Screw being an analyst

why would you want to come back to IB at that level? do your 2 years and never look back.

Then why bother with the 2 years at all? At least as an associate you get more freedom and a higher salary.

But what if I don't want to go into HF's/VC/PE etc? I just want to gain a lot of money so I can leave and start my own thing :)

What makes you guys think associates aren't also people's bitches? You are, of course, higher up in the food chain as an associate, but your life is hardly any better.

Anyway, money isn't the only reason to get into IB when you're young (but it does make a difference). After sucking it up for 2-3 years as an analyst, you're prepared to do just about any job out there--whether finance-related or not. And personally, part of me wanted to get into IB just to see if I could do it....

What makes you think that you could still wind up as an associate?

So true.. no matter what you're still going to be someone's bitch. Don't ever forget that. Even a CEO is the shareholder/board's bitch.

At any entry level job with a potential for high payouts, you are going to be someone's bitch. New lawyers - all they do is read over contracts for a long time, to make sure all the commas are there. Doctors, sleepless nights at the hospital during residency, 6 years of poverty during med-school, and so much studying. And as residents, they are every doctor's bitch. Need X-rays interpreted, get the resident. Face it, you don't start off as a an MD, partner, or chief surgeon. You start off as a bitch and you climb your way to the coveted position.

Even though its a long shot, its still possible to do the analyst to associate route ;)

anyone who goes into a job as an analyst/associate for money only with no interest in finance is going to be making a huge mistake. people think oh I can do 80-100 hours a week or whatever it comes out to but they dont realize what that actually entails until they do it.

nobody really cares about EBITDA multiples and shit..if you do, you need more hobbies.

we aren't interested, we just put up with it.

Think about it banking provides no value to anyone. priests help people with faith and grieving, doctors heal people....physically and sometimes mentally, contractors build houses, lawyers help people sue for pathetic reasons, scientists help us live longer, microsoft created the xbox 360, we make money. Plain and simple and if you can't stomach that then you should join the Peace Corps.

You guys take an awfully simplistic view of things...bankers (money-grubbing as they can sometimes be) actually do provide an essential service in a capitalist economy. If you believe in the innate goodness of capitalism, despite its flaws, then you can't possibly believe that all we do is look for opportunities to exploit the weak and make a few bucks.

Believe it or not, companies do actually need to raise money to grow and/or need advice once in a while. These are, in general, very good things.

Of course, there are good bankers and shitty bankers (and good guys and assholes), but that's not the point here.

Competition, flooding the market, reversion to the mean, and the commoditization of services (pick a permutation thereof) are what cause the stress and the 80+ hour workweeks. Unfortunately there's not much you can do about it.

But to respond to other posts above, you CAN find this stuff interesting at times. There's just a ton of it that keeps coming, and coming, and coming....

What if I'm not offered any analyst position right out of college? What are my other options is I still want to be in investment banking? Could I go straight to grad school, get a MBA, and hope to get a job as an associate upon graduation?

What are other carrer options if I don't get a analyst job but still want to be a banker?

Very interesting thread, good to see that a few people do share my views.

Wasting Time:

Why not just go get an MBA after a couple years of work and sneak in? Why become a wussy little analyst bitch that jumps and says "yes sir" when the boss wants a coffee?

I'm going to go be a DBA and make 90k/year fucking around with databases. Do that for 5 years and open up my own business or... apply to business school and go work as an associate.

Do you have any idea how many freaking IT people there are in the world, especially when you consider India? There are so many IT people in MBA programs, recruiters want to vomit every time they see an IT CV because they've had to look at 1000 of them. You won't stand out, you won't get an interview, you won't be an associate!!

There's nothing wrong with starting as an associate, but if you are really interested in IB, then why wait? You may realize you hate it, so you can move on with your life. Or you may realize you love it, and you keep doing it. Either way, you'll make more money in 2-3 years as an analyst doing just about anything else at that age. Not to mention you learn alot and make a ton of contacts.

Take it from me, Associate lifestyle is not vastly better than an Analyst. And as an Associate from a non-banking background it takes a while to catch up to some of the experienced analysts in terms of finance knowledge and the rules of the game. It's no walk in park.

Also, who knows what the market will be like in 5 years. The industry might be slow and there'll be no chance to get into banking.

Basically, you might think your little plan sounds good, but it's not. It might work out that way, but there's a lot of things that can go wrong. I-banking is a country club, getting into the club in the first place is the hard part. If you have a chance to get in, don't pass it up, cuz you might not get another one.

"intricacies of valuing a company"

really? is it really that intricate to slap the EBITDA multiple your VP tells you to produce a valuation for a company? is calculating a DCF really that intricate?

clearly, you are not an ibanker.

"If you are in the field of investment banking and the fundamentals of how businesses are ran and valued do not spark the slightest interest in your mind, you will not survive."

once (if) you ever start in ibanking, you will realize that the interest begins to fade very fast. after doing tons of DCF's and comps, it is very easy to become disinterested.

more people go into ibanking more for prestige, exit opps and money than for their passionate and undying love of valuing companies. if you believe otherwise, you are just fooling yourself or you're an idiot.