Investment banking isn't just a tough field to work in – it's also super tough to break into!
Before you sink a ton of time and effort chasing after that elusive internship, take a moment to reflect—is it really for you? We've gathered insights from insiders on 15+ aspects of the job to help you make the call.
💼 What investment bankers do day-to-day
😊 How happy investment bankers are with their job
💃 What type of people thrive?
👍 Pros of the job
👎 Cons of the job
🌍 Impact
⚖️ Work-life balance
🤸♂️ Flexibility
🤝 The people
⬆️ Your managers
🧭 Values alignment
👫🏽 Diversity
⚓ Job stability
🌱 Learning & development
🌟 Job outlook
💵 Pay
📈 Career progression
🔀 Exit options
4. Where can I find internships?
What will your daily grind look like as an investment banker? Find out in Junior bankers share what they actually do – and why their hours are so long.
I'm a second-year analyst being promoted to associate in a couple of months and about 70% of my analyst class is already gone or has secured other gigs. Basically every analyst and associate I know thinks that life sucks and is just trying to survive the day.
However, you can clearly tell that most MDs are really passionate about what they do and genuinely enjoy the work. I definitely think that this is why they stay, because there is no way the money alone would be enough to justify working 70-80+ hours a week when you are in your 40s and have a family.
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– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
When you go thru school, think about:
- Am I taking a ton of courses?
- Am I enjoying the challenge?
- Do I want to take on more?
- Am I learning quickly?
- Can I learn independently?
The type of people who are able to take on lots of courses and challenges at the same time will be a good fit for the job.
– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
You have to have EQ and be able to understand the dynamics of the job. This includes understanding hierarchies and power dynamics.
Generally, when you join a team, there are analysts and associates, then VPs, EDs, then the MD. If you have a question, you probably shouldn't go to your ED or MD. You need to be able to recognize when you have a dumb question and make sure to direct those to your analysts and maybe associates.
The work is already stressful. The last thing you want is people getting annoyed at you asking them questions instead of asking other people. It helps if you've already done another internship or even just taken the time to learn about the dynamics.
– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
Nobody's going to be telling you, "We're going to tell you X now and you're going to need to remember this three months later in great detail." You'll need to think about, "How can I best take these notes so I can remember this three months later?" People will train you but they're also very busy.
– Investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
When I'm on an actual deal for a known company, that gives me some pride in my work. And when it gets announced, it makes it really worth it.
At the end of the day, all the things we advise on – everything makes a significant impact on the company. You know you're part of a team that makes that happen. The work is generally meaningful.
I used to work in tax accounting for instance, and in tax, you're basically just saving companies a certain amount of money. With investment banking, you're advising on really, really important decisions and you get to see your efforts pay off.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
It's surprising but I'd say "marketing" work takes up more than 50% of my job. By marketing, I mean:
- Endless work on books: Work on pitch books never ends! If you're getting the book printed and bound, you work on them until the day before you meet potential buyers. If you're not printing them, you keep making changes to them up to an hour before the meeting!
- Endless meetings: You meet with potential buyers and nothing happens. The meetings just keep going. It's always kind of frustrating.
Like if I'm doing a deal for Apple, and I know it will come to something, the work makes sense. But you're doing all this work without knowing whether it'll lead to anything. It makes you wonder if you're just wasting time, especially when you're working on a weekend.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Things come up. It's hard to plan your day. Sometimes you're working really late into the night. Sometimes you're working weekends – or on vacations sometimes.
Every bank knows that's a problem so they all have initiatives to help people have work-life balance. JP Morgan for instance has "Pencils Down Friday" – You stop working and are protected until noon on Saturday, so you can actually make Friday night plans. You have to get permission from the head of the group if you need an exception to this.
We also get to pick one "protected weekend" per quarter.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
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– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
I appreciate about investment banking is that people come from all kinds of backgrounds. There are people who, for instance, don't have a finance degree. I knew someone who went to med school for instance. He's in the healthcare group.
You meet lots of interesting people, with different personalities and different backgrounds.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Asdf toxic people?
– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
How accessible are managers and do they make good mentors? You may want to address internal communication, performance feedback or praise and recognition.
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– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
Investment banking is friendly towards internationals. All bulge-bracket banks sponsor work visas and a lot of boutique banks do so too. They definitely encourage international students to apply.
Generally, people are quite understanding of internationals. For instance, if I speak with an applicant who's struggling a little with English, I kind of give them a bit of a break. It's hard to go to a new country and start anew, so I already know that that person is determined to persevere.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
There are also affinity groups: BOLD for black people, groups for veterans, people from Asia-Pacific. It's like at school.
We have a black and African group that I hang out with. We do some fun events where we cook traditional dishes. So there are fun things we do to meet and understand each other. The work is hard enough, so it's great to have people in your corner. And if I have questions about H1B, visas, these are the people I can ask. So it helps to have people you can ask questions to.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
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– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
Please provide further information on diversity with respect to women, ethnic minorities and LGBT. Please comment on issues such as recruitment, retention, promotion, child care, maternity leave, etc.
How would you rank your company's commitment to diversity? Â
We do get a lot of training!
- During the internship, we had a full week of training where we just trained and did no work. And they start from core accounting, core finance – they train you from the beginning.
- It's even better when you come back full-time – We did one full month on core accounting and finance before we moved onto modeling. We're getting paid for training. We also have to sit some exams and get some licenses. All the banks do a good job of getting external people to train you to pass the exams – and most everyone passes the first-time.
- Then when we enter our groups, we get more training again.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
Formal training is great, but you learn a lot more from the job.
- The amount of knowledge you gain is a lot. They always say it's a steep learning curve but it's way steeper than you think it is. When I joined, I probably knew some things from business school, but I was still learning.
- The amount of growth within 3-6 months was just immense. You get to learn so much and become independent quickly. For instance, 6-12 months into the job, you're already leading client meetings.
Every client is different. We typically send emails to the group to ask for help. "I'm doing X, has anyone done anything like this before?" Most of the time, someone will reply. It's rare where you ask for help and nobody helps out.
[asdf so what do you learn from this?]
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
It pays well! It can be argued we work more than we're paid, but we get paid well with good benefits. asdfBenefits? Bonuses? satisifed given cost of living?
Typically analysts make $130k-ish. Associates start out at $175k. Every year you get promoted and your pay gets bumped 10-15%.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
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– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
For more info, see From Intern to MD: Career & salary progression as an investment banker
For more info, see From Intern to MD: Career & salary progression as an investment banker
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that jobs like investment banking will grow faster than average.
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– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
Looking long-term, will investment banking be replaced by AI? Probably not. But there are things you should do to future-proof yourself. Find out here: Students: Will your entry-level job be replaced by AI? [LINK].
There's always good and bad years. COVID was bad. Typically, when a year is a bad economy year, you won't get a lot of deals. During COVID, a couple rounds of layoffs happened for instance. But I feel like we are recovering now. Deals are starting to pick up. We're starting to get busy again.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
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– Former investment banking analyst @ JP Morgan
A lot of private equity firms don't recruit from schools. A lot of them don't even do internships. So they recruit from investment banking. If you look at a private equity firm's team, most of them are ex-investment bankers.
PE pays better than investment banking and instead of spending a lot of time on marketing tasks, PE is buy-side so everything you're staffed on is deal-related, which makes it more rewarding. Like, you won't waste your weekend on books for a deal that doesn't happen.
They also only do buy-side stuff so you're not scrambling to juggle different things – M&As, IPOs, etc. It's more streamlined.
Their day-to-day is also more predictable. Since they don't have clients who request random things, they have the upper hand to determine their schedule and it's rare for things to come out of the blue.
So you're making more, doing less!
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
It doesn't have to be an investment banking firm. A friend of mine was in a technology group, and he became CEO of a tech company.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
If you stay until VP or ED, you can be part of a company's finance team, like as a CFO.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
The grind isn't for everyone. Some people are happy to leave the frontline action to others and move into the middle and back office of the bank.
I also know people who went into HR and operations. I mean, you can do whatever you want to do.
– Investment banking associate @ JP Morgan
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