I have an opportunity to work as an investment banker in a buldge bracket bank. I am unsure whether I should do this. I am attracted to the prestige, salary and am aware of the springboard it can be into future business ( I am a recent graduate). All i fear are the long hours. Am i being stupid? Should I just roll my sleves up and do it?All i think of is it worth it?Am I letting go of a great opportunity ? Am I mad??

pop quiz- DO YOU WANT TO BE A BANKER?????

prestige?oh, the glamour of spending 14 hours a day behind a screen!I can't think of anything worse, to be honest. But then I value my life above my paycheck

Hi antonion,I am a consultant who is one of the exceptions in UK that appreciate money without feeling guilty.My advise is accept the offer and do the banking, if you don't like it after a year or two (or even 6 months), you can always get out by applying to some other graduate scheme like the retail banks' leadership programme or a utilities finance programme. They would be too happy to have you when they see that you have enough attractive talent for a IB to hire you.If you don't join now it might be harder in the future to get in to the IB industry. You would have to start doing all this Top 10 business school bull S.So join, you have nothing to lose because you still have the cards to leave at your own will.

You might get a few consultants with chips on shoulders vent anger at you for this post...and I suppose this is a strange message board on which to ask this question.I've worked in both IB and Consulting. I prefer the latter by a country mile. But IB is the kind of opportunity you may regret dismissing without trying it. Give it a go - see how you feel after a year. At worst it'll be a solid first year on your CV.

Thank you. Thats exactly what I wanted to hear. Doing a year or two in investment banking is not BECOMING a banker, like one poster said, rather gaining some valuable experience in finance - which is the foundation of any business. I appreciate your honesty. And yes - there IS a HUGE difference in prestige when comparing a consultant at the big 4 ( where I currently work ) to a IBer at Merill, for example. And - as far as salary goes, a VP in a bulge bracket ( 6 years experience - comparable to 'manager') will take home roughly 400k+. Whoever thinks they can snob off that salary at 30 years of age is either lying or at stupid.Thanks for the support.

Antonion, I don't know where you getting the 400K figure from, but there a bit far fetched. Unless, you're generating income in the Front Office you're not even going to come even close to this figure. Even as a MD, you're be hard pushed to hit this figure, if you're not in the front office. I am a VP for a bulge bracket I-Bank (former Consultant) in their IBD division and I'm no way near that mark, even with a 100% bonus. If you were to join a boutique firm (i.e Hedge fund (a la Marshal Wace) or PE firm such as Index et al) then yes, that figure's realisitic. What area are you looking to join? Let me know and I can perhaps shed some light on whether a 400K figure is realsitic.

Don't do it!!!

The big umbrella. Starting salary for a 1st year associate is 80k plus 90 / 110k bonus. Starting salary for a VP is 130k with about 150k bonus. A VP 3 or 4 can easily clear 400k.

That's not after 6 years from a grad. 3 or 4 years as a VP yes. But normally it takes at least 8 years with an MBA behind you before you hit VP, and then after 3 or 4 years, you hit the 400K. I work for Mike Sherwood and our pay is comparable with the Big Umbrella.Unless, of course you're a big player pulling in at least 20 million in revenues a year or work as a quant or similar role which is very technical and probably requires a Phd to even understand even the basic calculations. These guys are the real players in the city and whose models the traders use to drive their trading or are used as input to algorthimic trading which most of the trades in todays markets are placed with. The days of traders and sales people are numbered.

How then do these 25 year old trader with 7 figure salaries (as featured in the media) a) get into those positions in the first placeand b) make that sort of money so earlynepotism?

not at all - they just get into IB early as a graduate. You do the math, top banks pay:Graduate a1 analyst ( age 21 ): 35k plus 35k bonusthen a2: 42k plus 42k bonusthen a3: 55k plus 65 bonusthen associate 1: 70k circa plus 90k bonus.and youre at 25, on 160k. and this is M&A - NOT trading.I have heard of traders making 500k at 25 - but these im sure you can count on a hand, just as the PE partners that clear 10 mil a year. 6 figure salaries are the average for analysts in investment banking. What did you think???

Look, fool...........I'm asking about the traders who's make 7 figures at 25, not the M&A monkeys who ride their silly roadshows to 160k-land.join the back of the queue......

GS prides itself and its employees for espousing the core values which under the business. One such value is discretion and integrity. How likely and credible is it then for any GS employee to use this board? Furthermore, how likely is that the said employee will cite himself as someone who works with the co-head of equities? I would have thought very unlikely on both counts?

As I said, I'm an ex-consultant. Worked with ACN before I went into banking via an MBA.My comment to 'Woody' was with reference that I work for GSI, with which he is the co-head of, as opposed to working directly with him and beside him. Also, Woody never worked in Equities. His background is FI. Get your facts straight (another trait that I detest with consultants).With regards to one of our core values, yes discretion (both the firms and our clients) is one of them, if not the most important. But have I said anything that is not readily in the public domain. Have I said anything that is specific, No, I haven't. Why am I on this board, well, let's just say I'm bordering my horizons and looking back on what was my previous life. And to be fair, I'm glad that I left it all behind, since the amount of waffling and discontent that I've seen on this board is unbelievable.Antoinion, make that jump, you'll never regret it. It was the best decision that I ever made, by leaving Consulting.

Sorry for my ignorance but what does IBD stand for and what essentially does it involve. What would a grad/analyst be doing on a day to day basis?

if you dont know what it means then its not the place for you kid.it stands for investment banking division.