Models, Bottles, and Playing Hard in Finance

Finance attracts a lot of people who like to work hard and play hard. Financial professionals may work brutal hours and have to deal with high levels of pressure, but they also make lots of money, work prestigious jobs, and can afford to drop cash on nights out.

So what are some of your best party stories? What have been some of your craziest, weirdest, or wildest nights while working in finance?

 
Best Response

I’ve got a good one.....

Recently I was working on a deal that had a pretty intensive diligence process. I was grinding away for three weeks straight, burning the midnight oil, spending weekends in office, etc.

When the deal closed and I got the ‘thanks for your efforts’ email from my VP (this was a Friday), I left the office around 7. Went home, threw my work clothes on the floor and then got ready for a wild night...... I went to bed at 8:30pm and didn’t set an alarm for the following morning.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy and definitely a little weird.

 
Trainer:
I’ve got a good one.....

Recently I was working on a deal that had a pretty intensive diligence process. I was grinding away for three weeks straight, burning the midnight oil, spending weekends in office, etc.

When the deal closed and I got the ‘thanks for your efforts’ email from my VP (this was a Friday), I left the office around 7. Went home, threw my work clothes on the floor and then got ready for a wild night...... I went to bed at 8:30pm and didn’t set an alarm for the following morning.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy and definitely a little weird.

Going out raging gets old after a certain age. Even if I want to party hard, after a long week at work, my body won't let me. Now, I basically just do dinners and casual drinks with friends, dates, and chilling at home watching Netflix while eating delivery food.

 
Fleur-M:
I agree with Trainer. I think the time of "Wolf of Wall Street" kind of life is over for bankers.

No. Way.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Not sure if serious or being sarcastic. Girls at 1Oak at very hot, usually have thousands of instagram followers, and know their worth when it comes to the dating/1 night stand market. As an analyst you definitely are not "rich" or even "have money." Disposable income, sure. You're long term prospects of being upper class and having a nice house in the suburbs, and being able to take care of the family while your wife becomes a stay a home mom is certainly possible. But girls at these types of clubs aren't interested in husband hunting or looking 10n years down the line. Go to less famous clubs and the girls are much more slutty and willing to go home with you.

It's funny. I was at 1Oak last week and in Vegas a couple months ago. I was looking around, and I literally saw the laws of economics and natural human mating take into affect. The arabs spending some serious dough, the C list celebrities, and wealthy white trust fund babies had some seriously hot girls at their tables and could point to any girl in the club and have at least a 50% chance of taking her back to their room. These guys at minimum had to spend at least $10k in bottles. Me, as a good looking, well polished, and fiscally conservative single horny dude, simply could not compete with some of the other guys in the clubs. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like entering competitions where I quite clearly going to lose.

Whenever I go to a club on the Lower East Side or a bar in Murray Hill, I'm a 10 minute uber ride back to my bed, have dozens of hot white girls that are impressed you work in finance and don't need to spend thousands of dollars on, and my chances of closing are a lot higher.

We're not lawyers. We're investment bankers. We didn't go to Harvard. We Went to Wharton!
 
pmw_pmf:
I may be an exception here, but great nights after a tough, yet successful week involve treating my closest friends to bountiful nights at 1Oak and the like. Last Friday, I randomly called up a prominent promoter that a close friend of mine introduced me to, which subsequently ended up in me having bottles of Dom poured down my throat in the VIP section by 22 year-old sorority wanna-be model types. Honestly, a ton of confidence, an occasional zinger, and asking if they want breakfast at my place after they see my car tends to seal the deal.

You drive a car to 1Oak? That totally makes sense...also, 1Oak is still a thing? That place is ancient.

 

I went to a bar with some coworkers once after work. I was leaving the company and they wanted to take me out. We had a few shots. Was pretty wild.

“Elections are a futures market for stolen property”
 

My wildest night was roughly 9 years ago, and it was with HR at my bank... It's what you make out of it and who you hang out with, a bit like every fucking thing in life.

One of my friend is in M&A (I was in trading) - he is an alcoholic now and hits the bottle real hard after work. No models though, only bottles.

Also get over yourself, you are not in a prestigious job. You are in a job, and unless you are Harvey Weinstein pre-lawsuits, most jobs suck. You get fucked in the ass with some excel spreadsheets on a daily basis working for some insecure ass holes before becoming one yourself. Or like everything in life you have a different experience with a boss that respects the fact that you are all a bunch of millennial snow-flakes who can't take a bit of abuse anymore.

 

Wow.. someone's a real downer. While I agree with your sentiments of jobs in the finance sector not being a walk in the park, I have definitely had some crazy nights and times which have lived up to the tales everyone hears. So maybe you're the one who needs to get over your negative attitude and realize that its probably what has caused you to have an unpleasant few decades on the job.

 

SB on the "prestigious" remark. I cringe every damn time I see someone use that word on this site. The job is only prestigious to them.

