Is investment banking the biggest meme?

youtube.com/watch?v=vbuborn14Mc

I'm an analyst in M&A. The hours / job is a fucking nightmare but the pay is great ($150k btax my first year, associates make ~$300k). Hell, I'm working right now.

Most junior bankers only stay 2-3 years and move on to better things (private equity, hedge funds, or corporate development). Not many stay in banking. So it's not like you're doomed to a life of constant work at the lower levels.

How nightmarish we talking here?

Getting off before 9PM is considered a short day, I got a few hours off for Thanksgiving, and I worked New Years to name a few recent things. All nighters are not unheard of either. Expect weekend work.

The bank offers like 3 weeks of paid vacation per year on sign up, but you never use all of it anyways lol

I'm looking to get into investment banking. I'm 18, and planning to attend Beedie (business school) at SFU in Vancouver. Then I plan to transfer to Ivey in Ontario, which is supposedly a target school for IB. Does anyone have any advice/tips for someone straight out of high school aiming to get into IB?

IB was big in the 80's where all the smartest people were paid the most they could get for their smarts.

Kinda like tech today.

If you go into IB you WILL be either bald or have a severely receded hairline by age 30

However you make so much money you can just get a scalp transplant

No offense but that sounds horrible, even for $150k. Are you not tempted by lower paid jobs with better hours?

>Why do people want to get into this field so bad?
Because it is the "easiest" and fastet way to become a millionaire as a wage slave.

I work in project finance and our MD gets about 500k (all in) a year. A MD in M&A at my bank gets about 1mio (all in) a year.

And as an MD you dont have the long working hours you have as an Analyst/Associate.

But really think about it - I studied at a target uni for IB and one of my "friends" died while doing his intership at BoA ML. After that there was a big outcry and the CEOs instructed the departments to not letting the interns work past midnight.

>medicine

ur trolling right

medicine is IB plus 4-8 more years of school and a far more suffering internship/residency
medicine is the true meme in today's world.

>youtube.com/watch?v=vbuborn14Mc

Thanks for this

Currently freshman in uni but considering transferring. What schools are target schools for IB?

>implying I don't get six figure bonuses in silicon valley before 30

They're split between cash bonus and equity though so you need to find a stable company with a business model (i.e. no startups).

Yeah but then you have a far less stressful life and quite smooth sailing.

At least in Canada GP's for example make ridiculous money and have very little stress and easy work

Posting from another IP.

It's tempting and I've considered it a few times. I know I can't sustain this work schedule later on in life, but it works for now when I'm straight out of college, the money is great (targeting 175-200k my second year), and I've learned a lot. I'm planning my exit in a year or two anyways, so we'll see how that goes.

The allure of IB is that you are buying your freedom. Not only are you going to make a shitload of money if you get into a bulge bracket, but if "Goldman Sachs" or a similarly prestigious name is on top of your resume, you basically have a golden ticket to work anywhere you want in finance if you decide to leave. Any interviewer that sees your prior work experience is going to know that you have a history of working like a fucking maniac.

columbia

Where'd you go to school?

I really admire people like you and would like to know what advice you have for younger aspirants. You do addy, caffeine, networking and other drugs?

This is a dead field. In 10 years most functions of banking will be replaced by open source internet protocols, and the parasite that is banking will be gone forever. See bitcoin and ethereum. The future is coming faster than you think.

I don't think you understand what investment banking is.

I consider myself very lucky to be where I am. I went to a public non-target university in the US. I was hired because I had relevant experience in this line of work from a previous job I had while in school, and my MD went to the same college I did.

I really don't know what advice I could offer that would benefit you apart from what I've seen - have strong networking, go to a target school, and get good grades. Apart from that it's just luck. You don't need to be smart to do this kind of work.

I don't do any drugs (I just drink a lot of alcohol and a ton of coffee), but it's not uncommon for people to walk into the office high on coke / weed / shrooms. They don't drug test at all.

