What every aspiring investment banker needs to know about Wall Street

http://www.quantnet.com/what-aspiring-investment-…

When my friend Steve Hsu linked to a review of Karen Ho’s recent book (Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street), I was a bit skeptical. An anthropologist writing on the results of her thesis fieldwork about Wall Street? That’s got to be a dry and tough read. To my surprise (most of) the book was engaging and hard to put down. Ho mostly covers investment banking, but she does have some sections that pertain to trading and investment management. Given that investment banking is less familiar to me, I enjoyed her systematic study of the profession.
She opens with a chapter describing the recruitment practices of (the major) U.S. investment banks. While investment banking groups target graduates of all elite U.S. universities, they especially go after Harvard and Princeton students. Recruitment events at Harvard and Princeton take place throughout the academic year, with alumni dazzling their Harvard and Princeton “family” members with investment banking stories. I asked my nephew about this (he’s a class of 2009 Princeton engineering grad) and while he was aware these recruiting events took place year round, he was surprised to learn that the investment banks went after Harvard and Princeton students regardless of their academic majors. The banks believe that their training programs will prepare humanities and social science majors for the rigors of investment banking, just as well as engineering and science students.

http://www.quantnet.com/what-aspiring-investment-…

 

Would definitely make for an interesting read, though the reality is the culture is already known, perhaps even desired by participants?

-N.

"It's about the game." - Gordon Gekko "No matter how much money you make, you'll never be rich." - Jacob "Jake" Moore "'Oh Africa Brave Africa'. It was... a laugh riot." - Patrick Bateman
 

This chick is a re-tard...

"Investment bankers should be scored over how their advice and recommendations play out over the long-term. Think about the many botched deals in recent years (e.g., AOL/Time-Warner merger), and one wonders why there isn’t more accountability on the part of bankers. "

Bankers dont force executives to do deals, and anyone who has studied corporate strategy will tell you that 90% of a successful merger occurs at the integration level. Why would you rank an I-bank on a company's (in)ability to successfully integrate operations? This is the type of stupid shit that comes from people who dont understand business. Take note congress!

 

So is it consultants that advise companies on the operational aspects of merger integration? Banks just "make it happen"? I feel like it's somewhat legit -- aren't the financial projections banks make supposed to be accurate? Do banks not predict synergies to play out and good profits to flow? When these don't happen, and the bank gets it wrong, it's not partially their fault? Or do banks attach a disclaimer along the lines of: "this will only happen if you execute perfectly from an operational standpoint"?

 
giants92:
So is it consultants that advise companies on the operational aspects of merger integration? Banks just "make it happen"? I feel like it's somewhat legit -- aren't the financial projections banks make supposed to be accurate? Do banks not predict synergies to play out and good profits to flow? When these don't happen, and the bank gets it wrong, it's not partially their fault? Or do banks attach a disclaimer along the lines of: "this will only happen if you execute perfectly from an operational standpoint"?

Do you actually believe everything you hear on an infomercial? I hope not. Companies should do their own research/forecasts, and take every salesman's pitch with a grain of salt. If they dont, they are fools.

 
giants92:
So is it consultants that advise companies on the operational aspects of merger integration? Banks just "make it happen"? I feel like it's somewhat legit -- aren't the financial projections banks make supposed to be accurate? Do banks not predict synergies to play out and good profits to flow? When these don't happen, and the bank gets it wrong, it's not partially their fault? Or do banks attach a disclaimer along the lines of: "this will only happen if you execute perfectly from an operational standpoint"?

Sounds to me like you've never worked at an investment bank.

 
giants92:
So is it consultants that advise companies on the operational aspects of merger integration? Banks just "make it happen"? I feel like it's somewhat legit -- aren't the financial projections banks make supposed to be accurate? Do banks not predict synergies to play out and good profits to flow? When these don't happen, and the bank gets it wrong, it's not partially their fault? Or do banks attach a disclaimer along the lines of: "this will only happen if you execute perfectly from an operational standpoint"?

No, actually the bankers got it 100% right. They are presenting the exact bogus numbers that the client asks for.

 
Best Response

[quote=baraider]http://www.quantnet.com/what-aspiring-investment-bankers-need-to-know-a…

She opens with a chapter describing the recruitment practices of (the major) U.S. investment banks. While investment banking groups target graduates of all elite U.S. universities, they especially go after Harvard and Princeton students. Recruitment events at Harvard and Princeton take place throughout the academic year, with alumni dazzling their Harvard and Princeton “family” members with investment banking stories. I asked my nephew about this (he’s a class of 2009 Princeton engineering grad) and while he was aware these recruiting events took place year round, he was surprised to learn that the investment banks went after Harvard and Princeton students regardless of their academic majors. The banks believe that their training programs will prepare humanities and social science majors for the rigors of investment banking, just as well as engineering and science students.

http://www.quantnet.com/what-aspiring-investment-bankers-need-to-know-a…]

Lol, someone went to Princeton.

 

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