For those who work(ed) in investment banking. Have you ever enjoyed your job or felt fulfillment? I am a high schooler now, and IB seems to me like a career that I really want to pursue. I have completed some online experience programs, and they helped me make up my mind.
| +136 | Restructuring: Anti-climactic Experience | 36 | 5h |
| +109 | IB Net Worth / Savings Check | 51 | 4h |
| +99 | Woman who emptied Knicks trashcan on street then stole it was DEI exec, worked at JPMorgan Chase | 25 | 1h |
| +82 | Stop sleeping on UBS - it’s pretty good | 29 | 41m |
| +70 | Hot take: I’d rather be at Desjardins than UBS for investment banking in 2026 | 11 | 25m |
| +56 | 2026 VAULT PRESTIGE RANKINGS | 30 | 1h |
| +39 | AI + Financial Modelling | 12 | 1d |
| +32 | Hardest interview experiences? | 18 | 8m |
| +28 | Summer before college | 17 | 19h |
| +26 | Current State of UBS in North America | 8 | 2d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
IB or high finance is always a sacrifice.
If you want pure work satisfaction - then work at a Non-profit or charity. Or some pre profit tech startup. The downside is that the pay is rubbish - so you have to sacrifice things in your personal life (going on that holiday, not affording to buy anything when you want to etc).
I moved to IB after doing a few different roles. I think the satisfaction increases as you get more senior and can focus on the interesting things, rather than simply grinding the outputs.
Personally, I love it. My group has a good culture and great deal flow, so it's the ideal environment for a Jr. But I also really like the product and the deal process. If you have a strong natural interest in what your group does then you'll like it. And then of course the compensation is very competitive
where do u work
I have worked in IB for around a decade, and I've also spent time working at a non-profit organisation.
I do not necessarily speak for the junior ranks, but I do enjoy my job. We are paid to learn about interesting businesses, their strategies, and products, and make relationships with some really interesting entrepreurs and business people. It has a lot of entrepreurial aspects (rewards and even job security being determined by what your output is, but I personally like that). You also get to see and travel to places all over the world (by far from always being fun, but unless you have the financial means to do it because of family background, there's enjoyable aspects to this)..
Fulfillment means a broad range of things, so I'm more hesitant here. It depends where you get fulfillment from - IB leaves you, at all seniority levels, with less free time to pursue things, important things, outside of the job. Family, friends, and hobbies are all obvious examples, so that's key to be aware of. What has helped me is being more confident about how and where to set boundaries and knowing where to say "no", and pre-empting the issue does help manage it. Finally, the job pays an enormous amount at all seniority levels, which enables me to experience things and provide for loved ones like parents in ways I might never have otherwise been able to. That is fulfilling.
Is the job "fulfilling" intrinsically? For me, yes - I get a lot of value from knowing what objective function I'm trying to maximise from my day-to-day work. IB provides that, and sometime this felt unclear at the non-profit where I worked (as in, the objective was phrased in fairly vague terms which were difficult to measure - I appreciate that most charities and non-profits, many of whom doing tremendous work, face this issue, and that's why they don't fit well in the private sector, but it's something to be aware of depending on your personality). A final argument here is that, if you find charitable success fulfilling, an option is to work in IB, make a lot of money, and donate that to charity - this has worked as an outlet for me.
Yes, nothing says fulfillment like changing up the peer groups for the 57th time at 4 am for an internal alignment call and then being in the office at 8 am the next morning to take notes from some useless LevFin call.
And have you ever wanted to be in IB? Why do you work in it?
Sure, I was super excited to work in IB before my first internship. The idea of being a part of huge deals on the front page of Bloomberg, advising companies on transformational transactions and the senior exposure was very appealing. When I actually started my internship, I realized that it was just extremely repetitive, boring and process-oriented. I still decided to start my career at GS though because of the exit opportunities and at the time I didn't really know what other industry I would be interested in.
Regardless of whether or not you like IB, I still think it’s one of the best jobs that finance students can pursue out of undergrad due to overall comp, trial by fire learning experience, and job opportunities that open up if you end up leaving.
The more deals you work on, the better the last two points become. But it comes at a cost: lots of late nights. For me, I’d say the biggest gripe with the job is how much time is spent doing mundane “monkey” work that then bleeds into an inability to plan anything with friends more than one day in advance (and usually you’ll have to cancel last minute anyway)
I actually did like some aspects of IB when I was in it, but I like PE much more. I thought it was interesting to get exposure to execs running cool companies as a kid straight out of college. Did not think it was as fun to regularly work well past midnight. There are certainly trade offs. I would say you like banking the most your first day / the day you get your offer.
It’s one of the only entry level jobs where you get to be in the same room as the C-suite and decision makers. You get to learn about entire businesses from end to end. You get to be a part of important work that facilitates millions of dollars in deals.
There’s plenty of reason to like IB.
Qui dicta libero temporibus harum. Earum numquam commodi quae reiciendis quis cumque voluptatem. Sequi tenetur dolorem quos autem voluptatum vel ea. Et consequatur delectus laudantium odit eum placeat. Ab dolor quas eos. Quidem maxime adipisci reprehenderit praesentium praesentium quia dolores a. Alias ea ut dicta.
Expedita impedit adipisci eos est est. Cupiditate incidunt aspernatur excepturi. Cum id delectus natus est autem. Error voluptas suscipit id excepturi ut recusandae.
Cupiditate non nobis et consectetur sed. Cumque quia voluptatem voluptas maiores et.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...