<p>Sorry Gravitas but the fact that an IBanker had to start at the bottom anywhere after 5 years on the job is ridiculous. He must have had no networking skills at all. In the biz world going from IB-> Accounting is about the same as quitting a job that pays $30/hr with benefits to work at McDonalds. It's that bad.</p>
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A moron? Half way decent banker? This guy graduated fr. Princenton and worked at Wall Street for over 5 years so I'd ease up on the moron and half way decent crap if I were you.
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<p>He worked at Morgan Stanley for five years as an Ibanker? Did he get an MBA? If he was five years in then he should have been an associate. You need to be nuts to go from an Ibanking associate position into the lowest level of accounting. No one who wasn't out of their mind would do this. His fellow ibankers would laugh at him in shame if this was the case.</p>
<p>red sox,</p>
<p>I think you along with mattistotle really need to look at the world around you and stop behaving like cavemen. There are other people who don't look at money and prestige as much as you guys OK. Some, like this guy, realized it later in life. Is that a simple enough a concept or do I have to spell it out further for you neandrathals?!!?</p>
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In the biz world going from IB-> Accounting is about the same as quitting a job that pays $30/hr with benefits to work at McDonalds. It's that bad.
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<p>I just read this....you know if this is the level of ignorance of the people on this thread, there's really no need to respond. Some of you guys really need to take a better look at the world around you. Wake the hell up...</p>
<p>I read somewhere that IBankers typically do not stay in that area for more than 3-5 years, due to whatever reason. So I think it's better to get into Accounting and build up your experience and status while getting used to the culture of the firm for 3 - 5 years (since accounting job is way more stable and ppl tend to stay there longer, possibly until retirement). Or it doesn't have to be an accounting firm. Could be some commerical bank or anywhere that's somewhat more stable and long-lasting than the IB.</p>
<p>Here's the reason: a lot of the good investment bankers move to stuff like private equity and hedge funds after those 3-5 years. I totally agree that accounting is a more stable job though.</p>
<p>The next time the market crashes ( in the next few years I'd bet) and most of the hedge funds are liquidated funds the accountants will be there to add up the toll. The ex bankers will be struggling to get a job at McD's. They really can't do much except blow hard and backstab. Nobody want that kind around for the long haul.</p>
<p>Barron does have a point there in regards to hedgefunds, but PE can flourish in a down market, which is what most people in IBD go into anyways...</p>
<p>PE is expected to dry up soon as well</p>
<p>there'll always be new hedge funds, though 95% of them fail</p>
<p>Almost everyone leaves investment banking after 2-3 years as an analyst. A few are promoted and some come back after business school. There is no question that a job at a private equity firm or hedge fund is great. However, most investment bankers do not land one of these jobs. Go look at some of the employment reports at the top business schools. There are really two or three business schools (Stanford, Harvard, Wharton) that almost guarantee a job in private equity or a hedge fund and not surprisingly, most investment bankers do not get into one of these schools. A lot of finance students at the other top business schools are competing for those few spots. Statistically, private equity makes up a very small percentage of the finance jobs.</p>
<p>So where do people go besides PE and HF? Investment banking associate, Investment management analyst, corporate development and corporate finance.
-If you have no problem, working 90 hours a week as a long time job then get a MBA and become an investment banker. However, most people do not work to work that many hours for a long period of time.
-Investment management seems like a much better alternative to investment banking. If you can consistently predict winners and beat the market then you will become very rich. However, more than 75% of mutual fund managers cannot beat the market after fees. The field is very competitive so if you cannot perform you will be fired.
-You can work for the corporate development division at a Fortune 500 company and analyze potential M&A deals. However, you will make a lot less money than investment bankers and not every company has a corporate development division. Companies such as Cisco hire investment bankers to acquire smaller companies. What if the market is not opportune for acquisitions or what if the company changes its growth strategy? You may lose your job.
-To back up Gravitas3, CPAs from Big Four accounting firms have an advantage over investment bankers because much of corporate finance is accounting. The division is quite deceiving because only some of the jobs are true financial analysis jobs. Even so, there are many more CFOs with Big Four accounting experience than investment banking experience.</p>
<p>Back to Private Equity:
-If you end up getting a private equity job, you may become a journeyman. The people who do not obtain a partner track job, may leave to another private equity firm after 2 years as an associate. Not to mention, your private equity firm may shut down so you have to move to another one. According to McKinsey in this article:
<a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/05/8401262/index.htm%5B/url%5D">http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/05/8401262/index.htm</a>
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The showing of the top quartile of PE funds is indeed stellar: They handily outperformed, delivering average annual gains of 23% and 17%, respectively, with the best coming in as high as 57% and 28% - far ahead of the 11.5% and 5% returns of the public indexes. The shocker is that more than half of these funds came in well under the indexes, sometimes as much as 20% or more below.
