Recently hired IB analyst - why was this hard to break into?
I am fully aware I will get monkey shit for this but if you give MS then have the balls to comment :)
As the title says I am a recent college graduate who managed to land a FT role at a boutique M&A shop.
Now that I have broke into the industry and seen how easy the work bankers do is, why was this industry so difficult to break into?
Really, a monkey could this. Comps are a fucking walk in the park. Buyers lists are a fucking walk in the park. Building CIMS, Pitches, and modeling financials are a fucking walk in the park.
We’re never going to need to use CAPM or unlever betas, so what in the world do we need to understand that in interviews for?
I would really like someone to tell me if this job gets more intellectually stimulating and challenging, or was the whole “bankers are supreme” a bunch of bullshit? If this work is really as easy as I’ve seen so far, why are there such high barriers to enter? We’re literally real estate brokers but for businesses, although we make a much prettier book ;)
Would love your input here.
It's more because of supply and demand, than difficult work. Banking gives you a very broad set of skills, including attention to detail, working in a team, handling stress, talking to senior people, and knowing how to adapt to different situations. These skills are marketable in a lot of areas, like PE, hedge funds, corp dev, consulting, etc. Places want to hire bankers because these people have passed the "trial by fire", so they won't make basic mistakes, slack off, or have poor social skills. Most people going into banking never want to stay and use it as a springboard for their careers. Because of that, there is a large supply of qualified grads, who want to make it onto the buy side and have to go through banking first. So these banks make interviews more and more difficult, because at a certain point every one of their applicants is "good enough". You don't need a 3.9 from Wharton to do an analyst's work, but when recruiters have 40 stellar resumes on their desk, they need to find a different way of weeding people out.
If anything, banking is a stamp on your resume that shows you can do the work, as well as a way to network with people who can make your career. It's sort of like getting a diploma from an Ivy or other top school. Because let's be honest, with how difficult it is to get into a top college, there's not much you can learn about finance in a classroom that you couldn't learn from the internet with enough free time. But the piece of paper and exposure to alums who will go to bat for you is what helps people from top colleges and banks place better, than people with less prestigious education or work experience.
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t. Will Hunting LARPer
50% chance this is a troll post; 50% chance OP failed to land his preferred job and works at a one-man "business-broker" shop alongside his alcoholic boss and the disabled office-dog.
Its probably because you work at a lower tier boutique and don't see the work top groups do. Tell me an inversion deal with multiple tax, consideration, cross border, structuring issues is easy. Then multiply that by everyday by demanding +$50bn clients who have their unique issues.
Usually the guys who tell me its easy I know to ding because they most likely were in vanilla groups.
Lol. This guy
I don't know your M&A shop, but I do know that my experience in M&A at several banks has been both challenging and mentally stimulating. Deal structure, negotiations, and building complex models all contribute to a challenging work environment. It sounds like you work at a shop dealing with smaller (usually simpler) deals that require less thought, and therefore are less mentally stimulating, but I wouldn't paint the broader IB world with your little brush.
Because you work for a tiny M&A boutique serving unsophisticated small-business owners.
You mean to tell me Banking isn't a meritocracy where only the smartest can cut it?
Every industry creates barriers of entry for itself, in the form of advanced degrees, its own terminology and language, and certifications. In effect, what it is doing is creating for itself barriers to entry that both protect its members and allow it to create an illusionary effect of added value. These "barriers to entry" give legitimacy to the industry and help to form a a strong sense of professional culture.
I knew a derivatives trader that at 28, decided to enroll in medical school to become a doctor. Viewed in this light, he was only switching from an industry with a somewhat high barrier to entry to an even higher one (medical school costs, residency, etc).
Ask any lawyer and he'll tell you the same thing: you give him a piece of paper with what you want and he'll "make it legal". All he or she is is a professional wordsmith.
“Text-heavy 100-page” CIMs. Lmfao.
I’m not sure what “technical” work you do, but if literally “anyone can handle” it at your firm, and you’re regularly pumping out “text-heavy 100-page” CIMs, you’re either engaging in some serious hyperbolic LARPing, or you work with a bunch of retards.
Anyone who says LARP is a confirmed hentai connoisseur. You’re not funny mate.