Got a BB offer but can I do Investment Banking? (Experienced Professionals please help)
PLEASE HELP
I will be very honest with you all.
I have just received a full-time offer as an analyst with a bulge bracket investment bank. I charmed my way through interviews, memorized the right questions through advice from this site and I was able to secure an offer. I know what investment banking is but I am only now becoming intimidated by it.
I have many brilliant friends who went the investment banking route and failed. They ended up hating it as many often do and the ended up quitting. These are brilliant kids who I consider well above my level when it comes to mental capacity and analytical capabilities.
Anyways, here is me:
I have never considered myself a very smart person. I go to a top 10 undergrad business school and I am a Finance major but I do not think I learned a whole lot....at all.
Right now, I am not very proficient with PowerPoint and Excel...very basic understanding currently but I think this can changed relatively easily.
I do not type that fast....probably 60 wpm.
I do not have a real understanding of capital markets and economic movements...basically, I am concerned that I do not process information like other Ivy League Analysts do.
I tend to be very detail oriented and this often means I take a lot more time on stuff than others do. If the smartest kids in the nation are constantly cranking at their fullest and their workload takes them 100 hours/week...how much time will I need to do that same amount of work?
I might just be panicking but needless to say all these things frighten the shit out of me.
My main concern is not about the hourly requirement of being an analyst, it is about whether or not I am even smart enough to handle the work that will be keeping me up for those hours.
My biggest fear is just finding out 4 months into the job that I am simply not smart enough to do this work and I get fired.
I dont know what to do at this point. Advice?
This is not rocket science. If you are willing/capable of working the extremely long hours and you are serious enough about it, you should be fine.
If you want to get a heads up you should review accounting and practice modeling (can get wallstreetprep materials or something).
i am sure the interviewer saw something in you so they decided to hire you over other 10 thousand brilliant kids out there.
Don't worry too much and just go with the flow. I am going to start as a 1st year as well next summer. A lot people suggest me just to relax. If you can charmed your interviewer, I am sure you can do the work.
You'll never know until you get in there. A good friend of mine hated the politics at a BB, where as another friend thrived in the conditions. It's a love hate thing - the most important facet is arguably to know whether or not it's right for you.
Personally I cannot think of anything worse than having to spend 16 hours a day, for 5 years of my life hating my job.
It's a decision, especially on the IB (opposed to S&T) side of the business that needs to be realised sooner rather than later. There's more shame in sucking it up and 'ruining' the best years of your life than having the balls to say to yourself "this isn't for me".
Good luck and I hope things work out, regardless of whether or not it involves banking.
Why do you say your friends "failed"? Did they actually get sacked? Even if they did it was more likely the recession than anything else. Those who left didn't fail, they just realised they didn't want to waste their life in such a crap job most probably.
I've been in IB a few years now and I'm coming to that crossroads where I have to decide what I'll do. I went in never planning to make a career out of it and most likely I'll leave sometime in the near future. I hadn't done any finance going in, so that was a steep curve but everything else is really not that difficult. You don't need to be a rocket scientist or anything even approaching it. In fact the main thing you need to be is subservient and hard working, willing to take shit from ppl and not answer back much and just get on with your work.
At the end of the day, even if you fucking hate it, you just do your two years and get out. Once you aren't completely crap (the ones that were weren't stupid, just lazy or lacking common sense) you'll do alright, get a few decent bonuses (yeah okay maybe not 70k but still as much as an average grad gets gross as a base salary outta university most likely).
The thing is - the job does open doors, a lot of them. Secondly, like it or not, brand names carry a lot of weight in this world. Having started your career in a well know BB will stick to you for at least the early part of your career. Just do it and try your best - even if you arent ranked tier 1 or even tier 2 it'll still be an experience you'll reap a lot of benefits from going forward.
A specific type of people thrive as analysts in IB, which is also the reason many "brilliant people" fail. People who are "too smart" can't do the job - someone with ideas that can change the world and thinks a step ahead of everyone else couldn't possibly sit through 16 hours a day doing powerpoint formatting and working group lists. The work isn't hard (some models get complicated but there's plenty of resources for you to learn from), but you have to do it quickly and accurately. If you can do that and have a fairly personable attitude, you'll be fine (as an analyst/associate at least).
