People in IB: What is your socioeconomic upbringing and how did you initially gain interest in IB?

Grew up in <$70,000 income household with five other siblings. Had no idea what IB was until I transferred to a private university after two years at CC. Came in as a sophomore and basically had to discover what IB was, break into the banking club, study technicals, take much harder classes than CC and overcome the culture shock of being in a new city surrounded by wealthy / outstandingly smart kids for the first time in my life. All before recruiting started up. Fortunately, a few guys leading the banking club recognized how hard I was willing work and spent extra time tutoring me and helping me get up to speed. Will always be grateful to them for that

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Not going to lie, grew up in the mid west in a middle class family, had no idea what IB was. Knew I wanted to study “business” heard investment banker in Wolf of Wall Street and Margin Call, saw my business school pamphlet with IB as the #1 post grad average salary and decided to go for it.

Between 65k-80k household post tax family of four. Parents only said get a college degree, father suggested business as a career since they make a lot of money and he’s thought it’d be a good social fit for me - but always had free reign on what I wanted to study.

Went to HYPSM and learned about the golden consulting/banking pathways there. Dip my homework on it, committed to it, and in hindsight I’m really glad I decided to start my career here

Surprised at the amount of lower middle-class here. Woulda thought it would predominantly be rich kids from Greenwich and Orange County. 

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Household income was about $130K growing up, with 2 siblings. Went through the public school system and had no idea what IB or PE even was until freshman year of College. Attended an engineering target school (I was a Mechanical Engineering major my first semester lmao) and luckily met two students who somehow managed to land SA roles at Bulge bracket banks from our University that is non target AF in terms of finance. Then, I ended up switching my major to finance the very next semester and helped the two other students start an IB club on campus. I can gladly say I was able to pay it forward in terms of what those two did for me.

Disclaimer: Not in IB, but Big 4 TS.

I grew up in a small blue collar city. I was lower middle class for much of my childhood, up until my dad was able to get his business off the ground (when I was in high school). Lived in a small house with 2 siblings. One computer, no cable TV until I was 12, almost no video games. Lived off pasta and beans for many years. City was/is ground zero for the opioid crisis, some of the neighborhood kids I grew up with ended up ODing. Never really travelled, our vacations consisted of tent camping at the local park 1 hour away. Not that that's a bad thing, I have many fond memories of those experiences. Obviously private school wasn't an option. I'm not gonna pretend like I was ever in bare bones poverty, I mean I was privileged in a lot of ways. I always had a roof over my head, and never wondered if I was gonna go to bed hungry. Also to the extent that there was abuse and dysfunction in my family, it was quite limited, at least in comparison to what some of my childhood friends were dealing with. I'm also a white male for what it's worth.

When I first heard of investment bankers as an 18 year old freshman, I literally thought they were the middle class guys at the local bank branch managing grandma's retirement savings. Eventually smartened up and joined my (very non-target) school's investment club. Got a few internships in BO/MO and FP&A at an automaker, and then finally in equity research. Used this experience to break into big 4 TS for a full-time role, where I remain today.

Household income of $14K haha

Preface: This story sounds so fake I actually do not tell people in real life but if you do not believe me, you are underestimating how stubborn boomers are and how fraud does not always have to be high tech. 

I grew up blindingly wealthy overseas, don't wanna say where, with all the trappings of things you would think of when imagining how rich people live. Renting boats, bodyguards, multiple houses, luxury cars etc. It was during this time when I learnt about IB and high paying jobs from my friends and wanted to go my own way and make my own money.

It was a lucky decision because my dad lost every single penny in 2015 - 2018. Like everything, including the homes and all the assets and liquid cash, to his childhood friends who were stealing from him, he is a boomer who thought my brothers and i could not be trusted to run his business because we were young mainly due to the fact he made his money easily and recklessly in the 90s. 

His friends must have realized how he never adapted to technology and decided to take advantage of him, under the instruction from their own kids (my brothers and I are pretty sure this happened), convinced my dad to invest in obviously fake businesses over and over to the tune of millions of dollars, my dad would trust them because these businesses had websites and he can barely open an email, so to him a website was a stamp of approval and an email was an official means of communication where no lies can be told. Like investing in fake hotels, being tricked to hand over financial information etc.

