Outside of NYC working in IB, what do you tell people that you do?

I'm in a large city (SF/LA/Chicago/Miami/Houston) but not NYC where finance is king. What do others that work in IB tell people what they do for a living when it comes up in regular conversation? Depending on the day and the intelligence of the person I'm speaking with I'll say "finance," or drop the "I work in investment banking" line. I always get mixed reviews, some people like it, others look at me like I'm the devil. One Uber driver that asked and got the IB reply went as far to comment "At least someone is making money" which isn't the case as I'm sure you all know, IB doesn't guarantee that you're exactly rolling in cash right from day 1.

How do you all approach these conversations?

8 Comments
 

solid reply outside of the use of "higher" instead of "hire" :P

Make Idaho a Semi-Target Again 2016 Not an alumnus of Idaho
 
Best Response

i usually say "i work at a bulge-bracket investment bank in the mergers and acquisitions group" at that point, they usually give me a weird look for being so specific, or say something like "wow that's a mouth full" i then reply, "yeah, i wouldn't expect you to know anything about it, peasant."

 

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