can an Introvert and stammer survive in Investment Banking?
I am currently at a crossroads in my career journey and would greatly appreciate your insights . I am an introvert (Introvert because I am stammer and fear the judgement of other people) and stammer with a genuine interest in both investment banking and technology (PM role mainly) and to be honest I am interested in both careers. I am aware that finance is an industry of extrovert people unlike tech
I want to know whether being a stammer, as well as an introvert, would be a real obstacle to breaking into investment banking. I want to face the reality, no matter how bitter it may be. For those of you with experience in finance or tech, or perhaps even both, could you share your insights on the following:
- How accommodating is the finance industry for individuals who are more introverted or have speech impediments?
- If there are individuals in the community who have faced similar challenges or have successfully navigated a career in Investment Banking with introversion and stammering, I would love to hear your stories.
Just wanted to mention a bit about my speech thing. Usually, I talk fine without any hiccups when I am around with people I know, but I do stutter in a few situations:
- When articulating lengthy sentences or words commencing with certain vowels.
- During moments of anger or frustration.
- When under stress, extreme annoyance, or time pressure.
Also an introvert in banking here. Two things that really helped me were boosting my self confidence and reading Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and infuence people".
I had a vp who would stammer every sentence and he did okay, if he could do it so can you
The fact he made to VP is not a great achievement yet. For introverts - the struggle starts when you try to get into D/MD post and if you suffer till VP you either want to push for further or at least be able to land some good late exit like CFO role or head of m&a.
I would personally say being quite different has some good sides (clients and colleagues will definitely remember you which is often super helpful) but you need to have super strong personality and be very confident in your skills and values. I am myself autistic and there are plenty of days when I wish I would have taken hedge fund job when that was an option (though it was not the best as it was research at multi pod) than continue in IBD were people intellectually are not that smart and what matters the most is politicking and s***ing b**** yet sadly, could have never convinced myself of early waking hours and intensity of HF days
When you start working you’ll realize everyone has these moments from either exhaustion or stress
If you need to give a presentation take some adderall
Definitely agree - I noticed when I was in university I rarely if ever stuttered when talking but over the years of staring at a screen for 80+ hours a week fixing formulas in excel / rearranging logos and interacting less with other people in general, I’d have days where sentences became less fluent. Would say just have more conversations with people about a wide variety of topics which I know can be difficult if you spend most your waking hours working and haven’t kept up with recent developments.
Also make sure to get 8+ hours of sleep consistently each night, I’ve had nights with only 3-5 hours of sleep, and the next day or two I’d either speak much slower or make incomplete sentences. There’s some good advice in other comments about overcoming this if it’s not too severe
Our firm has a special programme for employees with a disorder or disability, not sure if you would consider your stammer as one or not. If you (and only you) believe that a certain condition may hamper your career. We have hired staff who are in a wheelchair, with a vision impairment and other conditions.
But I have never met anyone with a speech disorder within IB, but maybe that is just my situation. I am sure they exist.
just to be clear, there will be many moments of anger and frustration in banking. Same for the stress, annoyance and time pressure. it's there every day for us.
They do not. I have been trying to find them in 5 banks in Europe so far and could not. Though there are some autistic and dyslexic, or just neurodivergent, people in IBD
ok, didn't know. But how would you find (or not find) them in the first place? It's a difficult situation to search for, as it's not readily apparent when you look at someone's profile?
I believe that presentation skills are super important in management (within any industry), but that wouldn't mean a speech impediment is the reason for lacking these skills? I have had terrible presentations from people who could speak perfectly fine.
the content is more relevant and employers are more diverse than ever. if we had a partner firm where one of their associates has a speech disorder, I would be impressed that they gave this person a chance and didn't show ignorance.
Having a disability would potentially be a bigger deal in personal life situations when inclusion is less desired.
I am a fellow person who stutters and made a similar post on here last year (you can check my post history for it). I think that my stutter is pretty similar to yours in that I’m fluent when speaking to people I know, but when talking to strangers and in high-stakes situations (like an interview) my stutter flares up to a moderate-severe level.
I have definitely faced some challenges with it, and you will probably encounter a lot of assholes who will disregard you for it, but there are good people out there and I’m sure you will find your way. I’m going through recruiting right now and haven’t had any formal interviews with big firms yet, but have had a lot of really good networking calls with alumni of my school. On the flip side, though, I did have an interview with an MD of a regional boutique for example who stopped interviewing me after he heard my stutter and just had me ask him questions the whole time and abruptly ended the call. Also, there have been a couple search fund internships I got through 2-3 non verbal rounds for (involving work assignments) and then got rejected once the verbal round came, but I ended up getting some good internships elsewhere and those negative experiences were outliers.
