A Day In the Life of an Investment Banker

Author: Jacob Nickson
Occupation: Content Writer at CompareBroker.com
Date: 8/13/2009

Anyone looking for an investment banker looks for sleepless and harried people in the lobby of a five star hotel. Also, the social life of an investment banker reduces drastically as the salary of the person goes up. A typical investment banker believes he lives in New York, but he doesn't. He resides in planes and visits New York from time to time.

# Remember: You are Not the Dealmaker

If you are an investment banker, you may need to start your day trying to catch a flight early morning, reading the pitchbooks prepared by your analysts for you. Here reading does not mean reading alone, you have to find a way to clinch that deal (if you need to tweak it, do so by all means) using complicated (no, very complicated, or so should it seem) calculus and calculations.

The meeting may be with a Technology company which may be looking for a buyer or two so that a division may be spun off. The pros and cons of the deal will be presented by the boss, whereas you are there only if he or she needs some technical details. You are also frequently on the phone, all while gulping down a late lunch.

Post the meeting, you may need to meet an insurance company which is considering the proposal to use derivatives to reduce the risk element in its portfolio. Forget about being the dealmaker again, you are here just to explain the derivatives to people who are great at stocks, but don't understand derivatives.

You end the day with a (five star) dinner, paid by your company, with a former client to build a relationship. The purpose here, again, is to see whether you can sniff (possibility of) a deal here, while discussing the political news and macroeconomic stories. If you manage to pull off something like that, your boss would be thrilled no end. Next person to be thrilled could be you, because you could get a job where the technical details would now be explained to you and you would also get an opportunity to attend more five star dinners (the salary raise is obvious).

# Why Would You Continue Being an Investment Banker?

If you are thinking of the reason why you should continue as an investment banker after all this, consider these points:

1. What else can you do?
2. Isn't the paycheck (and bonuses) a purpose enough to continue in the job?
3. Can you afford a business class flight on your own?
4. Can you afford the five star hotel executive suites?
5. Can you vacation abroad every year in any other job?

If you do have the answer to these questions, you can definitely stop being an investment banker right now, and vice versa.

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