Is IB for me?

I'm curious if IB leans towards my natural skillset, recently came across a comment that said you have to be a quick learner to succeed in IB which got me thinking. I would say I'm quite a slow learner e.g. I take quite a bit of time to fully understand things - in school I would not be the first few guys to understand a topic. But once I took the time to properly learn it I would be super accurate and would usually end up getting the highest test scores at school. 

Additionally, those university aptitude tests which banks also use, I score super highly on those (i.e. top 1%) but I think that was probably only because I practiced them so much. Generally in terms of simple mental maths I am super quick, but anything which is a bit more complex i.e. quant interviews, it'll take me a long time to properly pick it up.

Anyway so back to my original question, do you have to be a super quick learner to keep up the pace in IB? And which adjacent career would be more suited to my abilities?

4 Comments
 

Sint nobis voluptas praesentium dolores placeat quis. Ad voluptatibus quia at modi. Assumenda aut qui facilis. Error odio dicta omnis.

Dolores sed cum corrupti accusantium. Similique ad modi explicabo.

Est praesentium quos itaque sit. Et eum culpa dolorem unde. Consequatur voluptate dicta provident maxime fugit distinctio voluptatem. Et dolores et nostrum beatae sed.

Career Advancement Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.9%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (53) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (28) $184
  • Intern/Summer Associate (15) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”