State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

My friend who spent many years at JPM said no one understands that stuff anyway! They just use words like PnL explain and wear a gilet.

When can I start?

[oliverson]

I will have to bow with your knowledge of the sector but I have worked in various industries and fields over the last quarter of a century and I have never failed to pick it up to a greater or lesser degree. Unless IB is widely different to everything else I imagine I could have done the same.

Unfortunately at the best of times it was a hard thing to break into and we are far from in the best of times at the moment.

When I initially targeted the IB market I purchased a course to study. After about an hour it had bored the living tulip out of me so I sacked it off and took a different route. I still don't understand much of it today and I've not had a contract with an IB since 2014. Since then it's been asset management, insurance and one of the big 4 consultancies mainly. Shallow as I am, I do miss the prestige of contracting at an IB, though there's a lot more about it I don't miss.

And would you believe it's still raining out here in Spain? costa-del-tulip

[hungry_hog]

Prestige is questionable when:

• An MD rings you at 5pm as you are about to leave on a Friday and asks for the 45th iteration of PowerPoint slides (copy paste from Excel) which you know will take 3 hours and be binned on Monday
• Another MD calls a team meeting and says "everyone - we're gonna be working longer hours" after a 60 hour week
• You shut your eyes and see pivot tables
• You are being pinged by 4 people whilst trying to present on a call, with someone at your desk also trying to get your attention and your brain has turned to dust
• The only drinks arranged in your time is your own leaving drinks, which you probably organise yourself, as no one else has a nanosecond spare! People dutifully turn up then head back to the office

(source - 8 years of IB - some good, some like above)

[SussexSeagull]

Prestige is questionable when:

• An MD rings you at 5pm as you are about to leave on a Friday and asks for the 45th iteration of PowerPoint slides (copy paste from Excel) which you know will take 3 hours and be binned on Monday
• Another MD calls a team meeting and says "everyone - we're gonna be working longer hours" after a 60 hour week
• You shut your eyes and see pivot tables
• You are being pinged by 4 people whilst trying to present on a call, with someone at your desk also trying to get your attention and your brain has turned to dust
• The only drinks arranged in your time is your own leaving drinks, which you probably organise yourself, as no one else has a nanosecond spare! People dutifully turn up then head back to the office

(source - 8 years of IB - some good, some like above)

As I said, I have never worked in IB but I was once involved in a project that was stretching into seven day weeks and I awarded myself a Saturday afternoon off to go to the football. In the pub beforehand I stood up to get a drink and instinctively went to press ctrl+alt+delete to lock my computer on the (computer free) table.

[sadkingbilly]

Powerpoint?
Pivot tables?

[Bluenose]

Shallow as I am, I do miss the prestige of contracting at an IB

Too many scandals since black monday for it to be prestigious.

The only real prestige roles these days are working for peanuts at Microsoft, Google or Apple.

[SchumiStars]

Too many scandals since black monday for it to be prestigious.

The only real prestige roles these days are working for peanuts at Microsoft, Google or Apple.

They don't need to pay anything more than low wages. Why would they? They work on collective brilliance rather than individual genius.

[TheDude]

Prestige is questionable when:

• The only drinks arranged in your time is your own leaving drinks, which you probably organise yourself, as no one else has a nanosecond spare! People dutifully turn up then head back to the office

(source - 8 years of IB - some good, some like above)

I went from a job where people were in the pub pretty much every lunchtime to working for a US investment bank where I never had a lunchtime drink in three years.

I have spent about 15 years working at various banks and the only lunchtime drinks I had were at Morgan Stanley where it was tradition to leave at midday on bonus day and those who had been promoted had to buy drinks. I was a contractor so no bonus for me but I did get paid to spend the day drinking once a year.

[TheDude]

When I initially targeted the IB market I purchased a course to study. After about an hour it had bored the living tulip out of me so I sacked it off and took a different route. I still don't understand much of it today and I've not had a contract with an IB since 2014. Since then it's been asset management, insurance and one of the big 4 consultancies mainly. Shallow as I am, I do miss the prestige of contracting at an IB, though there's a lot more about it I don't miss.

And would you believe it's still raining out here in Spain? costa-del-tulip

Where is the prestige?

Being a developer at an Investment Bank is like being the person who sells the pies at a football club. You are nowhere near the big earners.

Working at Goldman Sachs (Real Madrid) may be more prestigious then Barclays, Credit Suisse or UBS (Southampton) but prestige doesn't pay your mortgage.

[sadkingbilly]

Where is the prestige?

Being a developer is like being the person who sells the pies at a football club..