How common is bullying in Investment Banking and Finance?

I'm asking as a science major who's interested in the field. Is there a lot of ganging up on the junior analyst by the associates, etc. How common are "Jordan Belfort-esque" personalties usually?

 
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No, no one is going to bully you. They are just going to be straight up honest with you if you don't perform well. It's not high school, it's more of a if you don't reach a certain level or performance, you will get called out.

"It's okay, I'll see you on the other side"
 

Very uncommon. In fact, the only time I ever felt bullied was when I was critical of a junior (firmly but fairly) and a d-bag bystander who witnessed the convo went to HR to "express his concern" about whether I was being too belittling or disrespectful to the junior. HR, being the dramatic busybodies that they are, did a whole investigation (where they seemed to be really good at not talking to the many friends I had in my group, and only talking to the 2-3 people who I never really liked) and brought me in for a tongue lashing. If I've ever felt bullied, that was the one time.

All ended well. I quit soon after and the bystander was fired a few months later because he was always pulling political stunts like this instead of doing his work. In fact, I suspect one of the reasons for his white knight attempt to bust me was because he was already in trouble for poor performance and was looking for another way to bolster his standing.

So yeah, bullying ain't want it used to be. Don't offend anyone and avoid the creepy office politician types and you'll be fine.

 

OP, there are bullies in every industry. I work for one currently who was extremely toxic for over a year to me until I was finally fed up and started fighting back. From my experience, the damage that working for a bully/toxic boss irreparably damages your relationship. Theres no coming back so plan on finding another position in that scenario (quite possibly externally because the bully boss will very possibly shit talk you to other leaders or otherwise block you from leaving the department).

 

I still remember my interview (post MBA FT associate) at a certain Swiss BB in London. Long day of interviews, before meeting the desk head, MD level. Walk into his office, and he asks me if I want a drink. I said yes, since i was parched after the interviews.

"Bottle's over there. Get it yourself" It was an Ikea-style glass bottle with the plastic cork held by the wire clasp. I pop it and got doused in sparkling water.

Hey had booby-trapped the drink.

Homeboy must have sat there shaking it for 10 minutes before I walked in.

Not bullying - but def a sign of things to come. The bullying ... that came later. He was a class A prick.

https://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/0711275_PE728113_S5.JPG?f=s" alt="bottle" />

 

Thanks for the responses. I really didn't mean to come off as being uneducated on the field, but truly I don't have much exposure to it, and was just considering a field change from Biological Sciences to finance. *Here's some background that may help: *

So, one day, an equity researcher came into our class and talked about what he did, and I found it quite interesing. So, I grabbed some coffee with him a few weeks later to discuss the career in further detail. Some things I picked up:

  1. The guy was 31 years old, but was mostly bald (just a few tufts of hair)
  2. Not surprisingly, he mentioned that the field was very stressful, etc.
  3. This statement got me the most...he said "Enjoy school while you can, before you go out there and start cutting throats." I found this to be a very chilling statement, and it seemed to give me some insight into the nature of the industry. He mentioned several times that it was cutthroat field, etc. However, I wasn't sure if he was just exaggerating because of his own bad experiences or if that's actually how it was.

As a contradictory story, I had a friend who worked at GS, and he told me all of his colleagues were very supportive and all. Hence, I asked this question, to try to get a broad range of opinions.

I really did not mean any inconvienience as I am very new to this field and this forum as well.

 

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