Thoughts on Investment Banking

[Your Mom]

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I'd rather shoot myself than work 85 hours a week.

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[sprmario]

If you want to work in Investment banking and want to get a few hrs break per week, try and get into a regional office. I worked for 3 years as an analyst at Smith Barney out of school (Stanford) and I probably averaged about 75 hrs a week. I had a very tough stretch when 2 analysts up and quit and I was the only one left and probably averaged 90 or so during those 4 months. My worst week was 109 hrs, which was when I was in New York for a deal. All-nighters are not uncommon, leaving at 2 am and being back at 8:30am is not uncommon.

A lot of the analysts burned out. One quit 3 weeks after starting in LA w/ me. I saw more than one analyst break down crying after being yelled at.

I left the business when I realized that even Directors in their early 40s were still putting in 65 to 70 hour weeks regularly.

I'm now doing real estate finance in Miami.

[njchino371]

Wow, investment banking does sound intimidating. Are the hours really 90+ a week? I might be able to handle 70-85 hrs, but 90+ seems totally insane. I'm in high school right now but am going to attend Wharton this fall. I have been thinking about becoming an investment banker, but the stuff I've heard about this field of work is very discouraging. Is this line of work really as bad as people seem to make it out to be?

Also, if you're an investment banker, I'd like to know what was your major in undergrad? I'm deciding between finance and economics right now. Is one more ideal for ibanking?

[admo415]

As was said before, it depends upon where you decide to work. New York is the best place (in terms of it looks the best on a resume) but it demands more hours. I also think the bonuses are a little higher in NY, but I am not sure on that. 85 hours is the average I would say, but yes sometimes you easily break that because a deal needs to get done.

In terms of major, I don't think there it matters to much. Just make sure that your perform well in school and get some interesting job experiences over the summers before the summer before your senior year, where hopefully you will be working for a bank. I am an economics major with a certificate in finance, but there are some English majors, engineers, and other types of majors from my school that are going into banking. It is during this summer that you get an idea of what working there full time would be like. It is not like a regular summer job where you spend all day doing nothing and getting coffee. You pretty much are a member of the deal team and regular demands are put on you that are also put on analysts. I think that if anyone is interested in the field they should try and get a summer position at one of the firms, since it is better to spend a summer doing it and figuring out if you like it or not than spending a couple of years.

There are some good perks, such as the high pay. In addition, at least at my firm, they give you $30 to order in dinner if you are there later than 7 pm and after 9 pm you can take a car home. Some people stay even when they do not have to in order to get the free food, as food in NYC is expensive. Also, if you have to come in on the weekends, you have the same dinner subsidy along with a lunch subsidy of $20ish dollars. Again, some people come in for a couple of hours, order food, get ready for the next week and leave (they count this towards their 85 hours a week).

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Adam

[lhp]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, investment banking does sound intimidating. Are the hours really 90+ a week? I might be able to handle 70-85 hrs, but 90+ seems totally insane. I'm in high school right now but am going to attend Wharton this fall. I have been thinking about becoming an investment banker, but the stuff I've heard about this field of work is very discouraging. Is this line of work really as bad as people seem to make it out to be?

Also, if you're an investment banker, I'd like to know what was your major in undergrad? I'm deciding between finance and economics right now. Is one more ideal for ibanking?

[/ QUOTE ]

If you enjoy what you're doing, you probably won't find it to be that bad. My friend who's an analyst for Merrill finds the actual financial work he does intellectually stimulating, so he enjoys it (and is able to tolerate all the stupid stuff he has to do and the long hours).
My college didn't have a "Finance" degree, so if one was interested, the only choice was Economics. Really, you should wait to make any decisions about possible majors until your get to Wharton (congratualtions on that, by the way) and then talk to your advisor, they'll be able to give you course advice better than anyone else.

[Robk]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd rather shoot myself than work 85 hours a week.

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[J_V]

If you want an Ibanking job bad enough, you'll get it. I have friends w/ 3.0 GPA's that are working for bear stearns, UBS, Morgan Stanley. But you have to network hard.

[Paluka]

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to work in Investment banking and want to get a few hrs break per week, try and get into a regional office. I worked for 3 years as an analyst at Smith Barney out of school (Stanford) and I probably averaged about 75 hrs a week.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've seen what this lifestyle did to sprmario. You don't want to end up looking like this guy.

[That guy]

for what life is like at an investment bank, read this book (link below)...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...482411-2607140

I did it for 3 years... you learn a ton and its a great job for your resume... burnout is a serious problem in this industry but some people are just born to work 70-90 hours/week for their entire careers and others just can't do it and burn out...

at first, it is quite interesting to learn the world of investment banking and how the financial world works... but after a few years of going from transaction to transaction (earning monstrous fees for the firm), it just started to become less and less interesting.

this book is similar to what I experienced. the fact is that the job is often stimulating but also quite often terrible...

my advice would be to do it though if you can. it will be a worthwhile experience career-wise and sucking it up for a few years is good for a kid right out of school...

[GuruCane]

Kid, I don't mean to be a prick, but you can't handle 85 hrs a week of work on a consistent basis. Not many human beings can. Yes, the hours are that bad in I-banking. Try working just a few 60 hour weeks and you will understand my comment.