The Beginning

How did I end up in banking? It wasn't exactly pre-planned by anymeans. Back in high school, the jobs I considered were:

1.) writer
2.) scientist
3.) teacher
4.) lawyer
5.) professional rock star

I wasn't even aware of the existence of so-called investment banks at this point. So how did things change? I can't recall the exact moment, but I'm pretty sure it went like this:

The year is 1999. The stock market is climbing to all time highs. Construction is continuing on the "Information Superhighway," and the feeling in the air is one of hope and exuberance for the new millennium, that somehow this "highway" would transport humanity (or at least the US) to a new a better time (a "paradigm shift"). In the hallowed halls of Harvard College, a bunch of naive freshman sit together at Annenberg dining hall.

Frosh1: So what are you guys going to do after college?
Mike: Probably go to grad school to study math.
Me: I dunno, haven't really thought about it yet. Law school maybe?
Frosh2: Probably do recruiting or something. My brother did that.
Me: What's recruiting?
Frosh2: Well, from what my brother told me, Wall Street firms come onto campus to look for people. Lots of seniors end up doing it.
Frosh1: What kinda jobs are they?
Frosh2: You know, banking jobs. Finance and stuff. Also some consulting for businesses.
Me: Ick. Sounds boring.
Frosh2: Yeah, but it's easy you know. They come onto campus looking for you. And you don't even have to have a high GPA. They're hiring like crazy right now.
Mike: Yeah, unless you're going to med or law school, GPA is pretty much irrelevant.
Frosh2: And they're really high paying. Like over $50g your first year, with a bonus the same size.
Me: [proceeds to choke on chickwich]

And that's pretty much it. Because of this myth of banking, I never really explored other career options or even bothered with grades. Not that I'm attributing my lackluster performance in college all to this one talk, but alot of your motivation does go down the proverbial drain when you realize that you can be making a crap load without having to do so much work. Of course, the stock market bubble crashed and the firms stopped hiring, which made for a pretty painful recruiting season. It didn't help matters much that even when I was recruiting senior year I wasn't too sure what banking was.

Example Interview:
Interviewer: So Raymond, why do you want to be in banking?
Stated answer: Well, I've always been interested in financial markets and business. I knew that I wanted exposure to business when I realized during my junior year that I spent more time reading about the videogame industry and the business aspects of it rather than playing them. And investment banking, more than any other job, combines... blah blah
Real answer: Because I don't know what else to do, everyone else is doing it, and damnit, I want some money.
Interviewer: You say you're interested in finance. Can you tell me how to calculate a WACC?
Me: Umm... A what now?

Or another one of my favorites [this time for a hedge fund, unrelated to investment banking, but it shows my "market knowledge"]:
Interviewer: So how much do you know about capital markets?
Me [trying to show off]: I'll be honest, not much, but I know some stuff. Like CAPM and portfolio theory.
Interviewer: So what can you tell me about CAPM? Do you think it's correct?
Me: Ummm..... [pause] Sure, it seems right in most cases, but sometimes it doesn't quite work.
Interviewer: [pause] Anything else? Can you be more specific?
Me: [pause]
Me: [pause]
Me: [pause] Not really.
Interviewer: I see.

Needless to say I did not get a call back in either case. I must have applied to every firm out there. At one point, I was desperate enough to consider basically compiling survey data for a 10 person "consulting" shop in Newton (which started work at 7:30am in the morning no less). I ended the year with no offers and few leads.

Summer was spent browsing monstertrak, and finally an analyst position appeared at my current firm. Ironically enough, I had interviewed with them during the fall, and I didn't even make it past the first round. Good thing they didn't keep track of such things. I aced my first round, and luckily (or maybe unluckily), at this time, I had been through so many interviews that I knew the stock reply to every question they could throw at me. I went through my four rounds, had lunch with Feng, who was working there at the time, and was summoned back to interview with the head MD of the office. It went reasonably well, and at 5:30pm at Bo's house, I got the call. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

*Technically speaking, considering that I was unemployed, living at home, and had been through about 50 or so rejections, any offer would be an offer I couldn't refuse. But nonetheless.*


Hours spent at work today: 10
Sign you've been in banking too long: Someone makes a comment about a hot model, and your first thought is about Excel.
Movie review says: Long and tedious.

*As a follow-up to yesterday's story, the VP and the MD were driven to the train station by the associate at 5am. Two trains were delayed, so they decided to take the train to Providence and try to get to NY from there. But after arriving at Providence, they discover that the train to NY there was also delayed. They then decide to go back to Boston and to do a videoconference from the office. So the same associate who had to wake up at 3:45am to drop them off had to pick them up at 8am at the station to drive them back to the office. Such is the life.