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Investment banks? Why?

I'm considering working for am IB.
My background is mostly IT so I applied to the Technology division.
The working hours for people on the business/finance side of things are crazy (80 to 100-hour weeks) and I can't understand why anyone would want to put themselves through that. A lot of money is always appealing but if you can't enjoy it, why bother?

As I don't know exactly the working hours of someone working in a technology division of an investment bank, I'm just hoping that the hours are more reasonable.

A lot of people seem to be looking to work for investment banks. What's so appealing? If any of you have previous work experience at IBs, your opinion would be even more interesting.

Reply 1

Brown Patrick Bateman

10

It's simply a case of 'work hard, play hard', exactly as you have at demanding unis/courses. I wrote this yesterday:

Jools

When I worked in London over summer, even if the days, evenings (and nights) were taken up, there was always the weekend. We'd always head to top clubs every Friday and Saturday night, and it was surprisingly easy to meet people. All this talk of bankers having no social life greatly contradicts the image of them living the high life in the city.

There is possibly a huge difference between those working in Financial/Global Markets & Equities, where work can end 5-6pm and there's rarely any weekends, compared to the 110 hour weeks involved in Corporate Finance/IBD. I'm going into markets and will certainly be spending some weekend evenings out, at least in a bar, and can be back for midnight if it's a 6am start the next day.

Reply 2

SamTheMan

OP

17

Jools

It's simply a case of 'work hard, play hard', exactly as you have at demanding unis/courses. I wrote this yesterday:

It's good that you have experience in this area and you seem to have some useful info to provide. As, at some bulge bracket firms, global markets and investment banking are part of the same division, it's hard to know what to expect. Do you know anything about the working hours for technology analysts? By that, I mean guys working in the technology (sub)division of the global markets and investment banking division.

The whole 100-hour week is probably the biggest turn-off for me.

Reply 3

mahras

1

By tech. division do you mean the technology sector BANKING job. Or the guys who write the programs for the global markets folks or programming so that analysts in IBD can make models. These two things are totally different. IBD is where most people earn cash in banking not the techie guys. You need to make that clear. IBD tech sector guys will be the ones working 100 hour weeks not the programmers.

Reply 4

SamTheMan

OP

17

mahras

By tech. division do you mean the technology sector BANKING job. Or the guys who write the programs for the global markets folks or programming so that analysts in IBD can make models. These two things are totally different. IBD is where most people earn cash in banking not the techie guys. You need to make that clear. IBD tech sector guys will be the ones working 100 hour weeks not the programmers.

i was talking about the technology division of the actual Global Markets and Investment Banking division, which involves application development and product support for the finance guys in those divisions.

So I was talking about a technical role within an investment bank, not investment banking in the technology sector.

Does anyone know from experience (maybe from an internship) what the working conditions for the technical roles are like?

Reply 5

Jump

18

The way I see it is that if the work is half interesting the time will fly by and it might even be fun, plus as Jools said the weekends/evenings are always there (well almost always).

Reply 6

Khalsa1846

hi all,
if i end up not liking law (i intensly love the subject though my degree will reveal more) i have kept my doors open to going into the investment banks and work for one of the 'partners' of one of these firms though im at the lowest end of it...selling/buying currencies etc... (not the corporate ends).

I already work an 'average' of 70 hours a week (hey im also a GAP yr student...its a killer guys, save yourselves! HONEST) but i think i can see myself doing that in law and in finance so im getting used to it.

For me the money plays a 30% role, the rest is the challenge, status and 50% of it is for charitable reasons, which most cannot understand (im fairly religious).
Take it ez guys,
Mandeep

Reply 7

woody87

Just out of interest, where did you get a gap year job in investment banking?

Reply 8

mahras

1

I am not 100% sure what that entails. However I know that guys in the tech. division are paid very well. It all depends on whether you like finance or not. We really cant convince you. If you dont like it it will be hell, if you do then it will be stressful but you will probably be happy (and your bank account also :wink:

)

Its purely a personal choice.

Investment banks? Why?

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