WTF do people in the IB division work 100 hours? What divisions in an investment bank might be a bit easier?
I'm guessing you guys works on the weekends too so you spend over 14 hours on work, SHOULD get 8 hours of sleep and then you have 2 hours left in your day?
Is every division in an investment bank like this? Talking about things like investment research, equities, FICC and what not.
Nobody is "working" 100 hours. Half the time you are sitting around waiting for work to come in. Like clock work a deal comes in at 6 pm after you've spent the last 4 hours on WSO dicking around and then you've got to pull an all-nighter to get the bid out in time. You have to be available at nearly all hours so that work can get spit out when it comes in.
Maybe they should start having shifts in IB too.
On my IB principal investment desk, 100+ hour work weeks usually happen when we're in deal execution, usually towards the end of the due diligence process when we're tying up DD and getting into heavy negotiation of deal terms.
At a senior VP level, you're handling several key workstreams
Finishing up the due diligence - reviewing DD reports, asking questions, tying that DD issues back to mitigation (eg factor the issue into forecast modelling, look for protections in the warranties and indemnities in the deal documents, DD more around the issue to get comfortable with it), getting DD advisers to cover off issues they've missed, chasing legal opinions covering offer certain risks.
Negotiating the deal - negotiation and SPA/SHA drafting sessions with the vendor/other shareholders/management takes up a lot of time. On top of that, reviewing each turn of the documents, discussing with internal and external legal. I could leave some of this to the lawyers, but I like to be thorough and I don't trust that lawyers are the best people to get commercial deal terms right.
Negotiating the debt - we've got a debt team that covers this, but I still need to be involved to ensure they are not agreeing to a set of covenants or other terms which are too tight or don't match the structure/exit flexibility I need on the deal.
Modelling - analysts/associates run the model, but I spend a lot of time running through the model, checking its logic, testing sensitivities.
Structuring - deal with lawyers, tax advisers, accountants to structure the deal around tax, legal and accounting issues. Some deals are vanilla and easy. Others can be very difficult. Need to structure for the deal I'm doing today, plus the bolt on. merger and/or exit deal(s) that I may want to do in the future.
Negotiating internally - preparing investment committee papers, regular briefings to the IC, occasional briefings to my IB's CEO (he likes to deep dive), dealing with other internal approvers. This is a parallel series of negotiation and briefings, getting all the people who have to approve the deal on board for the deal.
Preparing the investment committee paper - typically 50 - 80 pages of briefing, analysis and risks/mitigants. Often gets bloated and have to spend a lot of time paring it back to a useful, concise summary of a complex deal.
(on some deals) Dealing with selldown parties and coinvestors - can range from checking demand for present/future selldowns for quick flip deals, through to structuring and negotiating a consortium structure.
People management - making sure that the analysts and associates are doing their jobs right, coaching and delegating. Also keeping the deal director on track and supported.
These are just some of the more important workstreams on a principal deal that I'll be handling for a single deal in execution. There are other workstreams that I've likely missed.
At the same time, I'll be:
The last 12 months have been pretty quiet and there's only been on period of sustained execution work like this - about 5 straight weeks of 100+ hours each.
Yea every division is like that, especially equities when markets are open from 9:30 to 4:30 in New York or 8 to 4:30 in London......................... The rest of the time we spend it wanking each other.
The hours in research, equities, FICC, etc., are not the same, not nearly as bad as investment banking. For S&T roles it can vary from desk to desk, but usually you get in much earlier than banking (need to be in before the market opens), and leave much earlier as well, shouldn't be any super late nights, whereas in banking 11pm, midnight, and after, aren't uncommon.
The 100 hour weeks are not every week, and are primarily during high work times, (deal negotiation, earnings, times of ultra high vol, or periods of layoffs.) obviously these examples are for different parts of a bank.
Why do people title their posts in ALL CAPS. Original Poster lacks some serious class. Makes me think he is some punk high school.middle school kid or a douchey freshman at some state school.
There's a big difference between "working" 100 hours and "being in the office" for 100 hours.
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