Words I can't stand anymore after 3 months into the IB analyst role

ASAP - this word is often misused. Everything is always needed ASAP. You had the whole of yesterday and the day before to ask me to work on this but 3 hours before the call you decide to let me know we need this ASAP? 

Comments - no explanation needed

turn - no explanation needed

Capacity - you know it's not going to be good when you hear this word in a sentence.

pull - "Can you pull xyz?" always involves pulling a bunch of numbers that turn out to be a headache to source.

SNL - I just hate hearing this word. So much confusion.

Market refresh - oh boy!! "We will need to market refresh for Friday." 

Staffing - no explanation needed on this one

Comment below what yours are lol. Would love to hear them.

53 Comments
 

Oh god, literally stare at my screen like 👁️👄👁️ for 3 minutes just so the other person can say "can you do me a favour" and then continue to type for another 3 minutes

 

“Revert” “confirming receipt” “add some color” “please let me know if you have any comments or questions” “happy to jump on a call” “can you send the invite” and any stupid sports lingo and probably most of all… “thanks.” I’ve thanked people so many times the word has no meaning anymore.. it’s just a punctuation

 
Funniest

These are also phrases but you get the point

  • "Reach out" - usually entails contacting someone no one else wants to 
  • "What's your afternoon look like" - about to be fucked 
  • "who do we know?" - more so a question of who do YOU know - you just want me to scour a backlog of M&A deals to find some shoestring connection 
  • "Hey-" - nothing good comes from this ping
  • "Pls send dial in"
  • "Why have you not sent dial in????"
  • "Pls"
  • "Plz"
  • "Massage"
  • "Thnx"
  • Thx"
  • "Tx"
  • "Color" 
  • "Circle up" - as in, "can we circle up first thing Sunday to check on he model"
  • "ping"
  • "revert"
  • "circulate"
  • "will do"
  • "bandwith"
  • "bullpen" - we are not pro athletes. we are dweeby little fucks who slave away our 20's
  • "kindly"
  • "jammed"
  • "firedrill" - purely from that stupid tiktok from that golman girl yesterday
  • "make better"
  • "run this up the flagpole"
  • "pencils down"
  • "robust" - FUCKING ROBUST. JESUS. My gd MD described his toddler son today as "robust" to a client. How can a small child be robust? I f you hadn't noticed, I hate this word
 

circle-back

please see attached

please find attached

color, as in "that's good color," "that provides great additional color"

ping

bandwidth

off the shelf

 

I use "FYI" and that word alone in email forwards if my purpose is to tell my junior team, "You literally don't need to do anything with this information but here is some context, or a heads up on something upcoming, or some spicy banter." 

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

Any use of the word "happy"....has been trending a lot lately in the biz...."happy to jump on a call"....let's jump on a call but come on, none of us are happy about it.

 

"provide some color"

"kill that"

"let me opine on this"

“touch base”

“flip that over to me”

“swing by”

“let’s circle up”

“ETA?”

“grab some time on my calendar”

“circulate it to the team”

 

"Walk me through..."

"Where do we stand..."

"Where are we on..."

"Send me the latest where it stands"

"ETA on draft?" --- as a subject line of email (no body)

Starting email with "Thanks!" followed by 3 pages of comments. Clearly the work was f**ked if it required 3 pages of comments----no need to thank me

"Thx", "tx", "pls" 

"We're happy to run..." or "we're happy to pull..." always comes from the Associate who's about to jam all the incremental work on me. Like bro, I'm not sure I'm all that happy to run another 5 scenarios...

"Let's check in at X to see where we're at" like Associate, why don't you hop into the ppt/excel and we split, instead of you waiting 3 hrs for me to do all the work

 

Thanks for all your hard work! This is really helpful and beyond useful!

One quick comment — let’s just quickly xyz so it’s easier to understand the data

1. Client deck

a. Just

b. Because
c. You

d. Have 

e. One

f. Comment

g. With 8 sub bullets does not mean you had one comment.

Thanks again for doing all this! 


(the page gets thrown in the appendix of course and I’m 98% sure whenever the guy uses an exclamation point he’s trying to be “helpful and understanding” but it feels pretty sarcastic when there are 25 sub bullets of comments)

And when it takes more than an hour for me to turn all the comments I get pinged with a “did my comments make sense? Happy to jump on the phone and provide more color!” Like your on vacation in the Bahamas right now you’re not happy to.

 

Nihil esse est aliquid at dolorum. Aliquid sed dolorum earum rerum sint. Expedita autem molestiae laboriosam quod.

Placeat aut atque accusantium id. Explicabo consequatur nulla aut aspernatur iusto aut.

Et et voluptatem voluptatem error adipisci odit. Sapiente nihil qui quaerat doloremque. Eos in quasi autem distinctio.

Beatae perspiciatis iusto sed dolorum in consequuntur. Aliquid ab fugit aliquam numquam iure non quisquam dolore. Laboriosam et nam et quisquam. Tempora dolorum ipsam delectus qui et exercitationem repudiandae. Omnis ratione quam temporibus culpa laboriosam laboriosam.

 

Voluptas perferendis pariatur non iusto sunt quo. Ut aut consequatur nobis corrupti est. In aut aliquam velit deserunt aut libero quasi veniam. A nihil fugit labore cumque.

Molestiae placeat velit ut rerum rerum. Doloremque consequuntur error totam quam quo. Vel iste earum maiores beatae aliquid. Quod porro dolor expedita nulla.

Sit dolores consequatur et odio neque aliquam. Animi labore quia illum facere rem est esse dolores.

 

Cupiditate nam nemo ex eius cum necessitatibus. Omnis sed sit id esse et. Voluptate atque qui tenetur id aut sunt rerum voluptas. Magni voluptates qui nobis ipsam ut iste adipisci. Eligendi iure reiciendis necessitatibus quo.

Esse quae soluta sed commodi delectus autem. Non nesciunt et iure impedit quaerat voluptas. Consequatur modi suscipit nemo.

Fuga ipsa maiores dolores enim est. Aut inventore qui est vitae. Molestiae similique aliquam porro dicta porro expedita voluptatum ducimus. Eos odit aut incidunt aut doloribus laborum provident. Saepe qui beatae cum et adipisci qui eos.

Quam id eaque earum commodi numquam dicta autem. Laborum neque explicabo iusto rem cum dolorum. Vel sit quia aliquam nihil et assumenda. Itaque enim id praesentium voluptates error beatae. Omnis minus quae consequuntur exercitationem delectus asperiores. Eligendi ut tempora ea similique.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (46) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (80) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”