Why work up to MD in Investment Banking?
I went down a train of thought about long-term careers in IB.
I found myself wondering a bit more about the profile of a typical VP/ED/MD in IB. Even getting in is, as we all know, tough enough - but assuming you keep grinding out & get to VP, and then keep grinding to get to MD - what does the profile of someone in the position of MD look like in your guys' experience?
Sure, at that point in your career you are on amazing money c. £3/4m - £6m at MD-level (could be wrong but for argument's sake keeping it at this). But what now?
To preface the following paragraphs, I've always been of the mind of there are more important things than money as you age & have had time to develop. For example, of convenience, or of quality family time (when it comes to raising one). I would value that time spent with family, children, a spouse etc. much more than the money I could gain from a job, even if it was to pay immensely well.
My concern is how hard it seems hard to even have a life outside of work, given you are expected to still be working to deadlines when big deals come in etc. As you go up the chain of command and "pay your dues", of course the workload gets better. But I assume it is still not normal hours given the nature of the job - and there are points where you will still have to work weekends on short notice etc. - so why would one strive to this? what sort of person do they have to be, to be able to do that role?
How do people in senior positions tend to nurture a marriage & raise a family? I know childminders are common in this industry, but surely this is a unfulfilling way to raise children - especially as you get older - where your children have seen more of their nanny than you as the parent.
Why would people strive to this? And what is the end goal?
Just looking to hear people in the industry's experience & what they've found people in such senior roles to be like, out of curiosity more than anything.
>Why Work Up To MD In Investment Banking?
because you're not good at anything else
>How do people in senior positions tend to nurture a marriage & raise a family?
they don't
>Why would people strive to this?
they aren't good at anything else
>And what is the end goal?
hope that your friends are as venal as you and are impressed by the materialistic things which you use to fill the void of an unsatisfying life
Your MD been giving you a hard time lately?
intern coming to the defense of guys that they dont work for and who won't remember their names if/when they do get to work for them
Based
WSO is seething over this one.
Seems kinda sweet right ?
And this is why Leon Edwards has the most aesthetic physique
Don’t let him bully you son! #goleon
You know Leon Edwards but do you know Leon Ricket?
No fucking way this has made it to WSO
To take a less cynical tone than the poster above, the simple answer is that you like the job and that you might be (at least relatively speaking) more risk-adverse than the buyside folks (PE, HF, etc.). You're essentially a service provider/vendor that is helping a client move money from point A to point B and collecting a sliver of that money. You're a middleman acting as a broker between either two or multiple parties and then collecting fee for your services rendered. Once you're done with the deal, you can dust off your hands and move onto the next deal. The grueling aspect of it is the constant pitching and constant rebooting of new mandates so you can continue to operate the business and keep the lights on.
On the other hand, for buyside folks, there's obviously a different kind of burden in that you're the principal investor and (presumably) more responsible for investments long-term, either through multiple short-term investments or a handful of long-dated investments. PE has an implicit out in that it operates in a much long-term outlook--frankly speaking, you won't even know if a deal is any good until 3-5 years out. This is why HF has always struck me as much harder because you need to often show weekly if not daily improvement. There's really very few inefficiencies (at least compared to, say, the 1990s) and you're having to constantly re-work your strategy and approach in order to sustain any measure of outperformance. So in other words, it's just a different approach to risk. If you want to be a service provider that just brokers deals while collecting fees, you stay in banking. If you want to see an investment from end-to-end and take more responsbility and ownership, then you go to the buy side. Neither is better. It's just different.
I think it depends a lot on the type of bank you're at. I am currently at GS but did internships at smaller banks before. At some of the smaller banks I was at, VPs and above left the office at 5-6 and were unresponsive after 8-10 pm. At GS, I see MDs and even partners leaving the office after midnight all the time.
If you are at a bank like the smaller ones I was at, I think it's pretty obvious what the benefits are. Your comp and benefits are much greater than in any industry outside of finance and you are basically working 9-5 hours while being responsive to important emails until 8 or so. Especially at the smaller banks, these are guys that most likely would not be able to land good positions on the buyside anyways.
At a bank like GS, I think we first need to be clear that there is a very small percentage of people that stays long enough to even be considered for MD. I'm a second-year analyst being promoted to associate in a couple of months and about 70% of my analyst class is already gone or has secured other gigs. Basically every analyst and associate I know thinks that life sucks and is just trying to survive the day. However, you can clearly tell that most MDs are really passionate about what they do and genuinely enjoy the work. I definitely think that this is why they stay, because there is no way the money alone would be enough to justify working 70-80+ hours a week when you are in your 40s and have a family.
