IB is stupid
Let me preface this by saying I am currently an analyst at a boutique, and the combination of strong dealflow with not so bad hours makes it probably a better/more fun place to work at than 99% of the options people list on this sub (not trying to flex, this is just how I feel vs. stories I hear from friends that went into IB on more "traditional" routes and who complain about their life all the time).
Anyway, my point is: investment banking is stupid. Like, seriously. I just don't see the point. I was working late this past week and stopped to think: "I'm fucking reviewing powerpoint slide alignment for logos of companies that I barely know, with a ton of numbers that I thought I understood when I first did the model like 3 days ago, but that now have become a blur where nothing makes too much sense anymore. What the fuck am I doing with my 20's?"
Now I understand that some people love the thrill of IB, and I can definitely feel the excitement when a deal goes through, but to me the whole day to day is just "meh". I'm not shitting on long hours, or demanding clients. I'm shitting on the fact that doing relatively simple excel models and editing powerpoint slides for 15h a day is viewed as a "cool" career. Like, I get the money is attractive and all - and I am very fortunate to be in a position where I could afford a lower paying job if I were to switch - but still, does anybody really "enjoy" the day to day life of a banker? What's the point (other than making a ton of money)?
Anyway, feel free to shit on this or share your opinions or whatever. I gotta get back to editing these slides
lmao who cares just make money
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 like to refer to myself as an overpaid, shitty graphic designer.
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
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.
Your first 10 years out of school are learning and paying your dues. Once you get over that fact, it's all good.
Here are what other ~22-24 year olds are doing:
(1) Big 4 audit - for 5 months you work banking hours, and the rest of it you work 50-60 hours. Your pay is 70K plus a small bonus, and mind you, your work is mind-numbing to its essential core. Oh, and the CPA exams aren't fun either.
(2) 1st-3rd year law associate (M&A) - document review champion. 80 hour works turning comments on far more complicated and dry merger agreements, credit agreements, and other 200-page amalgamations of Westlaw/Firm templates that you've had your partner red-ink 15 times to ensure that the and/or agreements are consistent in each painstaking sub-heading.
(3) 1st-3rd year management consultant - You make slides. Do you think your CIMs are pretty compared to these 75 page decks updated bi-weekly? Absolutely not. You make operational process slides, data analysis slides, and deal update slides like it's your life's work for 70 hours a week. Oh, and you want to get ahead? Good. Carve out an extra 10 hours a week to work on a partner's white paper, pitch, recruiting event, think-pieces, or even firm culture assessments. You manage big data through alteryx and produce data outflow and charts through tableau like the human CPU that you are. You used to enjoy the $75-$100 per diem, hotel and flight points, and even skirting from the client site a 4PM Thursday to "catch your flight"/booze in the sky lounge. It was enough to compensate for the relatively lower pay to Finance, but now - you work remote and do everything slower via an overworked VPN.
(4) You have a normal entry-level job: Unless you're an engineer of some type, go to work for a family business, or are pursuing a career in medicine - welcome to your new life: A millennial version of the comedy/horror film, "office space." Your Linkedin bio says, "account executive," but what you really do is spend time on the phone all day soliciting small-businesses to get or keep your business. You may sling freight. You may sell advertising. You may even be an analyst of some sort that dives into the P&L every once in a while - but you are now one in the number of a large corporate machine that will pay you $45K for your 40 hours a week. You are bored, and above all you know you're expendable.
The moral of the story is this: Be grateful.
Investment Banking definitely has its fair share of flaws, but other high-profile jobs come with the same bag of crap. Same bad boss, some bad hours, and some battle scars that will eventually turn into laughs as you drink beers with your fellow analyst-turned-senior bankers/clients in 15 years.
In banking, you're going to leave with:
(1) a network of great contacts, from your analyst class to the folks working above you, to your clients
(2) a new group of friends. Banking isn't consulting - there's very much a "type." Chances are, if you make it through the gauntlet to get there, you'll find yourself in a fraternity of guys and girls who are smart, fun to be around, well-spoken, and have the rare ability to balance partying and work. These guys will rank as high as your college friends after 24 months.
