why I hated Investment Banking

Thought you said you'd stop talking about IB once you're out? Guess anything for those views...

Thanks!

I've been an IB for 21 years at Wall Street and Asian banks. When we recruit it's a lengthy process. Popular opinion is that it's too long. I am not in HR, but I am usually the last to interview a candidate and that could be their 15th or 20th interview. When I evaluate a potential future staff member I look for character traits and attitude. What we do is hard. To be good at investment banking you need to be excellent all of the time.

Glad I’m not the only one who thinks this way and I agree with your video. I absolutely hate it cause there’s so much pressure and stress. It makes you rethink the taking the job

The high pressure, unreasonable and arbitrary deadlines and demands, the long hours, etc, all these things may look and feel pointless, but they are part of the process to test one's commitment to the job and ability to work under pressure.

It's kinda similar to being in the Army. Lots of "hurry up and wait", doing seemingly pointless things, nobody in charge explaining anything, etc.

Managers and VPs crying wolf over their personal deadlines is awful. You don't mind pushing it out in a crisis, but some managers claim they are having a crisis every week. They really don't care how you get it done; they won't learn the process themselves; they just want it when they want it.

Is this IB as a whole or just a poorly ran firm? Im wondering if the sample size is too small to reflect the entire IB industry. Are these MDs you are talking about at majority of banks?

Why would you work for a bank in the first place lol

really like your takes and honesty about the industry man. I'm planning on graduating in the spring with a finance degree and your info and knowledge and experiences you share help younger people getting into the industry like myself have a better understanding of the finance industry and being an investment banker. we appreciate u man! Happy friday, hope you can enjoy this weekend without worrying about some bs from a vp lol fr tho

That sounds so gay, hence why I will never most likely go into banking. The pointless amnt of crap u have to do with big corporations is such a waste of everyone’s time. I’ll be working at a small company or for myself most likely.

Your video is bang on the money. Just because they are in a higher position to you, does not mean they are ALWAYS right. And secondly, if they don't want someone who is a free thinker and challenges them, then why don't they just recruit an 18 yr old straight out of high school who will act like a robot and never question anything and show initiative and cost 20% of the salary your making.

I feel one Of the greatest challenges that we timers face in the ma rket is that we end up losing all we have,making it difficult to find ourselves back to our feet. My biggest advice is to always seek the services of a professional just like I did when I ventured into it for the first time. Big thanks to Maria Carmen. I now make huge profits by weekly through her services while still learning to stand on my own.

Dude you fucking nailed this video. I worked in Big 4 accounting for a few years before lateraling to investment banking. I experienced everything you described plus more. I couldn’t even last a year before I put my notice in. For anyone watching the his video, this guy isn’t exaggerating and it has nothing to do work ethic. Investment banking is the easiest job I’ve ever had in terms of technical expertise/nature of the work, but most insufferable in terms of culture and peers

I spent first 6 years of my career in front office of the treasury services business in banking. I went to b school part time and ended up doing IB interviews to try to move over. During those interview process, someone very close to me was diagnosed with cancer during this time. Luckily that person made it through and is OK but when I found that out I realized that if I was in IB I wouldn’t have been able to help and spend time with this person. I decided not to go into IB. I am now a Director level and I am happy with my career and making decent money. Not IB money but def very good money and I have a nice work like balance….

honestly I remember I first saw this video and I thought you were weak and needed to suck it up. I’m an Analyst 3 at a well known IB and honestly I’m so fucking over this industry. The money is not worth the berating and the emotional abuse and there are better ways to make money. What you said about hierarchy and not talking back really hits home — I was literally told that it was a dictatorship and that I needed to shut up. It’s honestly horrible lol and I would never recommend to anyone unless you really want the experience or you have nerves of steel that can take constant and endless berating over the smallest of mistakes; being blamed for mistakes of associate and senior bankers because you didn’t double check (????); the expectation to dedicate your entire life to the job and if you don’t, you get criticized for expecting work life balance as a junior banker… to any young and aspirational men and women considering IB as a career, if you’re smart enough to get into prestigious investment bank, you’re probably smart enough to get a job anywhere. I literally get therapy now because of this job. Value your mental health lol

Investment banking is basically the IT of the finance world: overglorified and not as flashy as it's made out to be.

Bryan you are smart and a critical thinker. Probably the type of person who should be higher up in that field than where you started. Unfortunately these companies have ingrained a type of culture where blind loyalty is more important than actually using common sense or critical thinking. At the end of the day….go someplace where you feel a sense of autonomy and can feel fulfilled and satisfied in what you want to do.

Lowperformer

Great Video bro, I really enjoyed this. It was great insight into the culture of investment banking. Thank You

The money and time that is being lost due to the inefficiency, even in high performing industries like investment banking is absurd. It really is a sign of weakness that the vps and mds seem to find no other way to deal with constructive ideas than to decline them. Jesus, I wanna do things differently and actually, I feel like things are going to change, it just takes a certain number of people from new generations to become part of it

As a first year Associate in IB, I completely relate with every point said. The level of redundancy, resistance to change, and false sense of urgency in this industry is heartbreaking

good

I’m really deep in the post college IB disillusionment phase and this video validated how i feel lol. I don’t know what i want to do with my life anymore but it’s not this.

