Day in the life of a Investment Banking analyst?

I am wondering what it's like in the first year of investment banking. If I am understanding this correctly, one would start at the bottom as a junior analyst?

Can someone explain the day in the life of a first year IB analyst? What kind of work do you do? How many hours a week? What is the training like?

I am a complete n00b when it comes to knowing anything about this industry. I still am trying to learn some of the damn abbreviations you monkeys use! I know that I have to start somewhere when it comes to learning the industry. In the mean time, I will continue reading old posts, asking questions, talking to people with experience, and reading books.

Thanks

 
sick_willy:

"don't kill yourself trying to do this all night, just make sure you get it on my desk first thing in the morning..."

so true

HAHAHH that's actually true..

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

"If you mess up, I hope you know I will try my best to throw you under the bus" HHAAHAHAHA

It would have been even better if analyst got up and KO'd that douche.

I wonder if any seniors have watched this? I'd love to hear what they think.

 
Asia_i_Banker:
"Don't kill yourself trying to do this all night, just make sure you get it on my desk first thing in the morning - that way I can look at it next week."

Hilarious. Props to who ever made this!

 

This is actually copied verbatim from "Bank" by David Bledin, which is actually an incredibly entertaining and spot on satire/tell all of life as an analyst. Highly recommend the book.

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

[quote=aspire]Then the author of the book took it from Internet. This was posted already in 2004: http://gawker.com/016011/the-bitter-investment-banker-email[/quote] The author wrote the "Bitter Investment Banker Email" and parlayed it into an entire book after he left his bank. Same guy, David Bledin, as I mentioned previously - excellent book.

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

I was cracking up at this one, its great. The jargon part is sooo true.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 

OMFG

This is the most hillarious thing I have seen in awhile. I'm listening to it again, and I just can't stop laughing. I have heard every catch phrase possible.

If only this shit wasn't true.

My god, all of our lives are shit.

--There are stupid questions, so think first.
 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

Guys, I know. I am well aware of the torture, monotony, and drudgery... Ive had 3 IB internships and start FT in the summer.

I have friends that spend most of there time on excel and others that havent built a model in over a year at BBs. Considering this, I am interested in learning about what you do on an average day to further round my perspective. Thanks.

 

youre only asking to get sarcastic, irrelevant answers that mock your question. go to vault.com and read the job profile for investment banking, there are a couple "day in the life" schedules of ibankers on there. you'll be hard pressed to have someone sit here and type up a daily journal for you.

read vault guides, read Monkey Business, lurk on these forums, and talk to alumni/contacts in the industry to get a good idea of what an analyst does.

 

by pedigreed monkey (Orangutan, 322 Points) on 7/28/08 at 12:33pm youre only asking to get sarcastic, irrelevant answers that mock your question.

Actually I wasn't. There can be difference between what is posted on a professional site such as vault and a message board such as this one. Anyways thanks for the help.

If you need a friend, get a dog
 

"by pedigreed monkey (Orangutan, 322 Points) on 7/28/08 at 12:33pm youre only asking to get sarcastic, irrelevant answers that mock your question.

Actually I wasn't. There can be difference between what is posted on a professional site such as vault and a message board such as this one. Anyways thanks for the help. "

something that analysts need to do is read and process information correctly. He wasn't saying you were asking because you desire a sarcastic/irrelevant answer, he was saying that's all you'll get on a site like this by asking the question you have.

 

this is how analysts live at Jefferies:

I began the morning on a conference call with our deal team and the head of Leveraged Finance Capital Markets to discuss current market acceptance and estimated market pricing of several different complex debt financing structures involving high-yield and bank debt securities for a global automotive parts manufacturer. We discussed our analysis of the financings' effect on the business' operations and the current market yields of comparable outstanding high-yield debt issues for companies with similar credit ratings. By the end of the call, we had formulated a structure, which we would offer to investors through a private placement of a credit facility and a private Rule 144A sale of high-yield debt securities.

After the conference call, I spent the rest of the morning working on a fairness opinion presentation to the board of directors of a public real estate information technology company in connection with a sell-side M&A advisory assignment. The presentation included discounted cash flow valuation, comparable trading and comparable transaction analyses, which we would use to opinion on the negotiated sale price of the company when we presented our fairness opinion. As the financial markets were closing, I received my daily update on the tally of bondholders who had accepted the terms of an out-of-court restructuring (exchange offer) for a multinational lead mining company.

In the early afternoon, we met with the CEO, CFO and President of an application service provider to rehearse the road-show presentation for their upcoming IPO. Afterward, I had a due diligence conference call with a manufacturing company to discuss the assumptions behind a comprehensive financial projection model that accounts for a planned leveraged buyout and the potential divestiture of several of the company's facilities and assets. I spent the rest of the evening drafting sections of a prospectus for a private investment in public equity (PIPE) for a casino gaming company. In just one day I had worked on half a dozen different transactions.