Personally, I am totally fine with grinding this out for a few years to have a more cushy life down the road. However, when I look at my MDs and partners and see them traveling 4 days a week, consistently staying past midnight, and being on calls during weekends and public holidays, I realize that will never be the case. This will never be a job where you work 40, or even 60 hours a week, regardless of how senior your get. For me, it does not make sense to work up to the MD level at a bank like GS. I want to be able to reap the fruits of my hard work at some point in life.
Your final sentence at the end is exactly how I think, and is why I struggle to comprehend with those who want to go to MD/Partner - because surely with all that money you would want to, at some point, have a relaxing life and switch off to reap the benefits of everything you've worked so hard for.
I can get that MDs can be passionate & enjoy the work which is why they stay on, but when it encroaches their personal life, strangling their personal commitments - that's the part I don't get. I guess the money can be thrown over the wound, but at the end of the day even that amount of money wouldn't be worth having to ditch family/friends/plans, even just the ability to relax and switch off entirely.
Yes true, WLB gets marginally better as you go up the chain but yeah, won't ever be normal.
I get short-term sacrifice for long-term gain - as in this case going into IB as a grad and switching up. It's an amazing industry because of how many doors it opens - but that's typically just as far as it gets; it is just a stepping stone for training, experience, & exposure for grads to build their profile enough to venture into other finance-related fields.
Interesting to hear your thoughts though - & congrats on getting into GS as well, great achievement in itself!
Another thing to keep in mind is the effect of ego - an MD at GS is dealing with the CEOs of the biggest companies in the world on a day-to-day basis. Moving to a different role means giving up working with important influential people and seeing your work on the front page of the WSJ. That feeling of being someone 'important' (whether it's true or not) is a powerful motivation.
The other factor is there is a lack of exit opps for MDs, because the typical IB exits that analysts take don't apply to them. It's rare to see them move to PE because they have no investing track record, they're too senior for corp dev and the skill set has diverged massively from hedge funds at that level. They're main real exit opps are going to a more chilled part of banking (i.e. coverage to ECM/DCM).
This and post above are very inaccurate pictures of the world.
“An MD can’t even work less than 60 hours a week”
Lol come on. I am a VP at a BB and I know that is not true.
Also, you think PE partners are not putting in insane hours sometimes too? It’s an incredibly stressful job. The partners in PE I have seen you can see it on their face.
Just making the point that any high-paying senior role = stress, and long hours at certain points. There is no such thing as a free lunch…
Different strokes for different folks. There is something freeing about not having to think about or worry about money when you are an adult and have a family, but it's much more difficult to unplug and spend volumes of high quality time.
One thing to think about is how does the WLB differ vs. other high pay, high profile positions (physicians, lawyers, etc.). I think you'll find that it isn't that different.
Also, COVID has changed some perspectives. There's a well known MD that holds a significant market share in a particular sector and based on his reputation and experience, he no longer has to travel for pitches, client meetings, etc. He's winning deal flow over the phone and via Zoom pitches because he got fed up with how much time he was spending on the road after 15-20 years. Thus far, it hasn't been a problem for strategics or sponsors on either side of the table.
How much do seniors make at the smaller banks?
I was at a smallish boutique as a VP. We targeted $2M in fees per deal. 1/3 went to each of the firm (for salaries, rent, admin.), the partners and the deal team, including the partner. There was then attribution to the deal team based on a variety of factors, including sourcing (30%), execution, finding the buyer/investor, etc. I realized as an associate that brining in deals would give me 10% of the economics so I started finding deals, which went well.
With 5 partners you would get 6% of all fees for that category. The partner would take 30-50% of the economics for the deal team in general. Let’s call it 40%. Each partner would close ~2 deals per year. So their earnings would be off of $20M in total revenue, which leads to around $1.3M per partner from the partnership and about $1.6M from the deal team share. They were making around $3M on average, which is pretty good in a middle cost market. We had a couple of really big deals that generated substantially higher fees…good year for everyone when that happens.
As a VP we got our deal bonuses from the above 1/3 to the deal team, plus a decent salary and an annual bonus based on surplus from the firm’s share of deal fees. All-in you’d make anywhere from $300k-1M+. Lots of volatility in that, but you just budget to the low end of the spectrum.
I was also working 40 hours per week towards the end, although it would spike occasionally during parts of the deal process, usually during initial buyer/investor outreach and towards closing. We also did a bunch of international deals so the hours could be odd.
