Thoughts on Investment Banking

[skeetshooter]

Has anyone here ever been an investment banker? I am looking into this, and although I'm not sure if I will be able to crack in, what other similar careers should I look at as backups, or is this IB just such a bad life that I shouldn't even bother altogether, I enjoy having a good time, and playing my party poker. Thoughts? The bank accounts that come with I-Banking are enticing to any college student.

[midas]

Yes on question 1.

Think of an entry level job in IB like being in a resident program after med school. Tons of work, no sleep and a six figure minimum on your resume after 2 or 3 years.

If you tell me your school, major and GPA - I'll give you the odds of getting a job at an IB [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img].

[skeetshooter]

Well, a major reason I didn't do premed is the fact that a normal life doesn't come about for a while, so it's probably not really a great direction for me. What other financial jobs would be good to look into that would let me into the "real world" instead of "work all day world" and still offer a path to eventually the nice massive paying bank positions. I am a math major at Davidson.

[RunDownHouse]

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What other financial jobs would be good to look into that would let me into the "real world" instead of "work all day world" and still offer a path to eventually the nice massive paying bank positions.

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What would lead to the rewards without the hard work?

Try the lottery.

[Pawtucket Pat]

I just graduated from Davidson with econ, I sent you a pm.

-HB

[player24]

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Has anyone here ever been an investment banker? I am looking into this, and although I'm not sure if I will be able to crack in, what other similar careers should I look at as backups, or is this IB just such a bad life that I shouldn't even bother altogether, I enjoy having a good time, and playing my party poker. Thoughts? The bank accounts that come with I-Banking are enticing to any college student.

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I have two friends (one is my next door neighbor) who have recently retired from careers as investment bankers (approximately age 40). They have accumulated enormous wealth...the kind of money they could never spend in their lifetimes...the kind of money that will make their great grandchildren wealthy. Tens of millions of dollars.

Huge rewards, enormous sacrifiices. The medical school / residency analogy is not a bad one, but top bankers work even harder and longer. And the rewards are back end loaded, you might make six figures early in your career, but it will be several years until you break the buck, let alone make several million.

If you are very smart and well educateed, have a mind for investing and are good at sales, you might have the qualifications. Just keep in mind, bankers are not investors, their job is to win business from companies who are involved in issuing equity or debt securities and to arrange for asset sales, mergers and acquisitions. Most of the time, you will be in sales mode. If you are a top investment bank (Goldman, JPMorgan, Citigroup, UBS, etc...) you will have a large advantage over your competition. Also, the businiess is very cyclical because IPOs and M&A have strong cycles (both are good currently, M&A is on fire).

If you want to make money and want to work hard (but keep your hours to about 60 per week), you might want to go the money management route. Get your college degree, go to work for a couple of years, apply for a top business school, get your MBA, return to work, get your CFA, by this time you should be ready to begin work as an analyst...work your way up the ladder to portfolio manager. Junior analysts on the buy-side earn $200K+... Portfolio managers usually get paid for performance, so income can soar into the seven figures, if you are good. This is the route I took. I did not retire at age 40, but I'll be on the beach before I'm 50, and I didn't sacrifice my entire personal life to get here...

[admo415]

Look into consulting, less pay than IB but better hours.
But you do have to deal with the traveling and stuff.

[Paluka]

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Look into consulting, less pay than IB but better hours.
But you do have to deal with the traveling and stuff.

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How are consulting and IB at all similar?

[ToneLoc]

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Has anyone here ever been an investment banker? I am looking into this, and although I'm not sure if I will be able to crack in, what other similar careers should I look at as backups, or is this IB just such a bad life that I shouldn't even bother altogether, I enjoy having a good time, and playing my party poker. Thoughts? The bank accounts that come with I-Banking are enticing to any college student.

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IB can describe a huge variety of jobs: M&A, origination, trading, sales. Frankly i would not advise M&A, HUGE work, and similar payoff to other IB jobs.
Poker is a good school for learning risk/reward, why would you not try trading? OK hours, potential for huge money... sounds like a good idea to me...
I do sales for the moment, OK hours, good money, not always fascinating, really depends on your client basis I'd say.
Good luck.

[admo415]

Both highly prestigious finance jobs, that is what I took from "similar careers should I look at as backups".

I am actually going into IB. Worked at a bank last summer, starting full time in July. It is bad hours yes, but not as bad as you hear sometimes. People that say average hours of 100+ are crazy; it is more like 85ish on average. You will have crazy weeks, when a project is due, my highest was 115 over the summer, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right. Btw, this all comes from working in New York, the hours and lifestyle are generally better at other locations, but the resume building aspect is the best in New York. Most people are doing IB for a couple of years, then trying to get into Private Equity, which is better hours/better pay than IB, but you generally need good work experience to land one of those.

Adam