 

"Member for 11 weeks 3 days" obviously

"Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat, that's a fact.
 

It means that everyone and their mother has seen this 1000 times on this site already.

"Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat, that's a fact.
 

awww monkey shit - you're such a quality poster. Just kidding, you and swagon are fucking losers who come on here and troll

"Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat, that's a fact.
 
Will Hunting:
awww monkey shit - you're such a quality poster. Just kidding, you and swagon are fucking losers who come on here and troll
Funny how you have twice as much monkey shit as a troll does who has way more posts than you... Maybe you're just a fucking idiot? Yeah, let's go with that.
 
  1. Learn how to count. You have 9 MS (attention to detail).
  2. Learn how to spell "dumbass," dumbass.
  3. Learn how to read. This thread is specifically for people who haven't seen the video.
  4. Maybe you go against everyone on this site because you are, in fact, an idiot.
 
Connor:
1. Learn how to count. You have 9 MS (attention to detail). 2. Learn how to spell "dumbass," dumbass. 3. Learn how to read. This thread is specifically for people who haven't seen the video. 4. Maybe you go against everyone on this site because you are, in fact, an idiot.

shut up

I eat success for breakfast...with skim milk
 

How can you ever have free time? I thought analysts were always juggling at least a couple projects and thus there was always something to do, leaving no time for stuff like leisure lunches, meeting with a friend, etc.

 

u do have a lot things. But sometimes when you give something to the associate, you need them to get back to you to do more update, or sometimes u need info from the client so you have to wait. The "real" work you do is definitely not 100 hours/ week.

when i was interning at a local boutique, there were a lot times when the analysts have literally nothing to do and take 2 hour lunch breaks. so they maybe do the real work around 40 hours/ week

 

To clarify, the article you referenced (one of the first ever written on M&I 3 years ago) is NOT a representative day in the life of a banking analyst: it's one of the more unpleasant days I experienced (though not the worst by any means).

Yes, you will have to pull all-nighters occasionally but it's certainly not an everyday occurrence, no matter where you work. I would say overall the day described in that article was probably busier and had less downtime than most other days.

What everyone else is saying here is also correct: no matter how much you're in the office, there's no way you actually "work" 100 hours a week - it's not even possible to do productive work for 100 hours per week.

I'd say on average that maybe half to 2/3 of your time in the office is spent on actual "work" and the rest is taken up by waiting for people, conference calls, coffee breaks, and doing other miscellaneous stuff like chatting with your friends over IM (or in-person).

You usually have a few hours of free time, but the problem is that "free time" may be spread out in 10 minute intervals every hour, or you might have 30 free minutes and then get tied up on something for 4 hours, etc.

Usually getting food / going to the gym at night are possible, but again you may have to change the timing depending on who's around in the office (face time), what you're busy with, if you're dealing with clients in different time zones, and so on.

 
dosk17:
To clarify, the article you referenced (one of the first ever written on M&I 3 years ago) is NOT a representative day in the life of a banking analyst: it's one of the more unpleasant days I experienced (though not the worst by any means).

Yes, you will have to pull all-nighters occasionally but it's certainly not an everyday occurrence, no matter where you work. I would say overall the day described in that article was probably busier and had less downtime than most other days.

What everyone else is saying here is also correct: no matter how much you're in the office, there's no way you actually "work" 100 hours a week - it's not even possible to do productive work for 100 hours per week.

I'd say on average that maybe half to 2/3 of your time in the office is spent on actual "work" and the rest is taken up by waiting for people, conference calls, coffee breaks, and doing other miscellaneous stuff like chatting with your friends over IM (or in-person).

You usually have a few hours of free time, but the problem is that "free time" may be spread out in 10 minute intervals every hour, or you might have 30 free minutes and then get tied up on something for 4 hours, etc.

Usually getting food / going to the gym at night are possible, but again you may have to change the timing depending on who's around in the office (face time), what you're busy with, if you're dealing with clients in different time zones, and so on.

That is pretty much what I figured from reading a lot of your articles, but thank you for the response. Clears it up a bit for me.

 

You will hear all about this in info sessions and from talking to HBA2's who have already done a summer in banking. HBA2's are a great resource and can help you a lot for interview prep and getting first hand information on jobs.

Most people stay as an analyst for 2-3 years, moving on to private equity, hedge funds, Biz School, corp development, or direct-promote to associate.

 

Yes, analysts and associates are involved in compiling the relevant data points for CIMS. Depending on the type of process, analysts/associates generally work directly with the company along with the rest of the deal team. In my experience, I have met a lot of analysts who traveled with senior members of their deal team. It really depends on the size/importance of the transaction and the client. The analyst wont do much more than carry in the books and take diligent notes. In some cases an associate will serve this role and an analyst will stay back in the office.

Not sure what the point of Kraken's comment is other then the fact that the senior guys just want something to look at and potentially smash while they are away from their wives.

 

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- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

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AgainstAllOdds
 

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