Sometimes I think I was an idiot for leaving as it was pretty good, but I wanted to start my own business.
At smaller banks, do you mean places like WB or Baird? Or more like regional IB places?
We only had ~20 bankers. It was small but not regional.
By smaller banks I mean regional banks with ~50 people
I didn’t read your post or any other comments but in short the answer to your question is “money”.
I’d also add that being an MD in different groups means a lot of different things. Being an MD in coverage is a lot harder than being an MD in capital markets, etc.
If you can make MD in a cap markets role you’re likely working 40-50 hours a week collecting $1mm/year and have enough experience that you’re rarely ever stressed, hard to beat that. MD in coverage you’re likely making more money but the job comes with More responsibility and stress.
Other thing I’ll add that won’t be that popular is that you likely aren’t that good at anything else. Making MD is hard but none of them are rocket scientist. It’s one of the few jobs in the world (ex. Entrepreneurship) where you can make $1mm+ per annum with a bachelors degree (lmao) and there is literally ZERO risk. You’re just a working stiff and don’t have to risk your own capital. On a risk adjusted basis it’s very hard to beat.
Don’t take this the wrong way. I am in capital markets and want to make MD one day
Cap markets ones in Levfin or ECM in decent years definitely make more than a mil
If anything that reinforces my point thanks
Wow, super interesting to hear to be honest. Yeah, I kind of understood it was money but I wanted to know a bit about how they actually manage their life with jobs so intense - but clearly wasn't aware of the internal differences of MDs until your comment - so thank you for letting me know. When you talk about it in that way, not having to invest, taking no risk, and undergrad education only - collecting a nice 1 million a year, sounds pretty good.
I sympathize with wanting to reach that level much more given it's 40-50 hours/weekly and actually very doable. What have you found the dynamic/work like (for yourself at Associate & other seniority levels - VP/MD etc.) in Capital Markets?
I can only speak for myself and what I have seen but I am wrapping up my associate 2 year and will be an associate 3 in a month. I work on average 50-60 hours a week and rarely am stressed. Very manageable. Only gets better as you progress from what I have seen.
“Not good at anything else” I would disagree with. Just because someone stayed on the banking path does not mean that. Could think of a 1,000 examples, kind of a silly statement
there are barely any MDs clipping 2m+ in London. Most are a fair bit out from 1m gross too.
I find this very difficult to believe
believe me or don't, my PM literally left being a VP at a top BB because comp in the UK sucks. Median MD comp is actually horrendous here. There's not a lot of places in the UK that actually pay consistent 7 figures unlike in the US
The 3 MDs in my team all make over £2m/year with the Head of pulling consistently £5m+
ah yeah to be fair at PJT/PWP/CVP shops its probably doable. BBs however
In 2019, 3,519 people in investment banking/asset management/executive functions made over 1 million euros ($1.1M) in the UK.
A few reasons:
- You like high powered / intense environments
- The social circle / events are appealing
- You are making a ton of money
- The money is all deferred so you need to stick around to reap it all (dont overlook this one)
- Addiction to materialism / status
Most of these are pretty good reasons but you need to weigh against the costs of family, work / life, stress etc
People stay to VP+, have kids and get married and get golden handcuffs (private school, big house, country club) and realize they aren’t qualified for any other jobs that pay enough to sustain that.
I can’t imagine being a banking MD - I’ll never forget my first year we got a pre-empt bid on a sell side the day before Christmas (will never forgive the PE firm that did this either…). My entire team, two MDs included, all worked the entirety of Christmas with
The lead MD on the deal was the top MD in the coverage group so not some young guy trying to prove himself. I was also at a MM - this was a $300M sell side. Absolutely bonkers someone would ruin their Christmas over it. MD had young kids and kept talking about how his wife was furious at him.
At the end of the day, banking is a client service role where you’re involved in the pivotal moment for a company / executive team. A sell side can be a once in a lifetime event for a CEO / founder. They obviously take that very seriously, and they expect the same from the banker even though the banker is doing this with god knows how many clients.
Yeah I guess the luxuries can force their hand into staying into banking, with a lifestyle with that high of a commitment I can't imagine it feasible to try move over to a lower pay/start up etc..
That sounds crazy. I do appreciate there are large fees involved & that the event is a one-off for each individual. It explains the large remuneration associated with the industry given the equally large commitment they have got to give to each unique project.
