Is Investment Banking a Good Fit for You? (2024)

FAQs

Is Investment Banking a Good Fit for You? ›

Key Takeaways. Even with education, experience, and enthusiasm, investment banking might not be for you. Investment bankers work long hours and often earn a high income. Lack of work-life balance is one reason to avoid becoming an investment banker.

To manage stress as a busy investment banker in the later stages of your career, prioritize self-care practices such as regular exercise, adequate sleep, and healthy eating habits. Incorporate stress-relief techniques like mindfulness meditation or deep breathing exercises into your daily routine.

To make sure you're a good fit for investment banking, here is a list of traits that are considered important in the industry: Willingness to work extremely long hours (80+ per week) High attention to detail. Ability to take direction well.

Investment bankers are typically the highest-paid workers in the finance industry—high salaries are most prevalent even among younger employees. The starting salary for the typical investment banker exceeds that of most other finance positions, but working in this field has its challenges.

Common Factors that throw off work-life balance for Investment Bankers. The high-stakes, fast-paced world of investment banking is notorious for its demanding hours and intense pressure, making work-life balance a particularly elusive goal for professionals in the field.

The Intense Culture. The investment banking industry has long been criticized for its grueling work culture, with junior bankers often feeling pressured to work over 100 hours per week to impress managers and advance their careers.

Investment bankers are enterprising and conventional

Investment bankers tend to be predominantly enterprising individuals, which means that they are usually quite natural leaders who thrive at influencing and persuading others.

The lucrative and fast-paced career of an investment banker is a highly competitive one. For instance, in a recent year, 236,000 applicants competed for roughly 3,500 internships at Goldman Sachs. This is common across the industry where acceptance rates for programs are typically less than 2%.

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.

How much do investment bankers sleep? ›

While working in Investment Banking, the average bedtime on weekdays for me was 1:29 AM, with an average sleep duration of 5 hours and 56 minutes. On weekends, the average bedtime was 12:02 AM, with an average sleep duration of 8 hours and 29 minutes. However, behind these figures are large fluctuations day by day.

The average salary for investment bankers is around $118,200 per year, according to Payscale data from January 2024. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that securities, commodities and financial services sales careers—which include investment bankers—will grow by 7% from 2022 to 2032.

That said, investment banking is a highly competitive field. Because the pay is so high and the job is so prestigious, particularly in cities such as New York, applicants far outnumber job openings every year.

Investment Banking Managing Director Salary + Bonus: Base salaries are in the mid-six-figure range, with total compensation in the high six figures to low seven figures. An MD doing decently should earn between $1 and $3 million per year, and sometimes a low multiple of that (as of 2022).

Yes, investment banking hours, especially in your first year or two, are always bad (think: 70-80 hours in the office per week). But junior bankers also tend to exaggerate their hours, often by not subtracting downtime or breaks during the day.

Many investment bankers clock in no official sick days at all, simply because when they are too ill or exhausted to come into the office they just call their immediate superior and note the absence.

Investment bankers usually have time to go to the gym at least once a week and potentially twice to three times depending on the busyness of the period. Going to the gym is often reserved for Saturdays, after a 10–12-hour sleep catching up on sleep deprivation, if they don't need to work too much on Saturday.

The field of investment banking has many people who want to be highly successful, and your peers are likely to work just as hard as you. The job requires intelligence and analytical capabilities, and colleagues and clients may need to perform at a high level to maintain their competitiveness.

Investment bankers meet with clients, prepare offers, run financial projections, and work on pitchbooks, that help generate new clients. The work is lucrative but the days are long and stressful. Superior social skills are required for success in the field.