Why is IB a good career option?
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Anonymous
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I am trying to understand this.
Most people work there for two years. Long hours. Toxic environment. |
Anonymous
It's fairly big money for fairly brainless work. And that attracts a certain kind. |
Anonymous
| Very lucrative |
Anonymous
| After the two year boot camp they tend to get very high paying jobs at other banks or go into PE, hedge funds, VC. It’s a good way to start a life of making a lot of money. But it’s a miserable two years. |
Anonymous
| Going to be seriously disrupted by AI. |
Anonymous
| $$$$$ |
Anonymous
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Good money. Good name on resume. They invest a lot in teaching you. I like hiring former investment bankers for roles totally unrelated because they have learned incredible attention to detail, have an incredible work ethic (sometimes I need to tell them to relax), and are fine in pressure situations.
That being said, it is a huge investment of time and energy and if your heart is not in it, you will be miserable and it really isn't worth it. I enjoyed the experience in an odd way but was also miserable most of the time and eager to get out. But the high from winning and/or closing a big deal that you worked really hard on is hard to match. |
Anonymous
IB is mostly about relationships -- the analyst grunt work of spreading comps, modeling, valuation...sure. but ai isn't going to disrupt what's fundamentally a relationship business that's built on irrational humans. |
Anonymous
Such as? |
Anonymous
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1612 and 1722 are spot on.
because the exit options are very good. if non-financial firms didn't put IB on a pedestal when it comes to entry-to-mid/mid level hires, the attractiveness of doing IB would fall markedly. |
Anonymous
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The analyst grunt work is miserable but it is the building block of the knowledge that makes one an elite senior banker. It is a very odd dynamic because I agree that analysts are more numbers and detail oriented while senior bankers also need the people skills that are not too relevant at the junior level. But the best senior bankers are both great at the people part of it but have a decent command of the underlying fundamentals. There are some who are solely good at the people part and can BS their way through the rest, but they are rare.
By not having the analyst experience because it has been outsourced to AI, senior bankers will not be as good. It will be interesting to see how this dynamic works itself out - it will take a while before it really becomes relevant. |
Anonymous
The question is you spent two years learning spreadsheet while taking adderall. It's more like a hazing process. What exactly are you learning? I am guessing very little in substance. How about take these two years and go to law school or med school? At least you learn something real? Are IB exit options still as good as they used to be? |
Anonymous
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I don't know but everyone and their brother/sister is trying to enter IB. I have one kid at a HYP and one at UVA and everyone they know at both schools has one goal in mind: IB. The crappy and more uncertain the economy and job market becomes, the more every last college student is jumping on this train.
I would not count on this career path. It's becoming completely impossible if you don't 1)have a nepo contact in the industry OR 2)have a college 4l.0 and a lot of luck. |
Anonymous
IB gets risk adverse brass ring people that are lost. They have the brains, but they are meek and enthralled by the usual conventional wisdom. I have never met anyone that went into IB that turned out to be a good and healthy person at 50. |
Anonymous
I think this also applies to consultants, and perhaps even more so. Consulting is basically just punting and saying you want to keep being a student but get paid for it. Not sure if you are referring to anyone who worked in IB or excluding those who did it for a few years, made some money, got some experience, and bailed. Very different types. |