I'd rationally think, as you get older you'd begin to cherish family friends & general quality time spent even relaxing. But you raise a good point of the lifestyle developing to a point where it traps you into that job as you become used to it & enjoy the money. Though, even with all those luxuries, I don't think you could ever truly enjoy it - almost as if you have PTSD from all your years in the industry by that point - always the thought in the back of your head of being called up on late notice, having to override personal plans etc...
I guess it's dependent on what you do though.
Anddddd this is why I lost my desire to pursue IBD. Too many losers in high powered positions ruin the lives of everyone around them because they are toxic workaholics. Worked with too many guys like this in IBD. This post should be its own thread and should be pinned to the front page of WSO at all times. Just as there are many amazing aspects to banking, the horrendous side of banking should be given the same amount of spotlight
From what I’ve seen 2 years in it’s really not as complicated as a lot of prospects make it out to be. My MDs have families and kids. Do they sometimes work until midnight or send emails at 6 am or travel often? Yes. Do they do it more during intense sprints like important bake offs or live deal deliverables? Yes. Are they doing it every single day sweating like slaves fearing for their lives? No. It’s just what they do bro.
They like what they do and they are really fucking good at it. They get energized by their clients and deals and seeing them through to fruition. They are competitive and want to win and succeed and want the same for their clients. They get paid a lot yes but that’s just a fact of the situation they’re in, certainly not something they are thinking about or working on every waking moment.
I don’t get why people have this fantasy that all these rich successful MDs are actually miserable and hate their lives. I’ll bet every dollar that my MDs are much MUCH happier than the general population. They take luxury vacations with their families and yeah, they have to hop on important calls sometimes on vacation, big fucking deal. As if being 45 and having to take 2 hours of calls while on an island is some terrifying ordeal, give me a break.
MDs do what they do for the same reason most successful people do what they do. They like it, they are fucking good at it, they are competitive, they are consistent, they are persistent. It’s just what they do. The grocery bagger bags groceries and MDs cover clients and do deals. They like it and it’s lucrative so they do it more than the “happy” people praying for 5 o clock and the weekend. End thread.
Would rather agree with you. They just like what they do. There are some ups and down but overall they love it. The jobs is stressful and you work more than normal people of your age but on the other side the work is always interesting, you never come to work and do the same jobs you did the day before, the topic you treat are always different and you work with so much people that you are almost always entertained and learning. That’s what people forget. Yes in other jobs you finish your work a 7 and never have to worry about it but most of these jobs are fucking boring, working with the same team, on same subject for 10 to 20 years. Actually there is no perfect job. Every position has it downsides, but I think that people tend to convince themselves that MD hate their lives because that makes them feel better. The upsides are really good so it makes them feel better to focus on downsides. They are like « he is making money but he hates his jobs », i truly believe there is a balance here, people thinking like these are most of the times neither liking their jobs nor making as much money. It’s all about balance, every jobs is boring and of course if you want to be MD only bc of money you will see your living as a slave. But I highly doubt that every MD see things like that.
The comment on other jobs being boring is a good take. People I know who moved out of high-pressure roles into 'traditional' office jobs found it a really tough adjustment, and it's a completely different kind of grind trying to get through the days when you're used to a more fast-paced environment.
This is spot on. This thread is a bunch of garbage besides this. Seems like a bunch of prospects and analysts have the wrong idea of what banking becomes. Yes, there are stressful long hours times, but it’s not like that all the time. As someone who has been in the industry 7+ years your lifestyle improves every year as you go up the chain.
I’ll type a longer response why someone would want to do, but spot on here
You don’t have to keep sucking them off dude they’re not reading this and it’s anonymous
I have several close friends that are MDs at top banks. For starters, the OP is way over stating comp, like by a material amount. Maybe very senior MDs but not for the first several years. But overall, seems like a pretty chill gig especially if you have a good franchise. Clients tend to be firm clients, within reason. Its much more a client relationship role than much of a finance role on what a junior person thinks of finance.
Don’t experienced/good MDs start pushing back on their clients? Like no, we’re not going to have xyz to you by xxxx, but we’ll send it abcd
They do. Experienced and good MDs know how much work something means for the team and can weigh the benefit of actually doing it. Have had several MDs explaining to clients why XYZ is a boil-the-ocean exercise that will take a lot of time for the team and then explaining why it's not worth it at this point. In my experience, it is most often the junior MDs who just say "Of course, we'll get back to you ASAP on this" no matter what the client asks for.
