am i getting this right? part 2

IB M&A: Reasonably correct - yeah. Comrades are common - but so are people you can't stand, and you better be able to spend 18 hours a day with them.

IB Inner Fund Manager: I'm not sure what this is... If you mean just a "fund manager" position, then you're looking at reasonable hours and you'll be reading your analysts' reports to determine what stocks to invest in - and then monitoring the health of your portfolio as well as the general economy to determine if your allocations are correct. There is very little structure here, and you basically do whatever it takes to make sure your fund goes up. This ranges from doing "nothing" (because the market is doing well on its own and you employ star analysts) or "getting down and dirty and modelling with the analysts, re balancing the portfolio, pleading with clients not to request redemptions or jumping out of windows".

Sellside ER Analyst: If you're at a BB, they won't do much DCF. It's mostly EPS projections and multiples-based - though the sector has a lot to do with it. (Oil & Gas is a lot more cash-oriented, while earnings matter much more in financial services, for example). Pace is varied. During the "off-season" (between quarter ends and/or you don't have a lot of industry conferences), you might have it "easy" - meaning 45-55 hour weeks. During earnings season (2-3 week stretches 4 times a year), you'll wish you were an IBD analyst. Essentially, you have a few hours (at most a day) to write a report on a company that just reported their quarterly results. Unfortunately, many companies in your sector will report on the same day. For example, I can recall an incidence where 7 companies in my coverage universe reported on the same day. Needless to say, I didn't go home that night.

Buyside FX/Debt Analyst: With FX, your hours could be very long because the FX markets are open a lot longer than any one market. Debt analysts have it a little easier, because they don't really have quarterly earnings to worry too much about. For them, Fed statements and the general macro news of the day has a bigger impact on their workload. That said, I'm not as familiar with that side as I'd like to be.

Quant Analyst: No really good input here, and it depends on the fund. However, from what I hear, it's a much more laid back place, and the hours aren't crazy because you're just building software (there's no urgent rush, really). In quant, you're looking to build a system that will work accurately over the next few years (with tweaks along the way).

Risk Manager: Risk management in BBs utilizes pre-built systems. They have an entire IT department that's involved in creating these systems. Your role in Risk is to run reports, reconcile them, analyze them and then follow up with traders if you feel something's amiss. You'll be reporting on the general risk status every day. You will have almost no (if any) contact with clients, as you are middle-office. At the very highest levels, clients may contact you as part of due diligence (to determine if your risk control procedures are sufficient).