A job where you actually use your brain

So it’s been a while since I lost esteem on most of my coworkers. When I joined the group as intern and then as FT analyst, some of them still looked like having lots of experience and committed to the game so I was eager to work my a** off and learn from the best ones. 6 years in and now think that the only ones that use their brain are the MDs, and not even so often. One of my VPs in particular has the same intelligence of a nutshell. Don’t want to pass the message here that I think I am too good for this industry. It’s actually quite the opposite - I think that I have still so much to learn that spending my time with them is just a loss of time.

So the million dollar question is, where do you actually have to use your brain in finance? I’m in CB so let’s be realistic here (no quant / trading laterals). I interned in IB in the past so don’t think being a sr associate IB would be any better probably? Ideas welcome