chances - non trad recruit

Hey monkeys, looking for advice on recruiting at 25 for a female looking to work in IB? Is it worth it long-term? What's my outlook like for a timeline of AN - ASC - VP - MD? Had some personal circumstances but travelled the world / a few solid exp. before going back to school in my 20s. Not int. in social life + can work IB hours (sleep ~5 hrs. for years).

Is it realistic to enter/stay in this field?Any info on comps + avg. progression time would be super helpful. Thx!

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Yup have about 1-1.5 years of school left, will be 24 or just turned 25 when I graduate (bday is right by grad), worked in consulting for a few yrs. no name entry position up to a junior, started my own company did that for a few yrs. and then left to go back to school. Have some political/NGO exp. too but idk if this is applicable to IB.

I’m not worried about the hours but realistically how do women in IB fare in their 30s? Would love to hear others exp. as idk when I’d be sort of secure. As an AS3, how’s your comp? And are you pretty much safe from layoffs at your stage? That’s what I mean by secure. Thx a bunch!

 
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Got it, age is not really a problem (my group had a 30 year old summer analyst once, he was super) years of school left is really the focus. I think you're off the timeline for big bank recruiting as those recruit in sophomore year, so I would try to network into a local IB or PE boutique for this summer or have some sort of finance experience.

Women can be very successful in IB. I think most do leave before their 30s as it's next to impossible to balance an IB career with having kids unless you have a stay-at-home husband. Other than that there's no reason women can't be great in IB. If anything it could help you as banks are trying to promote and retain diverse talent right now.

Comp at AS3 level is +/- $500k all in - fair warning, that is 5-6 years down the road from first-year analyst and the attrition rate is over 90%. You're never fully safe from layoffs but IB is generally a fairly secure job. Associate/VP/Director are probably most vulnerable as they neither bring in a ton of business nor do all of the work like an analyst. But honestly most of the people getting laid off land back in IB or maybe a slight step down to corp dev. I know the news is rough right now but banks are not consistently laying off IB staff year after year

 

Tysm for the detailed response. Yes, I’ve heard the attrition rate is horrible. You mentioned most women leave by 30, 1. what cultural factors impact this? Eg. 2. how is the culture for women at firms? 3. Do they usually stick together? Etc. And while there’s office politics in every job, how would you describe it in IB / 4. do women silently need to be a particular way to stay in?

My last question is re comp, what would be a chart of exp. comp at each level? Eg. AN - 90k 30 bonus, AS2 400k 400 bonus etc. I hear that of the women that stay, most do not make it to director level and stop at VP. But how does bonus pay work? At AS3, is your salary about the same as bonus? And would that mean you’d get taxed at $1 mil. inc then? I hope this makes sense but pls feel free to ask Qs. Thank you!

 

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