Not Into Models and Bottles/Baller Culture = Bad Fit for I-Banking?

Hi,

I've been doing some thinking and it seems like most of my friends who are interested in banking are really fratty types who love to party, drink, smoke weed, etc. They're smart, obviously, but very fratty as well, which is not something I am. While I don't have super nerdy interests (i.e. I don't listen to classical music and I enjoy watching sports/playing sports, talking about girls to some extent, etc.), I definitely don't enjoy the fratty type of people who only care about drinking, girls, and how big their paycheck is. I know not all frat guys are like this, but you know what I'm talking about right? I'm a more reserved type of person who would rather go to the gym or hang out with friends (sans alcohol) as opposed to going to a night club and getting wasted/chasing girls all the time

So because of this, I'm wondering if I should avoid investment banking? It would be really hard for me to socialize with my team if I'm not into that stuff, and I don't even care as much about exit opps/money as most guys. I'd just want to do banking for 2-3 years or however long it takes to get into corporate development, and then chill after that. But the problem is, corp dev basically requires an M&A background, so any thoughts on this? How tough will those years in banking be if I'm not into all that stuff?

 

You know that it is possible to socialize without alcohol right? Just don't drink, or just order one beer and casually sip on it the whole night. 9 times out of 10 I've had a more enjoyable night out at the bars/clubs not getting absolutely trashed,waking up early in the morning and enjoying a nice jog. Just don't go out of your way to tell people you don't drink, there is no reason to.

 

If all the analysts go out to grab a drink and you don't join them, people will judge you, but if guys invite you out to a club and you tell them bottle service is retarded, you're in fine territory; I do it all the time. Ideally, follow it up by making fun of them when they are broke after blowing all of their money on bottles and strippers (there are no self respecting models who would sleep with a 22 year old barely earning enough for a tenement just because he's stupid enough to waste money on alcohol)

 
happypantsmcgee:
drexelalum11:
there are no self respecting models
Could have just stopped there.
swagon:
awm55:
I much rather be skiing in the alps than blowing hundreds of pounds at a bar

What about doing hundreds of pounds of blow at a ski bar in the alps? I'd rather do that.

+1 to the both of you.

OP, you seem to be generalizing all bankers based on some small subset you've seen. Also, you need to be aware that a lot of people try to project a certain imagine without it being true. Bankers are NOT the crazy partiers many pretend to be. In my experience, you certainly do find some fratstars and some kids who enjoy the bottle lifestyle, but for the most part bankers tend to be on the nerdier / more reserved side. It was shocking to see the general lack of social grace at all the networking sessions during the recruiting season.

Honestly, I party a lot. I like drinking. I like chasing girls. I love letting loose with my close friends. I club often as well. How many times have I paid for bottles? Twice. Once it was a friend's birthday and the other time we met up with a few buddies who had already thrown down and I didn't want to be a cheap prick and mooch off their table. I know a few promoters and as long as I bring along a few girls I get to drink on the house all night.

But here's the thing: I don't often go out with coworkers. There's one guy in my group that I've gone out with a good amount, but for the most part when I have time off of work I do things with my close friends. I'm with my coworkers enough. People understand if you don't want to party with them and they especially understand if you don't want to blow hundreds of dollars on overpriced bottles.

Be who you are and don't worry about the "banker" lifestyle. 22 year old analysts can't afford it. Most will NOT be doing models and bottles... for that matter, most that do bottles don't get models.

 

Remember WSO is a very poor sample of people. Morons who work 100 hours a week so cheap girls cling onto them at bars and clubs is pathetic to me. If that makes some people happy then I am not going to stop you, but your life has to be pretty empty if that is what you live and work for. I can guarantee most people in finance are more mature than that. I much rather be skiing in the alps than blowing hundreds of pounds at a bar for no reason.

 
swagon:
awm55:
I much rather be skiing in the alps than blowing hundreds of pounds at a bar

What about doing hundreds of pounds of blow at a ski bar in the alps? I'd rather do that.