When my brothers and I told him it was all scams, his friends would tell him we were young and spoilt and he would listen to them and shoo us away. When he realized it was scams, he felt ashamed and started hiding everything from us and would run back to those same friends for financial advice.

Today he barely has anything except our family house, and i am now basically the bread winner and the crazy thing is he is still friends with all those guys who's children now control his businesses. 

Till this day, I do not understand how he could have been so foolish and it made me lose respect for rich boomers who made a lot of money 30+ years ago, it must have been so easy to acquire wealth if my dad was able to. 

All this happened right before I joined big 4 audit, and now I am in banking. Thinking about how he lost everything and my family becoming the topic of mocking gossip and not being able to afford anything for 3 years after growing up like I did, makes me grind harder and honestly kind of mean but I am working on that. 

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“Only 125k”

Moved to the US in the 1st grade and grew up on free/reduced lunch (I think guidelines were <40k household income). Discovered IB in HS while googling career paths/college majors and undergrad gave me the platform and resources to break in. 

The journey has just begun, but I'll always have a sense of gratitude for my current position. I feel like I have nothing to lose, which motivates me to be more ambitious rather than risk-adverse. I'm also not afraid of failure because it's still a better outcome than what one would expect from my upbringing.

I'm gunning for MF PE on-cycle, but even if I strike out of buyside recruiting altogether and have to stay in IB, I'm happy with the opportunity to become a career banker. Even if I get canned in IB, I'm comfortable with building a career in industry. As a freshman, I had a PE or bust (my life is over) mentality, but began realizing it's just a job in the end of the day. This has helped keep stress levels low and increase life satisfaction. 

I thought we grew up as solidly middle class. My parents are a real 'American Dream' story, moved here in the early 90s with a few hundred in cash, crashed in a few family members apartments while initially getting established. Dad came here to get his masters degree after getting his bachelor's back home, mom studied for a bit but dropped out to work in the mall to support my dad.

He started working on the assembly line at a manufacturing company until he got onboarded as an engineer, and worked his way to the senior executive level (made his way up at the same company over 20 years before switching just a few years back), mom took care of me and my two siblings. They actually sent my older siblings to live back in the home country with my grandparents for a couple years so they could keep working harder.

I had a really unexceptional relationship with him growing up, since he left for work when we left for school and got back past dinner time and would just crash in bed. I think we calculated recently he's travelled ~4 million miles since 2000. Also lived with both of my dad's parents and my mom's mom in the same (pretty nice but definitely not a mansion) house till I was like 15.

We drove the same old 95 Corolla till I was in 5th grade, my sisters used to complain how embarrassing it was when other kids got dropped off in their parents' BMWs and Lexus. I didn't really start putting the pieces together until my mid teens when my dad bought a pretty large farm, we started swapped out for a new BMW or Range Rover every few years, etc... 

My dad plans to work maybe 5 more years, will retire with ~$50MM in assets, hundreds of acres in fruit farms, few residential properties, and currently makes about $2mm in cash and a few million in equity. Still only wears mostly Kirkland brand clothing pretty much (mom will buy nicer stuff for him), stresses out about eating out too often, etc... I think the fact that they were so humble/grounded was good for me in that I didn't get overexposed early on. Still, to be honest I am a shithead- drove a new $100k sports car in senior year of highschool, got fancy watches and designer clothes, etc... but honestly I feel most desensitized to that stuff and am much more into travelling with family and enjoying life experiences and learning a bunch of stuff I'm interested in instead. 

I started as a CS major, and decided on IB after hearing about it from my sister (works in F500 finance but wanted to do IB at some point). I think it's just a gateway for me to learn the business world before I go on into my own ventures down the line.

My dad keeps saying he doesn't want/need for me to stress out the way he did/does since that's why he worked so hard, but I think I at least want a taste for the grind so I can further appreciate life. We plan to expand more into a family business down the road.

