Hello all,
Of course we are all used to the horror stories and shit posts of IB,PE etc. but I thought maybe we could have a little positivity on this thread. What is/was the best moment of your career? Can be best story, most memorable, best feeling, but what is a good moment you guys have had in IB, or what is something that made you happy?
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When you retire
When you quit
The 60 seconds of looking at your bank account after the bonus $$$ hits before feeling empty and realizing you have another 365 days until you’ll get that feeling again
What did you buy with your first bonus?
Life lesson, pocket the bonus live off day-to-day cash flow
Couple IB stories come to mind... IDK if these are my favorite stories but certainly felt good in the moment
Awesome stories man, glad you had those genuine moments. Hopefully people are down to toss the mini football around with me at 1am in the office.
When I was an intern at a small boutique IB I remember playing catch with an analyst using one of those foam footballs. We just chatted for 30 minutes in between deck turns and he gave me some of the best career advice of my life. That little moment was one of the most important of my entire summer.
I used to play catch with my MBA roommate in our apartment, super underrated activity.
These sort of moments are my best memories from banking. We had a putter and a few golf balls by our team, at 2 or 3am in the morning you'd end up with 3-4 burnt out analysts just shooting the shit and laughing as they played a quintuple dog leg par 14 from the breakroom to the graphics department on the other side of the floor.
I can point to a moment recently in my career:
In my prior role, I started to feel a mix of anguish and anxiety with the role due to a variety of factors (management and staff turnover plus a certain lack of direction for acquisition opportunities). I got the sense in the prior months that changes were coming for my team (which was confirmed in the subsequent months in both expected and unexpected ways). Anyways, I remember I started recruiting for roles that were essentially a step up or two from my role at that time putting my best foot forward.
In the following months, I get involved with different processes proceeding at differing paces. For one role in particular, I was in process for multiple weeks with different interviews, a case study and other kinds of tests that raised my eyebrows a bit given the level of role I was recruiting for in light of my experience. After a few weeks in process, I remember the day the VP for the group I was recruiting for informed me that the Company would no longer proceed with my candidacy for the role. I was crushed given the role was exactly in the region I wanted to be in and given how much effort I put into landing the role. On top of that, I was told this the same day I had an important meeting with management where I got the sense that my career was stalling out at the firm to the point I made a note to myself to leave by the end of that year no matter what.
The very next day, went through a different set of interviews with a different role I was also in process with, and a few hours later to my pleasant surprise, received an offer for my now current job (which was a massive step up from the prior role and saved my life in so many ways).
Life can be quite a journey!!
Thanks for sharing this. Needed to read it after feeling stuck in this role for so long.
Happy to hear those words provided some encouragement.
Congratulations man, thanks for the good read.
I'm generally happy to do as many rounds of interviews as needed within reason but I have made it a point to avoid case studies and interview work as much as possible (though this might not be possible depending on seniority/industry). If we're at the end of a process and you're telling me I'm your guy and we just need to check this box, then sure, let's get that out of the way, but if this is like step 2 or 3, I'm withdrawing my candidacy. Especially in today's job market, spending tons of time on a maybe is not a productive use of time/effort.
This was exactly my thinking as well. The interview process for my current role was just a regular set of interviews with no case studies and took less than two weeks from recruiter conversation to offer. The interview process for my last role was just one day of interviews.
I am at the point in my career where I feel senior enough to pass on a process if they look for me to do a case study or other kinds of tests. At a certain point, your experience should begin speaking for itself.
My MD said “great job” once. Peaked
Bet you got a hard on from that
it's my first week and I really enjoyed getting to eat lunch with my group and learning that I get my own desk :)
Hope it all works out man! What group are you in?
Getting promoted to SVP. I had to put in my bid for that a full year before it happened. Was told it was possible but the stars have to align just right (the team has to expand, HR has to approve the spot, I had to apply as a candidate, etc.). I worked my ass off that year and delivered two massive projects along the way, enough to win an award for 1 of them. At mid-year review was told that it was looking positive but still no guarantees. Worked even harder after that. Then in December I was told that a spot was opening up and I could apply. Applied, got the promotion 3 weeks later. I didn't care about the money, I wanted the responsibility. But of course there was a good bump in salary and SVP makes you eligible for the management bonus pool which is a much bigger bonus. I was really proud of myself for getting there and opening up that door - it's hard to achieve longer term goals like this but I did it!
Congrats but also fuck companies for being this way, it’s clear that they could have let you know how you were trending more definitively at the mid-year review but wanted to squeeze out more effort from you
I get your point, so +SB
But you're not looking to be promoted at a place you don't want to be, right? So if your suspicions are true, I'm kind of OK with it since it's a company that I enjoy working for, it's why I wanted to be promoted to begin with.
There was a time when I was stuck in the office with some fellow Analysts at 3AM, just shooting the shit, feeling the adrenaline rush from deals bearing down on us... that sense of camaraderie, like we were cannon fodder stuck in the trenches together. Amazing.
Also another time I was out and about with some coworkers at 3AM doing... other things...
Similar story to GoingToBeAnMD. Getting promoted to MD.
I was the “go-to guy” for the most prolific MD at my firm who decided to leave. With few exceptions, the rest of the MDs at my firm were pretty shit: originated bad deals, little M&A experience (didn’t know how to do deals and had nothing to teach me). Forced me to have to take care of myself: I needed to be my own MD. Communicated that to senior management. While they liked me a lot, they thought I was being too aggressive. At my mid-year review, the Head of IBD spoke to me and basically said: “You are on MD track, but it will take you a few years… Don’t rush”.
I have a stellar year that same year: Originate my first two deals, close one, close a marquee (house account) deal for my firm as the lead banker, also stepped in and saved a few deals that other MDs bungled. Outperformed most (if not all) the other MDs on metrics the that mattered: pipeline development, deals originated, deals closed, fees generated etc. Constantly reiterated that I wanted the promotion. Was constantly told to “chill”. But by the end of that same year, it was officially announced that I would be the newest MD promote.
Similar to GoingToBeAnMD, I actually didn’t do it “for the money” per se. I could have had an easy life being a very strong #2 for some of the other MDs. I would have been paid well and I was enough of a BSD that I could decide how hard I wanted to work. But I just couldn’t stand working for and taking direction from the inferior quality MDs. I also wanted the responsibility.
Great story and congrats! I'm curious - was that a 1 level up promotion for you or was it multiple levels? I hope to have my own MD promote story at some point in my life too :)
... I don't want to give too much away because (as you can imagine) this story will identify me pretty quickly. This one in particular was one level, but let's say I had multiple levels in a very compressed time span.
BTW, I also relate to some of your other points. I was a top VP in my group, basically ran my own show, had the clout to cherry-pick the best projects for me to work on, had a significant say in recruiting so I could choose who to work with, could get a 1-on-1 with my MD any time I wanted, etc. I could have just skated by for multiple years and turn down any shit projects that came down my way and had fairly reasonable job security. But I think top performers like you & I always want a little more and have that extra ambition :)
Though my career has not started, there are some proud life moments come to mind: earning the full-ride that I'm currently on, working in IB my sophomore summer, and moving to a buyside firm in my dream city this upcoming summer. Working in IB made me especially proud because I did almost anything to avoid it my freshman year, but I had strong mentors who encouraged me that it wasn't as daunting as I thought (especially hailing from an immigrant background). It's totally changed my trajectory today and the way I view different facets of life from a confidence perspective. Now, I fully see myself as a high-potential leader who could be a CFO or become a buyside investor, or whatever else I so choose.
Meant to say interning. Whoops.
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