Relevant experience? If you don't mind, could you expand on that? Your success is all the more admirable given the non-target status of your work!

What internship advice would you have for a freshman? Does interning with an accounting firm or a regular old bank this summer sound like a good first step towards >experience?

People like you make Veeky Forums a worthwhile place. Best.

I know what it is alright.

The number of functions that will be disrupted by AI and decentralized software like blockchains is very broad. Underwriting, for example, could be done with smart contacts.

But I hope you guys make your money before it all ends.

>medicine
>all that debt
>starting your career at 28
no thanks

Ivies, UCB, UMichigan, UVA (eh), Gtown, Duke, those are all i can name off the top but lurk a bit on WSO and youll figure it out

>"""""open source"""""
>"""""parasite"""""
>"""""disrupting"""""
>"""""blockchain"""""
>"""""smart contracts"""""
big words dont make your opinion less shit

What type of media marketing do you do?

Lulz. Rebbit or edgy libertarian? I cant decide.

You need internships too, preferably at a big fund/bank. If you can't get into a target school, then you MAY be able to get a job in IB if you network like hell.

>UMichigan

does not belong

>tfw he took the bait
>tfw there's a 50% chances he's right

The trick is to be the one making this happen. Consultant for IBs, work 9-5, paid the same if not more, and a fraction of the BS with less chance of being made redundant by technological advances.

>tfw business analyst in a tech startup
>cucked by low wages because "we're a startup"
>strongly tempted by IB because of the money (did valuations, statement analysis etc during masters)
>didn't do it directly after college so basically no chance of getting in

Don't think I'll ever be sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing

That would require literally anyone using blockchain for something useful

Every big bank and consulting firm has some sort of meme blockchain lab but I have yet to see anything useful come out of any of them.

How do I break into trading at for example Citi, JPM, UBS, DB, BoA, Merrill Lync, Barclays, etc? I mean specifically either market making or speculative trading at the interbank level, not being a broker or salesman calling people trying to sell them stuff, analyst, M&A or IPOs or anything like that.

>huge pressure from family to be successful
>no idea how to actually contribute to society
>decide to blindly pursue a high paycheck
>become a slave
>die from exhaustion

>How do I break into trading at for example Citi, JPM, UBS, DB, BoA, Merrill Lync, Barclays, etc?

You don't. If you're not already a successful trader or know how to code trading algorithms/backtest, they won't give you the time of day.

But if you taught yourself how to be a successful trader but dont have a target school on your resume they still wont give you the time of day so how do you overcome not having the pedigree?

ITT: Any tips/advice for a high school senior aspiring to become a financial advisor?

Most people I know are using IB as a launching pad to get a job in a PE/VC/HF firm 3 years out. If you look at IB by the hour, they're getting paid minimum wage. On top of that, if you're working at a Bulge Bracket firm (so, you know, you can get the high-paying PE job 3 years out), the bank knows they don't need to pay you a high salary or even a high bonus.

Also, get this: banks are now starting to lock people's bonuses for up to 4 years to get them to stay within the company.

So yes, it's very meme.

1. Make a higher salary than nearly anyone else your age except for maybe professional athletes. Depending on your group, you have the opportunity to deal with executive level people at corporations on a near daily basis

2. After a couple years you can jump into even more lucrative fields...hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, etc.. Not to mention you develop some nice skills and can get pretty much any corporate job you want afterwards.

3. Very easy to attract/pick up women too, if you're interested in that. After their early 20s, women start to care more about a guy's income...

Along with a lot of other people I know who work as IB analysts, I didn't go to some ivy league school, I didn't really "network" or have some crazy connections with people working at banks, and the job itself doesn't really require much intelligence. People on this website severely overstate how difficult it is to get these jobs. 70+ hour weeks aren't that bad once you adjust to it after a few weeks, you are working alongside a lot of people your age, and again, you're being paid very well to do relatively simple work that a highschooler could be easily trained to do.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the reason people think it's insanely hard to get into IB is because they think the only way to work in IB is to get an offer from a big bank in NY straight out of college. In reality, there are many paths to the same goal; they just require perseverance.

