Your best banking experience?

with all these tales of horror, i'm sure the many students in this forum want to know about the brighter side too... (besides the obvious huge bonuses, expense accounts, going to strip joints/bars, etc.)

so please share your happiest moment after being employed!

23 Comments
 

You want my best banking moment? Here it is.

One time, for three whole days, my staffer didn't realize I wasn't doing anything and I got to go home at 5 PM every day.

That's it. That's the best of everything. I got to sleep, I got to eat at home, and I got to socialize for three whole days. No weekend in Vegas could be so sweet.

 
Mis IndYou want my best banking moment? Here it is.

One time, for three whole days, my staffer didn't realize I wasn't doing anything and I got to go home at 5 PM every day.

That's it. That's the best of everything. I got to sleep, I got to eat at home, and I got to socialize for three whole days. No weekend in Vegas could be so sweet.

so pretty much you got to live the life of 99% of the population that have 9 to 5.
 

It's probably not a deal that you sourced. Chances are that all you did is perform mindless analysis for the people who actually structured the deal and and, more importantly, sourced the deal. Also, the client doesn't even know your name or won't remember you after two weeks. Thus, chances are you haven't learned a damn thing about deal making.

You should start getting cocky only after you start sourcing deals and having a client base.

Take it from someone who has closed over $7b worth of deals at $200m to $500m at a time.

Best of luck.

 

All of you junior people seem to be focusing on the wrong things, i.e., working as little as possible and dodging your associates or VPs.

If you really want to become i-bankers try focusing on learning how deals are actually sourced and structured - from a financial and legal perspective. Knowing how to do DCFs does not make you an i-banker. I can train my dog over a long weekend how to do that.

If you are not able to get some of that then you are either wasting your time binding pitch books and brag sheets or are working for the wrong firm. Try smaller, boutique firms where you'll get more exposure to the deal process.

 

Lodo is as smooth as sandpaper but he has a point. The monkey years of my analyst career were wasted thinking that nailing a WACC or finding something in a prospectus circle-up was important. The best banking experience (besides things like going on a roadshow in the latest gulfstream or smoking Cubans in Beijing getting smashed on Dom) is when a client calls you and asks for YOUR opinion on what to do. They may run a multibillion dollar company but when they want good advice or market intel, they call you. That

 

It's good to see a positive thread about working in IB on this forum, outside of the money there is not that many positive posts about IB here.

 

lodo, could you please elaborate? how did you source your first couple of deals?

I have started to originate dealflow this year. (we are buyside and invest our/our LPs money). I have also worked a little (one transaction) on the corporate finance side of things.

would love ot here your thought or war stories.

one of my best finance experiences was when my boss told me to lead the meeting when a client came over to visit. it took a long time to earn that kind of trust.

 

It has to be when my summer internship ended this past summer, I was fuckin' ecstatic, I wanted to dance naked right down the center of Madison Avenue, I swore I would never return to the profession again...now here I am going back to the same fuckin' place for 2 fuckin' years...

 

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