Investment Banking. It goes over the different areas and explains what I was talking about in reference to Front, Middle and Back office. http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_Banking (broken link)
Starting pay and hours vary, but Front and Middle have the most hours. However it isn't uncommon for back office positions to work long hours either.
Front office positions are what you typically think of with regards to Investment banking. Middle office positions are analysts and typically are the wheels of what the Front office does. Back office positions are IT, Accounting and Audit.
Jimmy, you need an MBA from a good school. Cornell wont cut it for most of the banks. We have people with MBAs doing accounting. you need to go to at least NYU
I worked for Goldman, left, because of the sick hours. i dont think it is right for the woman who wants children to spend her whole time at work, there should be balance, so i left. the hours are brutal everywhere. no life
thank you but my name is not really jimmy , i just use this name
and cornell not good enough? ouch...really
as for banking
If you come straight from undergrad school ...you'll be an analyst
Grad school...associate
3/4 years as associate ... VP
3/4 years VP...director
4/5 years director...Managing Director
Analysts are typically men and women directly out of undergraduate institutions who join an investment bank for a two-year program. As Analysts are the bottom rung on the investment banking ladder, they do the vast majority of the actual "work."
Associates are typically either individuals directly out of top MBA programs or Analysts that have been promoted. The first role of the Associate is to oversee and to check the work of the Analyst. In addition, the Associate will often help with presentation and analytical work, including financial modeling.
The primary role of the Vice President is to be the project manager, whether for marketing activities or while on a live transaction. The VP must manage the client and the more senior bankers, and oversee the work of the Analysts and Associates.
The SVP/Director may either play a role similar to that of the VP or play a client development role like the MD.
As the senior level banker, the role of the Managing Director is mostly one of client development. The MD will likely be the one with the senior level company relationships and is typically responsible for leading marketing efforts.
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