IB is stupid

No one likes formatting PowerPoint slides. It’s one of those things that has to be done  and it sounds like you’re at the bottom of the totem pole.

As with most other careers, you have to pay your dues when you first start. It’s fine not to like the career, but the career should be judged based on the senior’s job, not your responsibilities as an analyst. 
Your company is hired for the advice the seniors provide, not because an analyst can change colors on a slide really fast.

IMO this is more indicative of entry-level jobs in your 20s than IB. There aren't many truly "cool" jobs readily available out of college unless you want to be a founder or work early stage startup. 

I’m under the impression that IB doesn’t get “fun” (as much as it could be) until the VP level.

intern here just converted feel the same way lol

OP here - Maybe the post just seemed a bit like bitching about doing boring work, which I get is something that will happen in almost any career path. But my thinking is more that even seeing the higher ups doing stuff, I don't really see the interesting/fun part of it for much of what they do. That is to say: I guess the IB life ins't really for me, but not because of the "has to work long hours" aspect of it. I just don't see much interesting stuff in general. But feel free to give your thoughts, I'm genuinly very interested to know 

I like to refer to myself as an overpaid, shitty graphic designer. 

It seems like people who want to get into IB should have some graphic design experience at this rate

It's just the money man. I'm nonchalant about the work, but at age 23 I understand myself well enough to know that I'd feel the same towards other mainstream careers, and unfortunately I don't have the risk appetite for other non-mainstream stuff

The cool jobs come when you're done with your banking career (or if you stay and ascend to MD and beyond).  

You think other prestigious jobs such as working as a doctor or lawyer are that glamorous at the entry level?  

Gotta prove your ability as a grunt before boomers hand you the keys to their kingdom.  

you can always become a salesman. Selling bananas or video games

Look, if you approach IB from an intellectual perspective then yes you're right, it's not a scintillating job half that time if you consider that most of your time will likely be spent updating PPTs or spreadsheets. However, I will say that if you are working on live deals, you really have a unique opportunity to take a step back every now and then and take in or learn what you're actually doing while grasping the magnitude of being involved in a potentially landscape shifting merger or even just a simple sell-side to a PE firm if you're MM. Make the most of it if you're not too jaded yet because speaking to good banking experience is generally very valuable 

I think you’ll find most entry level jobs will be tedious and “stupid”, but very few will pay you outsized amounts in your 20s.

Having said that, I get the hours are substantially rougher but that’s trade off with the comp 

My MD used to describe the analyst role as being a process bitch 

You should try Big 4 audit or tax, it will blow your mind

Life could be worst bro, you could be one of those kids selling insurance at Northwestern. 

no u

Every job has menial tasks and things that you won't find interesting. Unless your family has fuck you money, get used to doing some boring work here and there.

You're an analyst and, as such, you will be often doing the tasks that nobody else wants to do and you will be pay a large sum of money to do it. As you progress within a bank, those tasks begin to get offloaded on individuals below you and you begin to focus on the actually interesting parts of the job. The Associate role isn't perfect but it's more intellectually interesting than being an Analyst. As a VP now, I actually enjoy a fair amount of the day-to-day work that I do (not all of it, but a lot more of it). You would run into the same issue of boring work at nearly every entry-level job, but banking requires you to work more hours, pays you a ton more and provides you with a much better future career trajectory.

Bump

I agree with you, but you are severely discounting the value of picking apart different companies, diving into different industries, learning how companies operate, etc. IB is a fantastic entry-level opportunity for learning through osmosis as well as the hands-on analyses.

That's the thing with a ton of "prestigious" jobs - you start at the bottom, doing the absolute grunt work to prove yourself. Then, with time, you get more responsibility. 

At least with Finance, Management Consulting, Tech, Law, etc. you get paid a decent amount of money for your work, and have a much faster career growth (potential). 

Wanna know what's scary? A lot of the average cookie cutter jobs out there have started with the same model. I know retail banks that are hiring people with masters degrees in Finance / Econ / Business / etc., and making them work as bank greeters / receptionists, help desk / support workers, and what not for the first year. Then they promote them internally for more legit jobs, but they still have to pay their dues and work those shit jobs. And if they want to rise the ranks, well, buckle up - it's gonna be a long ride. 

You might ask yourself, why would anyone do that? Well, tough shit, when there are like 200 applicants for each job, it's buyers market. 

So yeah, while grunt work sucks and the hours are bad, at least it's a very accelerated program. At least you're not that poor guy with $80k in student debt, making $35k/year on taking calls from angry Karens.