Any Muslims in IB/High Finance? What's your experience been like?
Hey everyone,
I'm an incoming freshman at NYU and am planning on pursuing investment banking. I was just curious if there are any Muslims here working in IB or high finance and what your experience has been like.
For some background, I'm a Muslim guy. I pray around 3-5 times a day and I don't drink or smoke. I'm definitely not the perfect Muslim by any means, but I do try to practice my faith. I've been around parties and people drinking in high school, but I've never really participated.
I was mostly wondering what it's actually like once you're in the industry. Do you usually have time to pray during the workday, or is that unrealistic with the hours? Also, since drinking seems like a pretty common part of networking and team events, what's your experience been if you don't drink? Have your coworkers or bosses ever cared, or is it generally not a big deal? I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has ever felt left out or if people are pretty respectful about it.
I'm not really looking for a debate about religion or whether finance is halal. I'm just interested in hearing from people who've actually been through it and what their experience has been.
I'd really appreciate hearing your stories. Thanks!
At some point you would have to work on a deal with companies that are immoral...
How would you deal with that?
Edit: this is quite different to a debate on whether finance is halal in general...as you are making this post about IB specifically
He literally said he doesnt give a shit at the end
.
Im sure he cares about the specifics as this post was literally asked in the context of his faith...the question still stands
Bump
People are generally respectful and do not care if you drink or not at networking events. You can simply have virgin and non-alcoholic options in such settings.
With respect to prayer times, you need to be strategic about it. As long as it doesn’t interfere with your job, I don’t think people will notice UNLESS you give them a reason to notice (e.g., frequent pattern of missing scheduled calls). You wouldn’t generally draw any scrutiny as long as you’re doing your job.
Lastly, to answer your opening question, yes, there are many Muslims in high finance (IB, PE, and HF).
Most people in IB sacrifice some degree of religion, if they are even religious, for the job. You will be fine but honestly it shouldnt even come up or be noticeable to anyone, ir else you are doing to wrong.
I have 1 Muslim coworker, 1 Jewish and presumably rest Christian or non-religious but I couldn’t tell you a thing about there private religious life because they keep it separate from work.
Ignore title Sr Aso at a EB.
I’m openly muslim, pray in office, regularly use arabic (my native tongue) in the bullpen, fast for Ramadan the whole nine yards.
I’m only replying to this because I remember having the same questions when I was in your shoes - the honest answer is it really depends by team. My first team was not the most welcoming and I had some not so great interactions but then i was able to find a place for myself on wall st with a team that honestly just didnt care. They’re all respectful of my religious obligations and for sure at times my prayer is delayed cos of calls or meetings but on the whole I make it work. I don’t drink (never have just not for me) and my entire team knows it and doesn’t really care. At happy hours I just get a coke or a water and that’s it.
Don’t be worried about the religion interfering with anything. For sure you’ll come up against folks with prejudice but if they judge you for what you believe in or the way you live your life did you really want to work with them in the first place?
Hey man I got a couple of personal questions u mind dming me or something like that?
You will do fine as long as you stick to major financial hubs like London and NYC. With ample HR presence, teams are forced to be inclusive. There is peer pressure to drink as it’s part of social fabric but no one will admit this. Don’t expect HR to be super receptive from a diversity perspective, they only care about accommodating gender diversity ie hiring and promoting as many women as they can.
Never seen anyone take time off for prayers but you should be fine as long as you are discreet. You will need sponsors to climb the ladder and it is not that easy to be part of the inner circle as most bonding with seniors revolves around alcohol in some shape or form.
If you are a practising Muslim and competent, sooner or later your peers will try to frame you as not a good cultural fit especially if you are competing for limited VP+ spots. Meaning you might get targeted in layoffs if you don’t have political clout. Try to work for teams where at least you have some seniors of color, ideally a muslim man.
Most successful Muslims I came across in finance are performative for the large part. I wouldn’t call them practising. Keep in mind that most of your bosses will be non-muslim conservative white or brown men and they really don’t like Islam or Muslims even if they pretend to be indifferent
I will add specifically about drinking - it seems like everyone in the industry drinks and there is peer pressure. But if you actually pay attention lots of the top MDs don't drink or hardly drink, quite a few (but lower percentage) of juniors too. Just do your thing - being smart including common sense and pulling your weight is really what matters initially, and then developing the higher level skills (management, negotiating, social/bus dev) as you get promoted.
Here is the caveat. All these MD and GH pretending to be sober were alcoholics through their mid/junior ranks. As a senior banker, it is more fashionable to pretend you are sober and focusing on your health etc. Drinking is just one aspect of the social mix
3. I am not advocating for you to be non-muslim. This is just my personal story. Anyone who wants to maintain their faith would stay far away from this industry. Riba is like waging war against Allah
Stfu goof. You are only doing this to eliminate competition. Show us one Muslim country that has a financial system that is fully shariah compliant even then interest is just repackaged as upfront lump sum.
I already work in IB in London lol and literally stopped practicing after my summer. I couldn’t care less about sharia compliance or your arguements. He asked for my take and I gave it
Wow, I saw something saying WSO people are so douchey and insufferable. I’m seeing now that it’s definitely true. Why u hating on his take, bro? He’s just telling what he thinks.
fine, good luck
Interest expense line item makes them go akbar on us
Received a "Muslim Interested in Investment Banking" email subject line last year... please don't do that
This thread got me thinking. I’m based in Germany and I’ve never came across any Muslim in any type of important role in the private sector. Be it partnership at MBB, management at DAX companies or MDs in PE/IB. The only noteworthy public figures that comes to my mind is the Biontech couple.
Even in my MBB class there wasn’t a single muslim. Kind of crazy if you think that you have a large Turkish diaspora since like the 60s?
Continental Europe is properly racist when it comes to creating opportunities for children of immigrants. Makes you appreciate the UK and US far more.
Continental Europe is properly racist when it comes to creating opportunities for children of immigrants. Makes you appreciate the UK and US far more.
Ignore my title. I am fairly senior at this point and have come across fair share of biased people. Among them, racist pro max were older European guys ie German, Scandinavian.
I'm not muslim but how do you deal with the issue re: debt in your religion? Even on the advisory side, you will deal with debt especially if you do any work with sponsors or larger privates. The only field of finance I could think of, where you don't think about debt at all, is VC...maybe co-investing or secondaries based on how you think about it, but you will 100% be forced to think about the capital structure there.
Be a Muslim in banking
Literally every deal revolves around debt financing (haram)
Every women around you is not wearing hijab(haram)
All your bosses or clients bosses are likely jewish(every sponsor basically)
Haven’t read the above so not sure if this has already been said - no one cares if you don’t drink, but the expectation in this job is that you’re available around the clock. If you’re unavailable 5x every day, even if it’s to practice your faith, it’s not going to work unfortunately. Not because people don’t respect it, but because the job itself expects availability and responsiveness 24/7
When I go to the prayer room during the day, no one really stays anything but I do get some nasty stares when I try to let my coworkers know they are all going to h
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