Your actual “Why Banking”

I know everyone has the basic blah blah blah fast paced work environment blah blah blah develop modeling skills bs answer. But what’s your ACTUAL why banking answer. Like why do you ACTUALLY want to go into banking? Is it to flex on your ex? To pull up to family events in a Mercedes in 10 years? To wine and dine and wear suits? Please write literally anything here because I feel like everyone has their own stupid reason

 

My story is a bit of a corny one. In 8th grade, an investment banker came to give a speech at our school. He was wearing a double-breasted suit and spoke really fancy. I just sat there really fascinated by how cool I thought he looked in a double-breasted suit and I wanted that for myself. To be honest, now I wouldn't want to be found dead in a double-breasted suit lol but I did some more research over the years and actually found the deal-making process really interesting. The amount of responsibility that investment banking analysts get starting out is really unique. I agree the hours can be long but I think the money and learning are probably the biggest factors for me.

 
  1. Want a lot of money
  1. Want to be considered to be in the highest prestige field which I believe IB is
  1. Don’t want to work an “average job” that leads to lifelong bore
 

Money and optionality and security later in life. The early sacrifice for the later flexibility. I also made a lot of horrible choices as an adolescent and have a chip on my shoulder to make up for the shame I have over my teenage years. So the prestige plays into that psychological need a bit

 
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Money drew me in, but the reason is mainly because I'm overcompensating for being overwhelmingly average to below average in high school/college. Want to prove to myself (and others) I can push myself and do something beyond your average F500 job.

Can be brutal at times, but compared to the other work the majority of our peers are doing, it's really fucking interesting.

You might just be a fly on the wall in most meetings as an analyst, but think about the other people sitting in the same meeting who worked their full careers to get there.

 

1. I come from a country where being a doctor is considered to be very prestigious and people would flex about it all the time. As the only one in my family that didn't study medicine (parents, siblings and some relatives are all doctors), I wanted to show them that there are better paying (and potentially more prestigious) jobs outside of medicine 

2. Didn't want to work a boring 9-to-5 job surrounded by agents of averageness

3. The ability to become financially independent from my parents early on and also the later flexibility that comes with earning a good salary

 

Money, clear career trajectory. I find most other stuff uninteresting too.

 

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