IBD is no longer a worthy prize.

Nowadays IBD has lost too much prestige from lower pay (post GFC), diversity incentives (people will lump you in with subpar minorities and not percieve your job as prestigious as a result) and increased capital markets activity (leading to hiring surges, making the job less exclusive and upscale). 
 

I don't really care that the perspective of investment bankers by the masses has been tarnished since GFC, but I care that the exclusivity and difficulty of the job is diluted.


Landing an IBD job is no longer the ultimate prize for WHYPSMD/Oxbridge/LSE grades who have sacrificed their whole lives to break in. IBD (outside of PJT RSSG, EVR/MS M&A, GS TMT, etc) is an UNWORTHY prize for the top 0.001% of society. Only PE straight out of undergrad can satisfy their need for prestige, exclusivity and compensation.


This is just something I've noticed from my years in the industry and speaking to others recently, who all share my perspective.

 

I doubt the top kids want to be a cog in the wheel, punching numbers into Excel and fixing logos in PowerPoint like a glorified secretary... unlike us, they usually have better options.

 

In my opinion, what should and is considered a prize is starting a business and watching it grow. That is some tough shit and definitely easier said than done. All entrepreneurs out there have my respect. In matter of fact i myself want to become an entrepreneur and start something from the ground up but haven’t done it yet because of my lack of experience and capital. My gameplan is to learn as much as i can from all the roles i attain (Corp finance, IB, Investment Management, etc.) and then apply everything i learn into starting a business. I dont even care if my start up fails, i’ll have the satisfaction of saying at least i tried. After failing i’ll try again until i succeed.

Not sure if i went on a detour from what the post is about but yeah thats my 2 cents lol. Also, everyone please feel free to take a look at my recent post, would really appreciate any insight that anyone may have regarding the topic of my post that i made not long ago. Thanks!

In the process of taking over the world
 

Bro, i am an incoming analyst at one of the BB 90 percent of the class are from Cornell or Wharton with handfuls of nontargets and diversity, god why do people have mentality like yours

 

its still ivy, lol thats not a problem stop being so stuck up with prestigous, go find some happiness in your life

 

For starters, this is a false premise. Not everyone lives their lives to achieve the positions you mention (I am one of them, I eventually just ended up on this path), many of the smartest kids have lots of options and simply choose a path to pursue as they review some options.   

Also, go visit student doctor network in the practicing physician forum and within minutes you will find a multitude of threads about how medicine is no longer worth doing, dr’s will not encourage their kids to do medicine bc of midlevel encroachment, PE/Big Corps taking over most private practices, asshole patients who know everything from tik tok and Facebook, govt reimbursements suck ass etc (my sibling is a physician who *gasp* only went to Emory for undergrad and Med school! - aka no prestige and is in Interventional Cards) 

big law forums are worse and full of complaints about tuition, making partner, dickhead partners, awful work life balance, etc etc 

Look , there are mind numbing aspects to all professions, at least IB pays well and you can do it a few years then understand enough finance to be dangerous in another endeavor. You could be working for a corporate company, spending 1 month on your personal performance progress report (that no one cares about anyway as usual) and sitting in company townhalls once a quarter while some mega dildo VP of the business unit regurgitates canned metrics and says keep up the good work while you duke it out over 10k raises with other colleagues and try to get promoted to the big 200k base (and that’s a good Corp).

 

How has the difficulty of the job been diluted? How is it not exclusive? I can argue it's become harder as there are many fields that pay better and give better work-life balance, which means the remaining people are doing banking because they are interested in the career. Very few people these days can randomly decide they want to do banking and break into the field within a short amount of time. For tech it seems like anyone can break in as long as they study and show they have basic competency and a great attitude. 

This is a take of people in college or fresh out of college. Banking is just one part of your career. You get paid well and learn a lot in a short time span. The prestige of banking and the skillset you're learning give you options and set you up for wherever you want to go. After 1-3 years of banking, you shouldn't assume this will make your career and turn you into some sort of multi-millionaire. However, it will give you the knowledge, skillset, and maturity to pursue other goals in life if you decide banking isn't for you. Ex: Stressing over little details, dealing with political bs, crunching numbers, etc. 

If you chase after a career because of perception, you will have a tough time regardless of where you work. The lowest banking analyst salary is like 100k? That's amazing. Work-life balance might be horrible but after 1 year you can find a 9-5 gig that will give you more than that. If you stick it out in banking for 3 years you'll be at like 150-175k after you become associate. 24 years old making a base of 150-175k before bonus.

 

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