Investment Banking Analyst Jobs

This will probably be similar to my post  Ahh!?! WTF Do Investment Bankers DO!?! but I wanted to supply a short quick post on investment banking analyst jobs, what they are and what they entail.

For starters, I am directing this post at traditional investment banking (this is not sales and trading related).  Before many people get deep into job searching for Wall Street jobs they often say they want to be an investment banker.....after they search around they figure out whether they want to be in sales and trading or investment banking.  Sales and trading is pretty much what it sounds like while investment banking is a little more confusing.  If you don't know what investment banking entails check the aforementioned post.

As an investment banking analyst you are at the bottom of the totem pole and serve as a corporate clients banker.  The job is tough (on the basis of hours) and you can expect to work 80-100 hour weeks for the most part.  Anything under 60 hours would be considered a vacation.  Although the hours are long, a lot of time is spent sitting around waiting for deals.  As an analyst your main job is to do whatever the associate above you asks of you.  Usually this means putting together pitch books (also mentioned in the link above), monitoring at the printer, getting coffee, running errands - and if you want to survive - never asking for more work.  Building pitch books is very boring.

A good investment banking analyst has expert command of excel and can navigate it solely by using the keyboard.  The majority of your time related to pitchbook making will be spent using excel for models and powerpoint for the actual book pages.  You will get very good at both if you aren't already.  Most of the material will be recycled from a previous pitch.

The hours are long and the work is repetitive but there is one bonus, you get paid a lot.  If you get placed in New York you will get a salary of $70,000 and your bonus will be at least 40% of that (if you are bad), in a good year it could be one and a half times your salary.  Other areas will have slightly smaller pay-outs.  So you can decide if it is worth it to you. 

On another note, if you aren't coming from an Ivy League school, investment banking analyst jobs are very tough to get.  Email me if you need help in your search, but remember I will ask you why you want to be on Wall Street.