This.

Hands down.

‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns or dollars."
 

Do what you want to do, don't worry about other people. If your team asks you to go out for a drink as stated above go out and get one beer, you can as mentioned hold that thing the entire duration of the night.Don't believe everything you read about i-banking, yeah there tends to be plenty of analyst who go for bottle service/ models; there are also others that spend money on obviously a multitude of other interests. Your social life and career are two different things if your goal is to end up in corporate development suck it up for the two years, gain the experience of banking and then move on.

its one way or the other: hate me or admire.
 
jimbrowngoU:
So you're not into drinking or chicks, but you're into anal? Maybe banking isn't the career for you...

Dude, if he's good at taking it in the ass, that would probably make him perfect for banking...

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

so basically what you are saying anal analyst is that you are an unsocial nerd who isn't comfortable enough to go out and have a good time. I have a question for you. Have you ever done that, gone out, got drunk and hit on women, because it is pretty fun? there is a reason so many people do it.

If the answer is no, then you probably embody your pseudonym way more than i care to graphically think about

 

Graphically think about? My brain is about to explode!

Anal, you can always pretend to be a supertightwad, like illiniprogrammer - people even ask him for savings advice

More is good, all is better
 

The maturity in this thread is astounding. Is this really what I'm gonna have to put up with for 2-3 years? This is exactly the kind of people I get irritated with: the kind who can't have any fun unless they're drunk or chasing girls. There's so much more to life than that, but whatever floats your boat. Believe me, I'm not so uptight that I would rather sit at home and read a book than go to a bar and cheer my favorite sports team loudly with friends, nor am I so anti-social that I hyperventilate around women, but I'm not into the college life where it's all about partying every weekend either. If you like partying, then by all means go have fun, but I absolutely loathe it when people automatically judge you for not drinking/constantly getting wasted.

 
Anal Analyst:
The maturity in this thread is astounding. Is this really what I'm gonna have to put up with for 2-3 years? This is exactly the kind of people I get irritated with: the kind who can't have any fun unless they're drunk or chasing girls. There's so much more to life than that, but whatever floats your boat. Believe me, I'm not so uptight that I would rather sit at home and read a book than go to a bar and cheer my favorite sports team loudly with friends, nor am I so anti-social that I hyperventilate around women, but I'm not into the college life where it's all about partying every weekend either. If you like partying, then by all means go have fun, but I absolutely loathe it when people automatically judge you for not drinking/constantly getting wasted.

Dude, don't take anything on WSO seriously. Honestly people don't care either way. No one is going to judge you if you think spending hundreds of dollars to get bottle service to attract cheap woman is pretty sad and desperate. I think even the people who do it know it is.

 
Anal Analyst:
The maturity in this thread is astounding. Is this really what I'm gonna have to put up with for 2-3 years? This is exactly the kind of people I get irritated with: the kind who can't have any fun unless they're drunk or chasing girls. There's so much more to life than that, but whatever floats your boat. Believe me, I'm not so uptight that I would rather sit at home and read a book than go to a bar and cheer my favorite sports team loudly with friends, nor am I so anti-social that I hyperventilate around women, but I'm not into the college life where it's all about partying every weekend either. If you like partying, then by all means go have fun, but I absolutely loathe it when people automatically judge you for not drinking/constantly getting wasted.

Do you hate drinking or just choose not to drink? Getting irritated also isn't good...why get mad over something you have no control over? With that said.

Face down ass-up is that the way you like to fuck, considering your name.... - No homo.

The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
 
Anal Analyst:
The maturity in this thread is astounding. Is this really what I'm gonna have to put up with for 2-3 years? This is exactly the kind of people I get irritated with: the kind who can't have any fun unless they're drunk or chasing girls. There's so much more to life than that, but whatever floats your boat. Believe me, I'm not so uptight that I would rather sit at home and read a book than go to a bar and cheer my favorite sports team loudly with friends, nor am I so anti-social that I hyperventilate around women, but I'm not into the college life where it's all about partying every weekend either. If you like partying, then by all means go have fun, but I absolutely loathe it when people automatically judge you for not drinking/constantly getting wasted.

