Investment Banker: What you know and who you know= Lots of Money

Introduction
There are basic and more advanced prerequisites for becoming a successful investment banker, only a few of which can emanate from scholastic training. Since the "devil is in the details" of any company's plans, historical performance or strategies, experience is the #1, #2, and #3 key to successful selection of deals and avoidance of disaster (where everybody loses their money or their jobs).

While you're learning the do's and don'ts out of the textbooks and case studies (you will need an MBA eventually), go and get internships with actual companies that produce valuable services or goods-try to do at least three of these in different industries (preferrably one manufacturing, one service, and one R&D oriented or a total start-up). This will give you the landscape of what is to come so at least you can ask some of the right questions, both in school and at your first IBK job. Asking the right questions and probing further into the details behind each answer is the essence of discovery, and discovery leads to disclosure, and disclosure is the first test of professionalism in IBK. Practice inquisitiveness (train yourself to recognize both opportunity and risk), hone your intuition (make yourself wonder about the efficacy of what people are asking you to do for them), and disipline your intellect to overcome your emotion (falling in love with your deal is the worst thing you can do and has probably been the cause of more business and IBK failures than any other single cause). Be aesthetically detached from your deals while puting your arms around every facet of them.

Once you are working for a large firm (assuming you get into a large IBK firm), make sure you go into the front door of the IBK dept. at the firm (those becoming stockbrokers first will get less than 1/10 of 1% of the IBK jobs in the first ten years of their careers). Large firms are like any other institution; they have hieracrchies, and more importantly to the rookie, they have a culture. All large firms are mature organizations; they are more worried about keeping the lions in the pens and keeping the tigers out (read this as maintaining and growing market share while controlling the risk of disasters), than they are about storming new beaches and taking the next hill (breaking into new markets with new methods that may prove to fail and embarass them).

So while the large firms are great training grounds for the first 5 to 8 years of an IBK career (they afford you the best places to work on the largest variety of deals of different types in different industries in different countries and of different sizes, all while learning and experiencing corporate discipline, mediation, compromise, alternative solutions and culture), unless you're going to be the president of Merrill Lych or Goldman Sachs, know that you must leave to move on to a smaller firm where your attained skills will move you up the pecking order sooner and in greater ways (more bucks for you). If you can't get into the larger firms right off the bat, then spend 2 or 3 years in a smaller firm, and keep you eyes open for the spots that open or that you create the need for at the larger firms-if you can get in after 2 to 3 years at a smaller firm, you'll still need the 5 to 8 years with the larger firm before you exit (you might be the wonder-kid of IBK and come out faster, but no one in IBK gets really big breaks or "signature" deals much before they're 30 to 33 (kind of like neuro-surgeons-it takes a while to really know what you're doing, but once you're there, EVERYBODY knows it). Once you're there, you can play it a little safer, but you can never rest on your laurels-you have to keep up to date, and you can't let yourself stop "doing deals," even if you've made some money--you always have to have a recent deal you've done to get others to deal with you.

Job Function
Best aspects: You either love it or hate it, and if you love it, it's fun, and you'll be "doing deals" till the day your brain just won't work anymore. You work with the brightest people, the hardest charging people, the best experts in their fields, the best product manufacturers; you are always learning about new technologies before they even hit the market.

You'll learn about businesses and risks you didn't even know existed. You'll become a smarter and quicker thinker than you ever imagined you could be. You can template your knowledge and experience into all sorts of other facets of your life and be happier and more prosperous because of it. It's a big money field, and all the service providers to it are big money players as well. Even small deals pay what would takes years in other businesses to make, and larger deals make a whole family secure for life for some folks. But if anybody could do it, everybody would, so getting there and staying there is all about differentiating yourself-making yourself into someone others need to meet their business goals. You'll travel, but not like a road warrior. You'll network, but not overzealously. You'll work hard and long hours for the first 5 years, but you'll have lots of time off with plenty of money to spend to keep your batteries charged. But mostly, you'll ALWAYS BE IN DEMAND, because money will always have to raised, companies will eventually have to be sold or started, and products and services have to be brought to the market. Also, the older you get, the more valuable you become-because you've seen and worked on so many things in your career you can often tell a business what they have to do in 15 minutes!

The Worst: It's like going to medical school-takes 4 years to learn the craft-so you don't kill some poor unsuspecting company-another two to three years to specialize (you can't be all things to all companies)-and then long hours (5 years or more) when you're in the bottom rung of the firms IBK dept. But after that, it's all uphill-the lifestyle-the money-the security (you carry your security in your head when you walk into the office every day). Due diligence is the dirty word of the business and takes most of the time in the deal. The structuring is the part that is the most fun, but relies on your developed experience and intellectual intuition to do right. A facility for math is a plus, but you can learn that along the way.

A basic knowledge of corporate accounting, taxation, and securites laws comes only from falling asleep in your favorite chair for many nights over incredibly boring subjects you need to digest just to be able to speak the language of finance. But without "walking the walk, and talking the talk," nobody will ever hire you (or your firm) to "do their deal." You also have to be a bit of an optimistic realist (you can't love it to death and be blind to the risks) and can't be too much of a deterministic fatalist (where no deal is ever good enough). While there are things about every job that aren't pleasant (hey, it's a job, not making love), it's relatively the best business endeavor you can undertake with the fewest downside issues. Even if you fail to make yourself into a "good" IBK person, you can "cross-over" to just about any other field of endeavor when you leave and be better positioned than 99% of the other folks you'll be competing with because of your accumulated experience, training and discipline. Advertisement
Lifestyle
You will always be working with the decision makers, both in your firm and your client companies-so the level of personal interaction is always at the highest level that can be achieved in business. Since you'll make more money in your first 10 years than any of your doctor or lawyer friends, you'll be comfortable, but not yet secure until you earn your "rep." Once you earn your "rep" you'll be sought after by everyone-including the flakes and cons. You'll always travel well when you do travel, you'll always be respected until you do something to fall from grace. And you'll be able to carry your experience into great altruistic causes if you choose to share your skills. You'll just need to keep the intensity level of your work out of your relationships, and keep your disapointments out of the bedroom. It's a life of a few great victories, lots of little pats on the back, and many disappointments.

If you are not a flexible person, who can compromise and still work 100% with the folks who drove you crazy to begin with-it's probably not for you. If you can develop quickness and a facility for communication and persuation-you're going to have 80% of the pie to start with. If you can detach yourself from your problems and still THINK professionally, you're all the way home. Developing strong writing skills and editing skills will come with experience; if you're already almost there, you'll save years, promotion-wise.

You can do your job from anywhere, at any time, and with anyone you choose.

Additional Information
Once you've had 15 or 20 years of experience, you can start your own firm and have something to pass on to your heirs.
While a lot of folks have done this much sooner, with a lot less experience, the failure rate for those firms is probably like 98%. Some folks that are good IBK people don't necessarily make good independent business owners-alot of the features of a good IBK person don't necessarily make one a good owner of a bsiness that has to make payroll every week and be attentive to everyone's needs (in established firms, there's always somebody else to do just about everything you don't or can't or won't do).

It's a great life, a great way to make a living for those of you who are starting out with no capital and a lot of aspirations and potential, and it can allow you to keep yourself happy. It's the one place where you can be better than your boss, and there's no way he can hide it from the world. When you're good at IBK, your star will shine through any cloud on even the darkest night.