Agreed. You'll be surprised at how mindless investment banking work is sometimes.
People leave or get fired not because they are not smart enough, but because 1) they absolutely hate it and lost their motivation 2) they simply don't care and just choose to slack off on the work or 3) they can't get along with anyone.
If you are not a complete idiot and you are actually motivated on the job (the most important part), you'll be fine. I know that sometimes during the recruiting process when we are deciding between candidates, there is actually a thing as "too smart" for investment banking.
Thanks a lot guys. You have all helped.
I worry bc I feel like I somehow cheated the system into an offer. I imbellished the resume w/o totally lying but I speak decently well. I memorized all the right technical questions and I think my interviewers may have taken this as an in depth understanding of finance...which I don't have. I'm only a 3.45 student.
For these reasons, I feel like I have been granted an offe that I may not truly deserve and therefore, I feel like I may be underqualified.
If you're going to a BB, you will receive very extensive training prior to working. Just about everything you need to know (as far as technicals go) will be taught. People are also willing to mentor and help you on the job if there's something you don't get. The key consideration, as many have already mentioned, is whether you can deal with the lifestyle. You can be a genius but still fail at banking because the lifestyle isn't for everyone
To tell you the truth, if you made it to banking thinking that you don't have the qualifications, you should be more proud of yourself and confident that you can achieve great things with ambition and determination, such as nailing down your interviews. Once you start working, take the initiative to meet important people that can help you while you're there, learn well the basics of accounting / finance during training, and more importantly, work hard and attentively throughout your 2 years. You will learn an incredible amount, but with good attitude and willingness to work your butt off in order to succeed you may even end up being a top analyst. Don't be afraid, be confident, man. You made it there, now take advantage of the opportunity...
The majority of analysts at most banks are not ivy league.
Honestly, I need to agree with pretty much everyone here. I talk to so many hopeful students that are not sure if they can handle the pressure, the work, etc and the bottom line is: it's not that hard. The hardest part of the job is actually dealing with all of the BS, all of the back and forth and the rush rush of the job at times and complete flat line of it at others - if you attend a strong undergrad school, made it through the interviews and have a 3.45, you are fine - you have nothing to worry about in terms of handling the work.
You will receive very solid training in terms of accounting, finance, modeling, etc - everything else and more will come within just a few weeks/month or being on the job and tearing through powerpoints, working on models (depending on the group you are in), reviewing and editing memos, researching and tearing through financials, etc. Don't worry about what you are lacking as you've got the time and the opportunity to greatly improve your skills.
I would say that the biggest problem you will face right now is yourself. If you have no confidence in your work, in your ability, you will definitely be seen as weaker or subpar by your superiors. Confidence and drive is essential to being a strong analyst - don't let your personal demons screw you out of a great opportunity and stop you from showing yourself as a capable analyst.
Regarding the amount of time it takes to do the work, the "smartest" people do not require 100 hours per week to do the work. What you are not realizing is that those 100 hour work weeks do not measure the amount of time you are head down and scrambling through a model or powerpoint, but rather the amount of time you are working, plus ALL of the time you are sitting around waiting for the next turn of a pitch, revisions to a book or memo, changes to a model, etc. Additionally, even if you are working the entire time it is not because you are working some incredibly exhaustive mentally draining work, but rather probably revising, editing, and tearing apart a 70-slide pitchbook for the 4th time.
Bottom line, you made it this far for a reason - don't convince yourself that you beat the system, etc - you got the offer, now make the most of the opportunity. Good luck.
grow a pair and do it
This thread is 3 years old. Wonder what happened with OP.
Probably at the bottom of the Hudson
hahahahahaha
We need to clarify something: You are not up against the smartest kids in the world. Not even close, so stop psyching yourself out. The smartest are all going into research and making positive contributions to the world. They are developing policy and joining think tanks. They are not crunching numbers in Excel. There are some really smart people on this board. Very few would describe themselves as among the smartest of their generation.
Now, are we some of the most Type A in the world? You bet.
Most of the really smart people I know are all in science or STEM. Like I've said before most of the IBankers I know are not particularly smart, they are all very fratty though.
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