My advice would be to practice speaking to people as much as possible, since it is near impossible for us adult stutterers to get rid of stuttering, but it is possible for us to decrease the severity of it by targeting the anxiety at the root of it through desensitization (exposure therapy) and positive thinking. I would suggest always keeping in mind before you go to an interview or talk to someone that it doesn’t matter if you get the job or what they think of you (even though it does) as this will convince your brain that it’s a low stakes situation and have you stuttering less. Also, I’ve noticed that the more networking calls and interviews I’ve done, the more comfortable and less I stuttered in each subsequent one, so make sure to get a lot of practice in before the really important interviews and calls you’ll have later on in the process.
It is difficult for us, but we have to keep pushing forward and that would be my advice for navigating the whole process as a person who stutters. If you have any questions or want to talk about any of this further feel free to PM me.
Also, I’d recommend reading Redefining Stuttering by John Harrison, as it outlines a lot of the most helpful strategies to target the psychological aspect of stuttering. You can find a PDF of it online pretty easily by just looking up the title and author.
When it comes to practice speaking, Toastmasters can help them
Apart from studying your triggers, and learning how to minimise their impact, I would also add to the list manifestation. Each day, just spend 10minutes, manifesting what you want to achieve. And then for each of those bad situations, what you need to re-learn is how to attract good. Generally, you need to learn to see positivity. I have anxiety myself and the way how I learnt to deal with it was to always find some positivity in each and every situation - eg I did not get the job I applied for in the very last round - great, I will not have to work in the firm that does not align with my values and personality.
Go for it, I’m sure you’ll do great. Play to your strengths and try to work on the things you struggle with. What’s the worst that can happen? Good luck and let us know how you get on
This is just a 2 cents of mine, but whenever id speak to people with serious stammers, I didnt mind as long as they genuinely had something interesting to say.
For example during a networking event, I spoke to this one guy who had a pretty decent start up going. I went from trying to ignore his speech impediment , to actively listening to what he had to say and it was a really good talk.
I think if you foster a strong and interesting resume, People will be less inclined to disregard you so superficially. Obviously easier said than done, but you've got internships, and coming from tech i'm sure youre no stranger to extra-curricular projects and more niche interests/ skills. On the Job, if you manage to smash all the hard skills, and look presentable/reliable, you should get by fine enough.
Both ibanking and PM career favors extrovert people but PM requires way more extrovert skillset, because the entire PM job is about coordination, communication, expressing ideas, and selling your product strategy to senior management, persuading others to follow your roadmap. In ibanking, large portion of the job is excel modeling and financial analysis and gathering & researching information, so it’s less extrovert than PM.
To be honest I’ve never met anyone in IB that had a serious speech impediment. Do people stammer sometimes, sure everyone is tired and jaded, or potentially not fully mentally focused on whatever it is that you’re talking about and may lose their train of thought mid sentence as they’re coming up with a generic response to whatever you said that they didn’t actually listen to.
Interviews are quite competitive and selective and unfortunately given the fact most people you meet are actually well spoken and polished as a baseline to get into the field, it may be a bit difficult to break into this field if it’s very noticeable. As an analyst it’s probably not as big of a deal given you spend most your time doing grunt work, but beyond that where you’d have to either lead calls or speak with clients more frequently as you progress it’s probably not as optimal but possibly something you can overcome as others have mentioned above
At my nontarget, we have a guy who stammers. He is by far one of the most intelligent people I know within our finance clubs, and I believe has BB lined up in NY. Don't let it hold you back whatsoever.
Cant speak for stammer but as a fellow introvert I have been able to overcome it by spamming networking calls. It helped me become more well-spoken and even helps with presentations
Director in S&T/Capital Markets here - have a stutter and would consider myself introverted relative to the avg salesperson. Thankfully i have learned to navigate it that 90% of the time people wouldnt notice but certain words and situations fail me - it is what it is. My stutter has gotten worse again since i had kids and am now sleep deprieved. In todays world, being different and owning your "flaws" can be spun into a strength.
Everyone has strengths and shortcomings - my ability to listen, distill information and speak selectively but providing immense value is a direct result of my stammer and introversion.
And lastly, listen - you're never going to be liked/appreciated by everybody, but you will be the perfect "cup of tea" for a subset of the population. Thats your tribe, thats the PM that enjoys your style/personality, thats the CFO that appreciates your view from the other cookie-cutter type A bankers
Nothing is impossible - look at Stephen Hawking
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