College Students---Buy your way into Ibanking

I don't understand this. Why so many people consider working in IB the "holy grail" lifetime achievement?

 

What other industry can a 27 year old make upper 6 to 7 figures?

 

What he said.

The money is insane for a person that age (who can't or doesn't want to give trading a shot), and it's an open party to whoever can get there and stay there ... there's quite a few 100 hour work weeks until you get to that level of payday, though.

One of the best financial industries around for women, btw.

I

 

come back poor and still looking for a job?

get a hold of your priorities.

backpack after you have money

 

yes.

as fortunate or unfortunate as that may be, it is fact.

i see this as a CHEAP way for a young person get a shot at the big time, if that is what they desire....

surf

 

thanks.


still waiting for the invite to go duck hunting in maryland.

 

gee, let me think......trading? lol.

i just meant who would want to be an i-banker in the strict sense of the term. i think nowadays, the ultimate goal of any sell sider is to get to a buy side shop eventually. there are so many buy side shops out there now that if you are an upper crust talent, you can skip the ibanking step and go straight to a hedgie. where as at an ibank youre looking at 1 or 2 deals a year because of size (both size of a bank and size of the potential deals) on the buy side, youre going to be exposed to ideas in rapid fire succession. get rewarded a helluva lot more for a job well done too!

 

After a few solid years at an bulge bracket IBank where do you think these guys end up? Most of the Funds today are ran by ex iBankers. Walking right into a Hedge fund or LBO shop is much harder than landing a gig at an iBank.

 

i said nothing of what is harder. i think what i was implying was that if given a choice - which i think the point of internship experience is future options - if given a choice i would go to the buy side or trading. the poster did say something about 26 or 27 right? i think at that point you should have the option as well.

 

Did you completely miss the Real Estate and Mortgage boom?

And rather than assuming that many I-bankers start making upper 6 to 7 figures at 27 years old, maybe you should realize that it's a very small percentage that actually get to do that. All the cards have to line up, the I-banking business, the sector, the groups, etc.

Only 5% or so make it to the top levels in I-banks, in general, let alone at 27 years old.

And when the business turns the corner, as it is now, all these illusions of grandeur go down the drain fast. It already happened once post tech bubble and only the LBO side of IBs is preventing a mass scale layoff at the momet.