What's your job title and how'd you land it? Congrats on the career path!

the easiest path is coming directly from an undergraduate or MBA program. there are other ways of course.

my job title is "investment banking analyst". i just recruited during my the beginning of my senior year of college and got an offer at one of the 'bulge bracket' banks. i had good grades, had a lot of internship experience, and came off as likeable enough during the interviews. i got rejected from a lot of places, of course, but that's just part of the process for everyone.

>tech support
cmon bruh

Where can you even go to study IB?

What's your product?

Please don't say wealth management

wat. i think i stated pretty clearly i'm an investment banking analyst, meaning i work in the investment banking division. wealth management is a completely different job function.

i'm not going to get too specific here and won't give out what product/coverage group i work in.

In your opinion, what are my chances of getting into a good banking-sector job/graduate program if I'm -
> 23
> Graduated with 3.65 with a BS in Economics/finance
> Currently serving as an officer in the U.S Navy
> 3 years left on my contract,
> by then I am atleast guaranteed to leave the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander (O-4) or one rank lower as a Lieutenant (O-3)
> have several security clearances now working in an engineering related field (it was interesting, Navy educated me in everything required before I went out to serve.
> can use benefits and small amount of savings to get into graduate school for finance/banking related careers

Thoughts?

Good stuff, user! What are your future career plans?

I'm well aware of that. There's just always this one guy (or many) who says he's in IB and then later says his product is WM.

Although I don't see why you won't state your product. It's not like it's super revealing or anything.

>small amount of savings
I meant that as in a small portion of my savings, I have plenty invested and saved after years of not needing to pay for the usual shit that drains income like housing, travel, and food

Your GPA is higher than the medians at schools like Wharton and Harvard. Also, they'd love to say they have an officer in the Navy going to their MBA program. Same situation with the banks. Schools and banks love that "support the troops" bullshit.

Just get a high GMAT (700+) and good recommendations and coast from there.

Should the GMAT take religious amounts of study like the LSAT or MCAT? Just curious for a frame or reference so I can plan for studying.

Also, what schools would you suggest for a good link to the finance/banking worlds?

>schools and graduate degree plans*

Thanks. My sector is oil and gas. I knew how to forecast oil and gas production going into this job, as well as how to do other various O&G related evaluation work. It helped tremendously.

Internship advice as a freshman... not really sure. Try to get into banking asap I suppose and experience it to see if you'd actually want to continue into it would be a good idea. Interning at a bank is good, but it depends on what area you're in at the bank. It doesn't hurt, though. Best of luck my man.

Basically what the below response said. Banks love diversity and love hiring vets.

Should I pursue:
Engineering (70k starting, 130-50k experienced)

Or IB (125k starting,

fuck engineering

-ex engineer turned banker

What's wrong with engineering?

I read about that. In London right?

Jokes aside there's nothing wrong with it - I'm just being a faggot. I find engineering more rewarding and mentally stimulating, honestly.

However at the end of the day I'd still choose banking over engineering because I'm a shitty engineer and because I never really fit in with the engineering crowd. It may be a dumb reason, but I just do a better job doing what I do now than I did in engineering, and I am better rewarded for my work (at least I feel that way).

I've never studied for it, but I know it's material is very similar to the LSATs. I've heard that, if you're quantitative, it's much easier than the LSAT. Also, you can take it almost any day you want -- it's not only offered 4 times a year. I would say go crazy and dedicate 6 months on it, or as long as it takes to get a 750. Fuck it man, if you want banking, go all out. What is 6 months in the grand scheme of things?

Also, the school must either be: A) Ivy League, B) Stanford, or C) very close to New York City. Anything else and you're fucking yourself over dramatically. Columbia, Wharton, or Harvard are the one's you should set your sights on.

In that case I'm in luck. NYC reporting in, 5 fucking blocks from Columbia's biggest campus.