I love my job

It essentially rigorous training, some of which makes no sense, but it's designed to create mental toughness, the ability to work under ungodly amounts of pressure and following orders. Can it be considered arcane and even cruel....perhaps....but that is IB's method of training. Not for everyone.

This is pretty accurate. Everything in banking is urgent. 🙄 Definitely one of the most inefficient industries I've ever worked in.

Great video and great points… I did not work in IBD but I did come from one of the big4 firms and it’s very similar, but actually worse, lower pay and similar hours as IBD and the work wasn’t very fulfilling.

Homie worked less than 2 years in IB and thinks hes seen it all lmfao

If u arent willing to do the small things like writing stuff properly (i.e. oxford commas, fonts, etc.) then what makes higher ups think that you have the due dilligence to do the big things properly.

thank you so so so so much for this video !!

Part of the gig I guess….. i think pre-covid the analysts/associates have a place and time (usually after 10pm in the office) to huddle together to vent (aka talking shit about their superiors and clients). Its common in all work places but that really helps in terms of improving your mental health. Working remotely during Covid arguably made young investment bankers lives more miserable…… oh and before I forget, i love when the MDs ask for something to be turned right away and make it sound like something important, it turns out its just for their backpocket. Nobody ever needed such work product….. last comment. Every job has a few shitty parts about it, but at lease this one pays a lot

Thank you for sharing Bryan :)

How can calendar invites not be done perfectly?

I’m a former IBD summer analyst and your points really hit; I pissed away my weekends doing projects that literally never mattered or my superiors literally forgot about, even though they forced me to do it in breakneck speed. I couldn’t stand the level of pointlessness, the dated heirarchy, and how much of my time I wasted.

So I took an extra year of college, switched to CS, got into Software Engineering, and now make IBD analyst pay for half the hours and half the unintelligent culture.

Bryan, a big part of what you experienced is simply a generational thing. Your generation is taught to question everything, which isn't a bad thing at all. Unfortunately, the people you were working for couldn't care less about your ideas on efficiency. Moreover, 1st year sell-side associates always get shit on, and are assigned the most ungrateful, laborious, painstaking tasks. It's no different for new associates at law firms, they get the same treatment. It sucks, but it's only short-term; they are simply treating you the way that they were treated when they broke into the biz.

I work in data center engineering and this sounds like my exact experience. Navigating the job as a subordinate and identifying all of the tasks that are inefficient and working tireless towards a project only to find out it didn’t really matter to them that much

Sadly you just had a bad boss.

Niceeee you work at a start up now? What's your position?

Thanks for sharing!

I think most of the time, we just dislike the upper ups and not the job itself

There should be work/life balance in order to live a joyful life. It's not worth killing yourself working nights and weekends. There is more to life than just work

I related so much to this. Is not the pressure itself, but when superiors put so much pressure and make you spend so much of your time doing trivial grunt work that adds no value, it eats away at your character.

Im glad I got out.

If you still are into the high-powered career vibe, you should try out consulting. I thought my job sucked, but hearing this it sounds 100X better. The partners are friendly, we don't work weekends and you are allowed to push back. Everything you do gets used!

I’m sorry.
Learn from it and become better in your own way.
There are probably so many more pressures in that line of work.
I used to be that way too.
Now, I do it for myself and try (try) not to let over head pressure get the best of me.
Will you ever escape this pressure? No.
But you can look for ways to lessen it. Like taking a less critical/high pressure job. Working hourly, NOT salary.

Pretty sad you feel addressing a toxic environment would be considered being a negative Nancy

Bro I saved all the money I could my first year and got the hell out. I got lucky in the 2020 stock madness. Now I trade in my underwear making as much as a VP. I was a well paid slave, but still a slave.

I work in m&a (4th year now) and am in my 2nd boutique right now and I can attest just how much the core senior team in a house would change your experience. First house, pathetic, unbalanced senior people who would do the exact same things described in the video every single week. Deeply dumb and limited really in terms of managing people, but all deliberate of course so junior team would “toughen up” and be trained like they were

Second house, much more actual and meaningful\pointful work, seniors wont ask for obviously unnecessary tasks and will be transparent on deadlines. Couldnt experience it better. Detail, senior team a thousand times more accomplished in the BB IB scene prior to founding the boutique than in the 1st one

My 100% honest pov is senior\mid level people frequently (I mean really frequently) want to justify the fact that they make so much money from little actual work (I mean it is IB common it doesnt take Harvard graduates to run a pitiful dcf no one will care about and ultimately compare multiples. It does take senior people’s relstionships and brand name so they will source better deals any house would run the same way - pinch of salt Im exagersting a bit but truth is the business’ core is about sourcing, not work volume. I would honestly argue if you took IB’s actual work only it wouldnt rank in the top half of more voluminous jobs. The rest is fetish really) by at least having / making day to day life painful (we dont charge hours - thst would be the case for lawyers). And also because they ve done it back when it was their turn so it is like that acritic dumb dude’s frat-like routine

I also like many of you was fortunate enough to, for ex, have gone to good schools and to have met some of the real deal people out there in actual tough fields for which you actually have to put in meaningful work. Which only makes average self-important IB market dudes look all the more unimpressive to me

dude ur making high six figures why are you complainign about such petty things. your a joke and an embaressment, just suck it up if your earning that much money.

I believe that a lot of times with these jobs is that you go in thinking you're getting hired to do the job that you worked and studied for but instead up becoming someones personal assistant