Investment Banker?

Question

Iv heard that Investment banker make 200k starting salery. how hard is it to become one? What skills do you need to be one?

Answer 1

I'm not sure I would put it as high as 200k in the first year, but IBankers definately make a ton of cash, mostly in the form of bonuses.

The deal is, you only make that much by getting a job at a top IBanking firm. Goldman, JPMorgan, etc. There's not that many positions, and they are highly competitive. Get in to a top business school, major in something along the lines of finance or accounting, and be part of the top 5% of students in that top school. Firms are looking for people with tons of discipline, strong quantitative analytical skill, and business acumen, i.e. social skill in deal with clients.

That said, IBanking is not necessarily as great as it sounds. Count on putting in 70 hours per week at the absolute minimum. That's 10 hours a day. That can ramp up to well over 100 hour per week. Your life will be 90% about work. Yes you will make a lot of money and have prestige in some people's eyes, but you will sacrifice a lot for those things as well.