(3) Validated: I don't believe every Harvard grad is a genius, and I don't believe every investment banker is a captain-of-industry in the making. However, the general consensus is that they are, and so with opinion comes reality. If you've gotten to the point where you are an IB analyst, you will move to the front of every resume pile in the stack from here on out. If you're looking to lateral, current bankers go to the front (versus someone in Corp Dev/consulting). If you're looking to get out, former bankers get to the front of the stack for every Corp. Dev gig. Recruiters are helpful, but a lot of them are lazy. They don't have time to vet a ton of people. They want self-vetted. 2 years as a banking analyst is all they need to know to pass you through the first stage - because the banks have already done the screening for them.
(4) Money: Fun fact - If you make $120K you are in the top-5% of earners, in the wealthiest country in the world. It may not feel like it in NYC, but you are. At 22, that's not a bad place to be.
Get back to work, have a sense of humor, go drink (heavily) with your analyst class, and try to be subtle about what your career is as you swipe right. You'll look back fondly after a while.
I see many people in this thread taking the party line and defending IB blindly and it is honestly pretty pathetic.
There is nothing wrong with the observation that the work is fundamentally useless. I tend to agree the the literal work product is pretty close to just that (or at the very least, hardly justifies the enormous fee). Let us start with another observation - when a corporate hires an IB what are they actually looking for? Surely the most important aspect is price maximization - just run a competitive auction - and that is probably where most of IB's true economic "value" actually accrues.
But it accrues in the same way licensed real estate agents intermediate home sales - if the buyer wants the asset, they will pay what it takes anyway. Corporates and PEs have a deep sense of what their view of "value" actually stems from (it is often not even remotely purely financial) and some editorializing of the financials (or even so far as pseudo lawfully obfuscating material negative information, one of the other key aspects of IB) will likely only have a marginal impact on what actually occurs from a valuation perspective. IB's other main value is that of a liability and or fiduciary risk management service: by hiring an IB, buyers and sellers can claim the process was fair and adhered to certain rules (typically price maximization from a seller's perspective), which shields both legal liability (e.g. fiduciary price maximization as a PE seller) and internal reputation liability (typically within a corporate or from a seller's perspective).
So why all the slide turns and BS? In a high fee service, with extremely difficult to measure value-add (the "premium" that particular IB earned you on sale is unobservable and may not even exist), that largely serves as a process and risk management function, all participants are focused on one thing: justification.
Why does the VP turn slides endlessly all night (it's v10 by the time it gets to the D)? Same reason that the MD is so focused on an absurd labyrinthine CIM or pitch book - he needs to show the client an enormous amount of work was done, and justify that the transaction has been sufficiently "analyzed." Never mind that the actual conclusions will vary widely based on a few simple changes to constants in a few basic algebraic equations that an 8th grader could understand (for a great example, see the various banker opinions on SolarCity). The important point is the client has sufficient ammunition to signal the deal has been vetted by the IB and that whatever their position within an auction, it is "rational" or "justifiable" by a third party.
To the IB zealots - next time you are turning a deck all night, take comfort that no matter what the end result, no one will take your analysis seriously anyway, and it is really a desperate attempt by your MD to justify himself to his client - which is repeated, ad nauseam, down the totem pole.
Parting thought - spare us the talk of how hardcore you were for "paying your dues" and that this industry is somehow reasonable. There is always someone working harder than you, even as an overpaid graphic designer (mid level banker). The lifestyle requirements and absurdities of IB are so clearly out of touch from even tough jobs in other fields (e.g. technology, engineering, MC, etc) that the argument doesn't make any sense. And even if it did - why spend your life doing it? 90% will attrit out in a few years and be miserable throughout, despite the "high" compensation. It doesn't make you "tough" to stay, it makes you dumb.