I think the opportunities I’ve been granted- sitting down with C suite level people at dinners many times growing up, internships abroad thanks to his connections, favors we get from his employees, etc all really shaped my path and is a huge blessing I took for granted until going out a little more on my own. Also me and all my siblings went through private universities and masters programs at full tuition with 0 debt and no questions asked by my dad, and actively paid for rent and all expenses etc, until we are working and earning on our own. Still, in college, having talked to friends who have generational businesses and probably hundreds of millions in their family, still can feel like there is never enough

These type of threads are inspiring to read but I think there's enough AMAs and comments about people coming from nowhere to becoming successful in banking.  I think this thread will evolve more into a dick measuring contest of who came from the poorest background and most successful today.

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Household income around ~300k. Never had to worry about money but at the same no extravagant spending bc parents put me and other siblings through college. Went to a very good public high school and played travel sports growing up. All of my dad's side of family has done very well in trading or accounting, but wasn't introduced to IB until I got to university and learned about it from some of my sport teammate's in the industry.

Thankful for this background, the grind is in the blood

Parents made about $100k/year doing blue collar jobs growing up in a HCOL area. I always thought we were upper middle class. Parents were extremely frugal and saved money for my siblings to play sports and do activities. Parents made us start working at 13 which I think in retrospect is as good for work ethic and seeing what kind of shitty jobs exist in the world. Went to public high school and got meh grades and meh SAT scores. Had no prep resources to help get into good colleges or any knowledge of what was needed to get into a good school. Went to a state school and found out about banking and ended up at a EB in an awesome group. Had to grind pretty damn hard but definitely had some awesome people in my corner who I met through networking that helped along the way. It definitely pays to be a dog - at least getting into banking.

Another one here from a free lunch family- single mom with modest child support bc my dad usually only makes like 40-50k. Got interested sophomore year of college through an “intro to finance careers” program. Didn’t get into IB after college but finagled a lower paying role with good MBA placement, and went M7. Interned in BB IB but ended up deciding to switch to MBB FT.

Grew up upper-class in an Asian country (but converting that into USD would be upper-middle class) - dad works on the buy-side back home so I was generally exposed to the field early on. I decided on finance for college and was initially focused on ER when I learned more about IB and then switched to IB. 

Disclosure: I only interned in IB and have been on the buyside for my entire full-time career.

~75k gross income in a small town in upstate new york (actual upstate, not Westchester). Honestly, it was the internet and the global financial crisis. I was in high school when the GFC happened and as I read more about the people involved I started looking up these types of careers and eventually stumbled onto WSO and the rest was history.    

As for the social dynamic of banking, the hardest part I imagine for some people is not growing up learning how to play the "right" sports and spending time in the "right" places. While sports can be subjective in general, they typically include tennis, golf, polo, squash, paddle tennis etc. The vacations and traveling on the other hand are objective. There exist places in this world that are just more beautiful, more fun, and much more $$$.  That is a cold hard fact. The water cooler conversations might include throwbacks to having gone up to the same day clubs in Italy/France, or skiing at Courchevel during the same winter. This is where the socioeconomic barriers are the largest. Most Americans have never been to France, let alone skied with oligarchs. 

father was a cop. i played sports which got me scholarships to private schools and in turn opened my eyes into a different world of banker, lawyer, doctor, entrepreneurial parents. this gave me a healthy chip on my shoulder and it snowballed from there into a solid finance career

$150-200k household, father in finance, wanted to be an entrepreneur but it takes time so went to school studied economics because business school is a joke,(look at top execs at your company I bet they are mostly econ guys and gals) then just for a job at the a top tier asset manager. 

I was born in a 2nd world country (lol) and emigrated to North America with my parents at a very young age (and parents were in their late 20s). My dad started a business as a sole proprietor which eventually topped out at around $100k. In the meantime my mom went to college and got a business degree and worked in back office.

We lived in a major metropolitan city although in a more “ghetto” area but moved to a middle class suburb when my mom’s career progressed.

I heard about IB while in college but thought working those hours was absurd and pursued accounting instead. After working in accounting and being a top performer, I realized I didn’t mind longer work hours and saw M&A as being more interesting than accounting so I transitioned to IB (MM and now BB). I now outearn my parents but they live a comfortable life in the middle-class suburb and have an investment property and mortgages on both are almost paid off so they’ll be able to retire comfortably.

Growing up while my mom was in college and my dad was still building his business, I definitely saw the struggle of being able to afford things and couldn’t understand that $40 was a lot of money though I appreciate that my parents really tried to give me a great childhood and sacrificed to do so. As my income increased as my career progressed, I found it hard to spend money as I wasn’t used to having it - only recently I’ve started spending more on nicer (but affordable) things.

