<p>I am a high school student- and I go to a school where investment banking has a ton of "hype". There have been tons of rumors/myths floating around, and I was hoping people with some experience could confirm or bust a few. </p>
<ul>
<li>First three years of iBanking makes around 1 mil, if coming from a top school (Wharton, Sloan, Haas)</li>
<li>Many students get recruited right after an undergraduate degree.<br></li>
<li>Ivy League students are by far the most recruited for investment banking. </li>
<li>Investment Bankers work 20 hours a day. They sleep for only a few hours. </li>
<li>It is very difficult to have a social life. Get calls from work all the time. </li>
<li>The job is very stressful. </li>
<li>Most people in iBanking don't want to be bankers for life. They do a few years for the experience, then switch. </li>
<li>On average, investment banking is the most lucrative market. </li>
<li>Investment Banking has more prestige than law:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1NjBSo5_ik">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1NjBSo5_ik</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<ul>
<li>First three years of iBanking makes around 1 mil, if coming from a top school (Wharton, Sloan, Haas)</li>
</ul>
<p>Not likely. If you figure you would be an analyst for the first 2 years and then promoted to associate without having an MBA… do the math.</p>
<ul>
<li>The job is very stressful.</li>
<li>Most people in iBanking don’t want to be bankers for life. They do a few years for the experience, then switch.</li>
</ul>
<p>You need to keep in mind that you’re dealing with an inherently very competitive cohort. It’s largely “up or out” career progression.</p>
<ul>
<li>On average, investment banking is the most lucrative market.</li>
</ul>
<p>It would depend on how you define lucrative. If you define it as having the highest salary regardless of cost of living, then I would agree. However, if you define it as the field in which an AVERAGE investment banking analyst can acquire net worth, I would say, look elsewhere as it is very much case-by-case dependent.</p>
<p>This is an old thread, but it’s an interesting question, so I’ll throw my two cents in. Also, OP must go to a very unusual high school. I didn’t even know what investment banking was in high school.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>First three years of iBanking makes around 1 mil, if coming from a top school (Wharton, Sloan, Haas)
This is absolutely false. Analysts in investment banking have the same pay structure firm-wide, regardless of what school they went to. First-year base salaries at Goldman Sachs are $85K starting this year, and total first-year compensation isn’t higher than $150K, probably not even for the top first-year analyst. I’m not sure how much this scales up by the second year, but not by too much. You couldn’t make $1 million from investment banking in 3 years. Also, most people also get out of investment banking within 2 years. It’s unusual to do a third year.</p></li>
<li><p>Many students get recruited right after an undergraduate degree.
Yes.</p></li>
<li><p>Ivy League students are by far the most recruited for investment banking.
For the most part, yes. You should also add MIT and Stanford to the list.</p></li>
<li><p>Investment Bankers work 20 hours a day. They sleep for only a few hours.
Depends. There are good weeks and there are bad weeks. It’s not unusual to pull all-nighters, but for the most part, people aren’t working 20 hours every single day. 80- to 120-hour weeks are typical. Anything over 90 hours starts feeling really brutal.</p></li>
<li><p>It is very difficult to have a social life. Get calls from work all the time.
Yes. You’re lucky if you have time to sleep, forget having a social life.</p></li>
<li><p>The job is very stressful.
Extremely true.</p></li>
<li><p>Most people in iBanking don’t want to be bankers for life. They do a few years for the experience, then switch.
Yep. Investment banking is only sustainable and worthwhile for a very small subset of people.</p></li>
<li><p>On average, investment banking is the most lucrative market.
No, I don’t think so, especially not on an hourly basis. Hedge funds are the most lucrative industry within finance, and then after that comes private equity. There are also many fields outside finance that pay extremely well.</p></li>
<li><p>Investment Banking has more prestige than law.
What is prestige? It doesn’t matter. You should be a banker if you love finance or love the deal process. Prestige is always only temporary - forty years ago, investment banking wasn’t half as prestigious as working for a Fortune 100.</p></li>
</ul>