Why IB is the most prestigious career path

Not saying by any means that spending 1-hour arranging logos is fascinating.

However, the fact that you are in the process of closing any deal is.

" I was working on valuing a 1 billion dollars tech company that will be sold to MSFT/APPL" sounds way more interesting than "I had my finger in someone's ass."

I am not saying that IB is the best and most fulfilling job someone can have. However, people in the industry should be grateful for having one of the highest (Maybe the highest rn) paying job in the world, and stop complaining about how boring and meaningless is their daily routine.

 
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who the fuck cares about prestige

Literally all of us bruh, what do you think this is a fucking Baird orientation in Milwaukee? 

 
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He has since changed his comment but I’ll keep. Up my original-

Actually, I have to say the latter sounds for more interesting to just about anybody on the planet you'd be talking to.The former people would say "nobody fucking cares"Horrible example. Absolutely horrible example. And what you're trying to prove I have no clue.Are you trying to convince IB vets that they're prestigious? or are you trying to convince yourself they are on your arduous journey to become one - championing their prestigious as soon it will be your own!Fact of the matter is… as prestigious as a salaried job is, it's still a salaried job. Even Goldman's moonlighting DJ CEO wants to trade prestige for celebrity.It's funny. You could make an argument that investment banking is more prestigious than being the founder of a tech start up with a VC backing. Or being a successful musician.WHAT DOES PRESTIGE MEAN. What does it matter?It's an outdated construct. I'm a traditionalist I understand. We fight the good fight by holding onto it.You want to be a real baller - go make a company

 

LMAO, how many people in IB have become billionaires/super rich or are very known? Very few. In fact, if you were to start your own business you'd have a much higher chance to reach this.
The rest? 1 mil $ a year in IB is the same as 1 mil $ a year doing something else in finance for 99.99% of people.
 

 

not by a long shot - if you start your own business you have a much higher chance of making much more than banking if you're one of the polar examples but on a risk-adjusted basis, banking makes more.  You'll never making hundreds of millions in banking but your median outcome is better than most startups which have an exceptionally high rate of failure - especially now.  Banking is the *safe* choice.

 

Not really, again, the median IB at a BB will be better than the average business owner, however, we're talking about "prestige", and strictly speaking the average business owner has a much higher chance to end up "rich" than the average IB at a BB. Your avg rich guy is a business owner or sells a product, he doesnt slave at a BB, be it for 1 mil a year.

Plus, it's not even fair to compare, to end up at a BB in an IB role you gotta be far better than 99% of college students. How about comparing those that also graduated what the avg guy that works at a BB did but who chose to start their own business?

 
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" I was working on valuing a 1 billion dollars tech company that will be sold to MSFT/APPL" sounds way more interesting than "I had my finger in someone's ass."

I take it you've never tried massaging your prostate while jerking it? Try it out sometime before you judge, all I'm saying. 

 

Honestly mainstream people will probably hate you once you mention the first line. And they have good reason to be mad about market consolidation (higher return for investors typically means lower QOL for the masses).

Array
 

prestige level of POTUS being debated on wso...what a time to be alive

 

1) Its not the most paid. Some funds and definitely prop shops pay way more than IB out of ug. Looking at 170k vs 300-400k...

2) Stop portraying things like an idiot. You're glamourising IBD by presenting its most virtuous aspects whilst downplaying medicine by illustrating a tired example of its crudest function. "I performed interventional surgery on a dying 30-year old who was involved in a 3-way crash on the interstate, singlehandedly saving their life" vs "yeah I did some due diligence and looked at some antitrust stuff for my MD :p"

3) No one outside of finance really cares about your job. If you're not tangibly rich it doesn't matter to most onlookers.

 

something more prestigious would be like a military stint (bonus points if it's in the "prestigious" part of the military like a SEAL ).  Unless the people you are talking to are some finance family in the Hamptons, most people would be much more impressed with a guy who was in the military for a bit than some glorified office worker.

 

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