Going out to get a drink on a Tuesday night with your group is NOT partying - it is socializing, and it is an important function of whatever job you're in. And nobody gets crazy drunk at these events, especially at the junior level. As for what you do on the weekends, I don't give a fuck what you do with your free time. Nobody that you work with will either. I don't really know anyone who consistently hangs out with IB friends on the weekends, anyway.

On another note, come judge the partying lifestyle once you've actually worked in IB. When I'm pulling 2am nights for an entire week and I get a Saturday night off, I want to get drunk and go all out. And if that means dropping $80-150 on bottles with 4 of my friends so I can actually get into a good club on the one night a week that I can hang out, then so be it. If you want to spend your free time at the office doing more work, be my guest.

 

I was busting your balls bucko, but awm hit the nail on the head: no one really cares. I know plenty of guys like you, everyone gets along just fine. A lot of people do like to get after it pretty hard in banking, but that doesn't mean you have to. It would be nice now and then to join your fellow analysts for a cocktail or ten and some skirt-chasing, but you don't have to do it weekly... or bi-weekly... or daily, however often it is they do these things.

 

I think the whole table club thing is something you have to get out of your system. When I was in college I probably went to every high end members club in London because my friends were promoters, table was comped and everything was free. After a while you realize that every one of these clubs is exactly the same, and are designed to extort as much money out of you as possible. The female promoters are hired to bring other girls to literally hang onto guys so they buy them drinks, and trust me the chances of them going home with you are 0.00%.

I am still in my early 20's and sometimes feel like an old man because I prefer getting some food at a nice restaurant and then hitting up a pub for a few pints. A few of the guys I work with are still in the phase where they like the whole table club thing, but that is largely because they have never lived in a major city before and have never experienced it. If its not your thing no one cares, in fact it doesn't really come off as all that mature if the analyst on the desk is blowing hundreds of dollars on alcohol for no reason.

 

Anal, come on man, this is foolishness. Of course you don't need to get wasted, ever if you don't want to. I recently quit drinking and I still go out. Someone gives me shit for not drinking, here's a very simple solution:

Sorry, douchebag, I enjoy my life and don't need a crutch to get through it... or to get girls. Enjoy you $500 bottle, puking in the alley, the hangover, and not getting laid.

Now, keep in mind some guys are just friendly and trying to be sociable, so being gentler about it can be good. I save the above for the alpha-douche.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Et fugiat deserunt doloremque aut omnis nihil. Magni est deserunt qui eius molestiae. Sint sunt sequi ut quisquam magnam ipsam. Et harum enim et. Quae ex possimus quae iure minima ex earum. Vel rerum culpa nobis nemo delectus. Laudantium et ipsam dolor asperiores.

Tempore sit maxime vitae veniam. Facere voluptatibus enim quam explicabo numquam sunt qui. Et tempore cumque quasi eum officiis ratione officia. Quam dolores rerum quod hic voluptatem sequi et accusantium.

Aliquam ratione consequuntur ut. Illo vel exercitationem illum tempore.

Laudantium eaque optio suscipit quod qui voluptatem. Et aut iure adipisci voluptates nihil ipsum est. Aut dicta laudantium officiis.

 

Ab nemo est iste sunt pariatur. Nesciunt id illo maxime laboriosam quos. Qui voluptas saepe illum ratione ipsam possimus. Libero dicta omnis ullam ipsam. Minima quaerat sit omnis modi.

Minima eos voluptas odit quisquam. Incidunt dolore neque nisi voluptatem maxime culpa soluta. Tempora sint sit voluptas sit.

Voluptatem deleniti est est et vero est. Quos explicabo quaerat et accusamus quod molestiae et. Nulla laborum labore fugiat ullam. Et quia eum dolore expedita tempora sint incidunt. Nam sed culpa aut quo.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”