Left field 2c on the topic, the MDs of today didn't have the opportunities that grads have today. They weren't able to easily scale businesses from their dorms, develop online service businesses, etc. etc. I think 20 years ago, banking was clearly the number 1 way to succeed financially and there were few alternative paths. Today, there is an abundance of opportunity and numerous ways to do very well that were frankly was not afforded to people back then. I wonder how many of the MDs if starting over in today's environment would still pursue a career in banking.
What? Think of all the successful new companies that have been formed over the last 30 years. It’s true that there is more VC money out there now though and avenues, but the low hanging fruit is gone
Spoiler alert: the median or average MD across IBD in Ldn makes NOWHERE NEAR £4 or 6M GBP.
I would be SHOCKED if the median was above 1 TBH.
Said several times above but:
I think the other question is that when you get to 35-40 years old, you stop doing white board optimisation of hour life without constraints. Yu’re not planning for future hypotheticals, you’re dealing with facts. You probably have a house (for example that you can’t sell or refinance in this market without taking a bath), you have a spexific set of skills in a niche market (most likely you are a subsector specialist competing with 3-5 other Mds in your region). Your kids are in school and you don’t want to relocate your family, etc.
And the risk / reward of changing is not necessarily attractive. Even if you’re clearing £1m pre tax as an md, which is decent, that means you are actually competent at your job / industry, and your skills do not necessarily transfer immediately without some trade offs.
Once you’ve around for 15 years, you put a different value on the strength of your relations, being a known & proven entity (i.e. people look up to you for answers, don’t question everything you say…).
That sounds negative, but people do not assess their life at 35-40 in the same way as 25. Different things will weigh more / less.
I run a group at a MM bank with 5-10 MDs in London (don’t want to be too specific) although I’m now NY based. I have also worked at a top BB in London.
My top banker in London is paid £4mm, my median MD is paid £1.75mm (mean slightly higher) and my lowest paid MD (MD1) is on £900k.
I think is very much in line with BB comp / good MM comp / Lazard, probably a bit lower than CVP / PJT, probably a bit higher than Rothschild, a lot higher than HSBC / BNP / SocGen etc,
I have interviewed 50+ MDs in Europe in the past several years so I’m pretty sure I’m spot on in my numbers.
Director at an EB here. M&A-focused. Many of these comments resonate, both the pros and the cons.
Why continue your career in IB, instead of pursuing other options?
I have buddies at Amazon / tech roles that, because their stock options have done so well, their career earnings are probably similar. But I know they’ve been grinding just like I have.
I have buddies in medicine. Top med-schools & residencies, high-paying specializations. They will never touch $1M annual comp. They do have far superior job security, which is nothing to sneeze at. But they pull all-nighters when on-call, and have will work their nuts off for their entire careers, while facing malpractice litigation & other unpleasant aspects.
IB is not a superior career path to other high-paying options - PE, HF, MBB, medicine, tech, etc. But it does have many positive aspects. At the end of the day, almost all high-paying careers with a great lifestyle took decades of grinding, and IB is no different. Some MDs are miserable while others live great. It’s about the individual.
Finally a nuanced post on this thread. Well said.
Thing about medicine is with a high paying specialty, you can still make mid six figures while living in a LCOL area. Bankers are tied to HCOL cities for the most part. That said, I don't have what it takes to go through med school and enter a high paying specialty lol
"I have buddies in medicine. Top med-schools & residencies, high-paying specializations. They will never touch $1M annual comp. They do have far superior job security, which is nothing to sneeze at. But they pull all-nighters when on-call, and have will work their nuts off for their entire careers, while facing malpractice litigation & other unpleasant aspects"
Mostly true but there are some super aggressive academic surgeons (always trying to get new patients / schmooze with primary care docs constantly and are able to somehow balance research) that eventually become heads of their department. I know one personally and he pulls $1.5M+ consistently. Know a surgical resident at a prestigious institution and his department head's salary is public and is listed within the $2.3-$2.7 million range every year. These guys are a rare bread and tend to be extraordinary at their craft / specialty.
"If you spend your $ wisely, you can be 30 years old, be sitting on $1M+ saved for retirement, and have multiple kids college's paid for (assuming your portfolio does OK)"
Bro wdym? I am 30 year old VP that went A2A right after graduation and have NW of ~$560K. Am I just a terrible saver? Multiple kid's colleges paid for on top of 1M+?
Why?
