For context, I am not an investment banker or anywhere close to the finance sphere at all. I'm wondering though: for those looking to work in investment banking, or already do work in investment banking, what is meaningful to you about the career/what do you hope will be meaningful about the career to you?
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The funds I work for make investments in seed/early stage startups - one outcome is that innovative solutions are brought to market which make the world a better place. Also, these investment create many jobs that ensure these employees and their families can get ahead.
So this is really the most fundamental question you can probably ask when it comes to any vocation, and it’s also probably the most difficult to consciously articulate how or why something is truly meaningful to you.
From my perspective, I find meaning in the fact that my job is both challenging and compensatory. With regards to the former, the importance of having a challenge to contend with on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis is quite meaningful as each given instant can go one of two ways: 1) you do the right thing 2) you do the wrong thing. This is obviously a simplification of it, but the fact that you are presented with an option to do the right thing, which could be as easy as filling out a pitch deck page with logos, or as difficult as advising your client to not take the deal and act against your own best interests. Even from a strictly biological perspective, the nervous system adapts when as you willingly elect to take on challenges—which is why cognitive behavioral therapy works—and even if you don’t succeed, you’ll at least learn something and have more confidence encountering that challenge in the future. Now to the latter point — gains are scarce, whether they are financial, social, or educational. Not many professions provide the opportunity for an individual to scale their pay to 7 or 8 figures, and so even having that opportunity is something to be grateful for and to not dispense with easily. Further, the access to a social network that this type of profession provides is equally, if not more, valuable.
At a minimum, there’s meaning simply in the fact that you are aiming away from hell by working on something challenging. It’s very easy and tempting to aim down, to create a personal hell for oneself.
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