Little PSA to anyone on this site trying to get into these careers because they are "prestigious" - do you really think a nurse, construction worker, farmer, developer - whatever - sees the title "investment banker" and thinks prestige? No, 95-99% of them do not. They likely think you make investments, showing that many don't even know what this kind of role entails. Fuck, I don't even look at the CEO of the largest companies and think "oh yeah, that person has so much prestigeeeeee." That just sounds lame as hell. As Disjoint said, a job is a job. Even those with "dream" jobs - e.g., biologist, celebrity musician/actor, ski instructor, etc. - still have shitty components to their jobs.

 

"Work hard play hard" is a big act to be perfected.

When I worked in M&A the only off-hour "perks" I remember having were late-night black car service and free meals. That's it. Meanwhile, the vp-level guy i was seeing led a totally different life.

He and his buddies got badly smashed every time they went out, and everybody knew it. Yet they convinced the team that they were miraculously invincible, appearing fresh, worked out and professional before the bosses next morning. One of the favorite tricks being sipping green tea or matcha lattes next morning in front of everybody and bitching about how "its impossible to work out in this city" since "all the gyms on upper west side are shit" despite having smashing hangovers and 20 minutes of sleep from the night before. Pathetic, really. But the bosses and junior guys bought it every time. Unbelievable. "Work hard, play hard" is all a big act. The question is, how badly you want to kill yourself in perfecting it...

 

Safe to say that there is a lot more partying in EU/UK every team has at least one or two analysts in for the weekly bender and just few weeks ago went on a three night Thursday to Sunday major dance event while mid deal process. And while banking is certainly no gauranteed entry in the biggest clubs, the money is still very good and if you got some Game there is def no shortage

 

Still remember meeting some people at an event who had been on my desk years ago and left to get higher up roles as smaller firms. They were ragging on the head of my desk for having "gone soft," getting married, having a kid.

It was disconcerting to see 30-somethings piling in on a guy for being an adult while being easily one of the top 5 people in the world in his market.

My group actually has a reputation for knowing how to party, but I honestly can't picture a single person on my desk who would go to Lavo, 1Oak or whatever if it weren't on a broker's tab.

 

My roommate was the nephew of a Mexican billionaire. He would always do these huge trips to Ibiza. Always told me to come but the price was high. So I was having a good year decided what the hell and dropped the 30k every guy was throwing in for all inclusive. I think I was 26 at the time.

So did the typical rent a mansion on the island and fly in 30 models for a week of partying. No one famous but a notch below and some more normal. Guy group was two Turkish oligarchs (one of them has a piece of I think the ritz or 4 seasons in Miami), a bunch of Mexican guys including the nephews of a top 5 Mexican billionaire.

Partied my ass off for a week. Downsize got diarrhea after 4 days. Funny thing is guys pitching in 30k didn’t even get their own bedrooms. Think it was 10-15 room house so everyone had to squeeze in and share rooms.

Had day and night tables at all the best clubs. We would show up on these buses with 30 girls in heels to enter th club.

I occasionally do a few more of these trips with them mostly Coachella. But the core group from that one broke up some. The head organizer burnt some guys on another trip and well developed a drug problem and his dad cut him off.

 

I know a client who does his annual retreat every year at Thailand. He has his own mansion by the beach. Everyday they would send in a new girl for him and he would do this 60 days straight.

Another friend who is Head of Asset Management at DB Shanghai got ask by brokerage firms all the time for networking meetings after working hours. This ends up at KTV every single time. They provide all free entertainment services at the KTV at least three times a week. After 2 years of this, he doesn't want to see any more women.

 

The craziest night was when i focking got back from work at 2am after going hard at teh midnight oil and wrestled my dress shirt off my muscular body without unbuttoning the sleeves.

What concert costs 45 cents? 50 Cent feat. Nickelback.
 

I could write a book about these. No joke. I dare not speak of all the wonderful illegal things I/we did, but I came in one morning, in the same suit I left the previous day wearing (I thought no one would notice - they did. Immediately), and after my boss said as much, I walked up to him and waved my two fingers under his nose and said he missed a great night. He proceeded to gag and told me to go home and sleep. Epic.

Oh yeah, I'm not allowed in the United Kingdom. Ever.

 
tyrets:
I could write a book about these. No joke. I dare not speak of all the wonderful illegal things I/we did, but I came in one morning, in the same suit I left the previous day wearing (I thought no one would notice - they did. Immediately), and after my boss said as much, I walked up to him and waved my two fingers under his nose and said he missed a great night. He proceeded to gag and told me to go home and sleep. Epic.

Oh yeah, I'm not allowed in the United Kingdom. Ever.

You sick fuck

 

I know it's been almost 6 years since you have posted this comment. But I just want you to know that I just gave you a banana (bring the total to 19) in hopes that you haven't forgotten about this epic story of yours

 

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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
 

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