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-Right now there is a debt bubble so private equity may slow down in the future. The bottom half of the private equity funds will suffer and job opportunities will be rare.</p>
<p>There is a good chance that a lot of the top firms such as Bain Capital, Blackstone, alternative investments divisions at investment banks and other firms may still be around. However, the number of bulge bracket investment banks greatly exceeds the number of job openings at these private equity firms.</p>
<p>To answer the OP, I would choose accounting (Big Four) over investment banking (bulge bracket) because of better work/life balance. Accountants may work a lot of hours but not nearly as much as investment bankers. Auditors may work 60+ hours during busy season and as few as 40 hours off season. In contrast, investment bankers may work 80-90 hours per week on average and up to 100 hours on some weeks.</p>
<p>Although investment bankers may make over $100,000+ and Big Four accountants make $50,000+, the investment banking salary may only be temporary. If an investment banker decides to work for a Fortune 500 company, he may not make much more if any than a financial analyst (accountant). Not to mention, you will still hate your life even though investment banking is more interesting than accounting and pays six figures unless you really love money. The 80 hour weeks will wear most people down.</p>
<p>A lot of investment bankers do not end up in the desirable exit opportunities. If you go into investment banking hoping to land a job at a hedge fund or private equity firm but fail to do so, then you will waste two years of your life.</p>
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I think you along with mattistotle really need to look at the world around you and stop behaving like cavemen. There are other people who don't look at money and prestige as much as you guys OK. Some, like this guy, realized it later in life. Is that a simple enough a concept or do I have to spell it out further for you neandrathals?!!?
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<p>You make it sound like your buddy left ibanking in order to pursue his dream of acting. He presumably left a position that brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to become a freaking accountant. While there is nothing wrong with being an accountant, I highly doubt that this guy had an epiphany and realized that accounting was the dream job.</p>
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If you go into investment banking hoping to land a job at a hedge fund or private equity firm but fail to do so, then you will waste two years of your life.
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<p>No you will not have. You go on to get your MBA, which ibanking will have provided great work experience for.</p>
<p>thank you red sox for using your brain. other ppl : use brain ! :D</p>
<p>"However, more than 75% of mutual fund managers cannot beat the market after fees"</p>
<p>you over estimate mutual fund managers, there hasn't been any studies that have ever shown that even (statistically significant) 1% of mutual fund managers can obtain a positive post-fee alpha..mutual fund manager performance is one of the examples used in favor of semi-strong market efficiency. This data is skewed of course, because in order for managers to show consistency that is significant, it takes multiple years...and if they are really that good they go into hedge funds (which do show consistency). It's also really hard to get rich in mutual funds since you can't charge a fee for excess returns (whereas hedgefund managers get 20-50% for abnormal returns)</p>
<p>Er I don't know what planet you came from, but Ibankers make $100k+ including bonus, EVEN THE ONES THAT GET FIRED ON BONUS DAY. And you might as well do ibanking because in ibanking you have money but no time to spend it, but in accounting you have plenty of time to spend your money, but no money. Given the two choices, I'd rather have the former.</p>
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Er I don't know what planet you came from, but Ibankers make $100k+ including bonus, EVEN THE ONES THAT GET FIRED ON BONUS DAY.
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<p>A fifth year ibanker averages 300k. So the guy left a 300k job for a 50k job that offers less opportunities. Hehehehehehehe.</p>
<p>A fifth year acct is making way more than $50k too. If they pass the CPA they are well into six figures.</p>
<p>And if add 5 more experiences to that, your annual income may top 200k average.</p>
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A fifth year acct is making way more than $50k too. If they pass the CPA they are well into six figures.
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<p>That is irrelevant. We are talking about a fifth year ibanker who quit to become a first year accountant. By the time the individual is in his fifth year as an accountant he would have been in his tenth year as an ibanker.</p>
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A fifth year ibanker averages 300k. So the guy left a 300k job for a 50k job that offers less opportunities. Hehehehehehehe.
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<p>What are you, 10 years old? Why don’t you grow up… </p>
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That is irrelevant. We are talking about a fifth year ibanker who quit to become a first year accountant. By the time the individual is in his fifth year as an accountant he would have been in his tenth year as an ibanker.
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<p>Do you realize how stupid that sounds? He decided to not work in I-banking anymore and went a different direction. Period. It’s the past. You keep dwelling on the past. Get over it and move on. Geeez.</p>
<p>Laugh and scoff all you want. The fact is that he’s accomplished quite a bit, even though he’s now chosen to get into “lowly” accounting and will continue to succeed there and elsewhere if/when he decides to get into something else besides accounting. He has that much ability and talent. He graduated fr. Princeton and worked at Wall Street…which leads me to ask, what are YOUR credentials?? What have YOU accomplished?? Doesn’t seem like you’ve accomplished much, as you have nothing better to do than to laugh like a little kid about a decision of someone whom, by the way, you know virtually nothing about, ON A COLLEGE FORUM of all places. You really need to work on your self-esteem. From the looks of things, it ain't too high.</p>