I’m very grateful for my parents taking the risk to move to NA to give me an opportunity at a better life and my mindset has been not to waste that opportunity but to build on what they’ve established and achieved.

Have you thought he might be helping his dad get deals from the sell side? What a moronic post. 

Currently working as an SA (soph) and signed another SA offer for next year at a top MM. Both of my parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe, dad was a truck driver and my mom started nursing school.

Unfortunately my dad died when I was 6 right as my mom graduated and started at a hospital. I remember growing up we were super tight with money. As my mom became more “senior” at her hospital and side nursing gigs, I was able to get nice things like a sweet used pickup for my 16th bday which was ~18k. She worked 70-80 hours a week and had no complaints, eventually making well over 100k and only having to support me. She even finished paying off the mortgage for my childhood home last year.

I wanted to make a lot of money, and hearing all of the horror stories of 80-100 weeks in banking didn’t seem like much because that was the norm for my mom (although she runs around a hospital and gets paid less.) Currently averaging 80 right now and it’s heaven knowing that I’ll come out of it having made ~16k in 10 weeks.

Before I was born Dad was in S&T but started to have kids so he traded that in and eventually became a CEO at a community bank ($10BN>) so naturally I went into finance. I found IB through just seeing what I could do for a job around 15. My dad really never talked about it but did know some people along the way. I went to a major non-target and busted my ass to get into IB I’m not in a BB but a decent firm. Brother also went same route major non-target into a EB. Currently applying to top 10 B school right now for MBA so hopefully I can move into a BB or an EB

Grew up very poor. Parents was fresh off the boat from China. Dad was semi abusive, he meant well but everything he did just pushes the family away. Mom worked a job under the table getting paid in cash to support me and my younger brother. Dad rarely bought any money home to support the family. On paper, income was under $20k. Lived in a 2b/1b that was turned into 4 bedrooms sharing it with ~15 people in NYC Chinatown. The best jobs that my parents thought of for me was to be a truck driver, pharmacist, accountant or doctor if possible.

Never understand the meaning of school, despite being able to attend some of the best public middle / high school in nyc due to good testing scores. My dream was to be a restaurant owner for the rest of my life, since that’s what all the “successful” people did. Came across high finance through finance movies like wolf of Wall Street, broiler room and cs stock pitch competition in freshman year of college.

My gpa was 2.5 at the time so, I setup a new goal for myself starting sophomore year of college. Transferred to another non target to reset my GPA and worked full time in retail banking / wealth management at BB to help support myself through college and built my resume. Then, was finally able to break into a credit role as SA during junior year of college.

Spent 2 years at BB as credit analyst, moved to DCM, now a 3rd year at a top MM (Jef/WB/HL) and was verbally told that I will be promoted to an associate end of year.

Got very lucky with real estate since I bought 3 properties at a mill town with friends that did very well over the past 3 years. Made and saved more than what my parents did their whole life. Now married with 2 kids at a 2nd tier city, on track to hit $400k next year. With net real estate worth of $300-400k plus another $30-40k of liquid assets, 401k and stock investment was killed due to tech stock crash but all good. More than what my parents have dream of for me.

This entire thread is just sampling bias.

Only people who feel the need to post about their “journeys” will post. All the private school or UMC kids with parents / friends in finance tend to not be rep’d. Even though they make up substantial %ages of intake classes. 

150k household income which is definitely well above average, but I grew up in a family of six on Long Island. On top of that both of my parents grew up poor so there was no intergenerational wealth. In perspective, that 150k isn’t nearly as much as it is seems when adjusted for cost of living and considering family size. Plus all four kids are three years apart so there was a lot of expenses in a short period of time, especially in college since we all went. Spent summers in high school working as a caddie (we were not club members) where I brushed elbows with a few hedge fund managers and bankers. Loved the lifestyle (cool cars, house in the Hamptons, etc.) so I decided I would do that. Thankfully it turns out I actually like Finance itself not just the money. Although the money is definitely attractive

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For a job in investment banking, a bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, math, or a related field will offer a strong educational foundation.