A Week in the Life Investment banking professional is one of the most popular roles on Wall Street. It is also one of the most difficult. It’s no wonder that the typical day in the life of an investment banker is long and stressful. Those who manage to survive the adjustment period often face long and financially worthwhile careers.
According to Andrew Gutmann, former investment banker and author of How to Become an Investment Banker: Hiring, Interviewing, and Getting a Job, a typical investment banking associate or analyst “can typically expect to work 90 to 100 hours a week or more. A typical workday during the week might be between 10:00 and 2:00 am.
The role of an investment banker
Investment banks help companies and governments raise capital by issuing stock or borrowing money. They also act as advisers and traitors to mergers and acquisitions.
Capital markets are a fast-paced, highly promising and highly regulated environment. Companies in other industries need investment bankers to handle financial deals while they’re busy.
who needs them
Investment bankers employ young companies planning to go public, large companies planning mergers and acquisitions, and established companies looking to raise funds for major expansions. Professional bankers are the link between the company and the investors.
For example, in 2019, Goldman Sachs handled Salesforce’s purchase of Tableau Software, the sale of Ultimate Software to a private equity consortium, and the sale of Symantec’s venture business to Broadcom.
Social skills required
These companies also have sales and trading divisions, but the traditional role of an investment banker is to meet with clients, prepare offers, run financial model projections, and work on launch books, the sales books created for new clients.
What separates investment bankers from most others in the financial industry is the need for excellent people skills. Many business students can perform the technical duties of an investment banking associate, but few have the energy and social graces to deal with clients effectively. Having the right personality is a great way.
key takeaways
- Investment bankers meet with clients, prepare offers, make financial projections, and work on proposal books, which help generate new clients.
- The work is lucrative but the days are long and stressful.
- Success in the field requires excellent social skills.
- So is resistance.
Morning routine
A new associate who goes beyond the initial chaos and makes work become a functional routine. Mornings are often filled with emails, texts, and office meetings.
Messages can be a nightmare, literally. There are stories of JPMorgan analysts waking up in a panic at night to check their phones because they risk being released if they don’t answer everyone within 15 minutes. Messages can come from clients, associates, or senior bankers who want to check all status reports, presentations, and calculations.
late start
Fortunately, business days start relatively late. This is partly because New York’s capital markets don’t open at 7 am, but also because most bankers were in office until midnight the night before.
An associate may have time to shower, eat breakfast, and even exercise before heading to the office. Since the vast majority of investment banking jobs are in cities, many face long commutes.
Morning work is usually slower and smoother than evening work. From 9:30 am until lunchtime, associates and analysts work with company analysts and make changes requested by senior staff members, who spent the previous night reviewing the day’s work. On slow days, a junior banker may have time to catch up on news and sports, but there is little opportunity for social media, as most investment banks set up firewalls to block websites calling the attention
Afternoon
Unless the day is very busy, a 45-minute or hour-long lunch extension is still done at a local deli or company cafeteria. They usually deal with collaborators of the same level. The hierarchy is usually rigid.
Associates often return to their desks to receive updated models and presentations from the analysts on their team. Associates review these documents and make corrections or recommendations before returning them to analysts.
This is a stressful process for the partners, who really want to show that they can contribute to the measure, and the analysts, who know what the CEOs or directors need and don’t have a lot of time for reviews.
The live measure
Evening work focuses heavily on active measurement. Many investment banking teams are assigned one measure at a time, or the “live deal,” and senior bankers are very careful about the details. Initial public offerings (IPOs) and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) cost millions or even billions of dollars, and the company cannot make mistakes.
$125,000 to $10 million
The range of salaries (not including bonuses) an investment banker earns, according to the Institute of Corporate Finance. The lower end is for centennial analyses. The high end is your managing director.
Afternoon
The second half of the working day is divided into two sections: before and after dinner. Dinner is almost always eaten at the office.
Work before dinner is more scheduled and predictable, with analysts requiring partners’ work to be completed early in the evening so it can be reviewed again.
On a typical day, the first task after dinner is to review the morning’s work. Analysts and senior bankers have spent the last few hours going over the issue and creating “comments,” sometimes requiring massive revisions to the offer book.
Investment banking associates and analysts work with many other professionals, such as stock research and sales staff.
the software team
The nights, however, are spent closely with the desktop publishing teams. Desktop Publishing (DTP) is an investment banking division filled with professionals who know how to use PowerPoint, Photoshop, and other software to effectively communicate close financial information. Analysts rely heavily on this team for reviews of park books and other marketing materials.
The review-comment-correction cycle can be repeated two or three more times before the night is over. Associates and analysts must think and work quickly to ensure the edit is done correctly and on time.
Many banks have set up company car services to drive their associates and analysts home early in the morning. Senior bankers can call before 10 pm, but junior bankers usually go home in the early hours of the morning to get a few hours’ sleep before doing it all over again the next day.