Because when I was a third year analyst way back when and had to weigh my options, PE was two years plus business school to get to an MBA role and I figured by then I could be a VP and didn’t want to take that time hit. I was also good at what I did, respected in my team and by clients and while I worked hard, had enough control over my life. 20 years after that, I still like doing deals, I enjoy building and managing teams and businesses and many of my clients are my friends. I Ike the diversity of situations that banking exposes me to. I like the mix of finance, psychology, economics, politics and animal instincts inherent in every deal. I like 85% of my colleagues, some of whom are also close friends. On the flip side, sometimes I wish I could be the principal. I occasionally have annoying / undeserving / clients. I have to manage complicated individuals and a lot of them, which can be mentally stressful (bankers are all complicated). I have to focus every day on the success of the group / business in order to make sure we get paid, and can grow and can beat our competitors, which can be relentless (but I get paid for that responsibility). All told though, the good outweighs the bad by a margin.
And yes, I have a very good long term marriage (again with its ups and downs but that has nothing to do with banking and everything to do with life) and three children who I dote over. Yes, there are times when I have to travel on a weekend etc but in the overall sum of things, have never felt the need to compromise on family life. Same with friends; I’m still close to my college and high school crew. Fewer grown up friends given the demands of family life but that’s a choice.
I don’t count my hours. I have a lot of flexibility as to what I do when but there’s no question I work hard. It can be intense when deals are hot and heavy but I am a “deal junkie” and that’s what I want. All that said, I probably take a month of real vacation a year and “work” from my summer house for another month (with the caveat that even at these times, I do whatever I need to do to manage deals and the business). I briefly spent time at a corporate and it was miserable because even at a senior exec level it’s like being in a police state. At least in banking, if you manage your team well and bring in the fees, and behave in a befitting manner, no one cares what you do with your time.
Hope this perspective helps.
What kind of bank are you at/have you been at throughout your career?
Could I possibly get in touch with you regarding some questions on a long term career in IB?
can you become an MD if your not married or is it a prerequisite?
In the US most are divorced a couple of times. Doesn’t seem to hurt. I have noticed that the best ones tend to have stable relationships, but that could be entirely anecdotal.
Out of curiosity, how difficult is it for someone to make it from A1 (Analyst 1) to MD?
Outside of the long working hours and time sacrifice, which has been touched upon a lot on WSO, what other factors make it difficult?
• Office politics?
• Cyclical/recessionary factors? (e.g. layoffs)
• Deal flow?
travel to Uganda and work 70-80 hours building plastic bottle shoes for 2$/week and maybe this will help you stop passing everything through the existential lens i.e.:
because the most basic, simple, and real answer is: more interesting relative to other jobs, aspire or like to enjoy a more lavish lifestyle, social prestige, unfit for other careers, etc. etc., and generally, some people are more restless and enjoy the stress and adrenaline of some careers. I just can't imagine Napoleon or Caesar saying this:
by no means we're gaging wars here, but some people have personalities that like to be there out in the world and feel (not really do, but feel) that they're involved in something important (and before the nihilsts jump: it doesn't need to be objectively important, subjectively is enough).
hope this answers such extremely deep question
You’re delusional if you think young people selling their youth, and in some cases their mid-life years, to a massive corporation is remotely comparable to those historical figures. Bankers are at the mercy of their employer and basically do as they command, whereas Napoleon and Caesar etched their names into history by doing as they pleased and conquering whoever they wanted to conquer. I obviously don’t think IB is all bad, but don’t compare men from the past who had complete freedom to your contemporaries that sell their freedom for money.
You're right, couldn't agree more, but the idea is that climbing the corporate ladder or aiming to lateral to something better down the road reflects ambition, which those guys had it. It really doesn't matter what you aim towards to, the emotional state of ambition will still be the same because it doesn't care about externalities, the only thing that matters is how one feels doing what he does.
$$$$ Of course
You make that millions so that you kids can enjoy a rich, fulfilling, and free life.
To the people saying MDs aren’t good at anything else, isn’t that the point - to do what you’re good at? Is the guy who left for corp dev good at anything else? Is a software engineer good at anything else?
People talk about the hours but to reach the peak of one’s career requires long and hard work. I see the c-suite guys I work with also working a lot. As do consulting partners, lawyers, plenty of entrepreneurs, senior engineers etc. Most people don’t reach the top of their profession and earn a lot of money working 9-5.
Saying it’s for the money or lifestyle is valid, I’m sure that’s exactly what some people want out of a banking career. But I’ve also met very smart MDs who are just deal junkies - they love doing deals, talking about them - it’s fantastic that this is their passion and they’ve built a career out of it.
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