<p>For the longest time, I've always heard that IB is a grueling job, but the money makes up for it! It's such a common statement, I assumed it was true. Then I finally came across a number of people specifically listing their salary+bonuses as well as weekly hours. The average was:
Weekly hours: 90 (4500 annual)
Salary: 110k
Bonuses: 30k</p>
<p>That comes out to $31 an hour. The only reason it pays so much in an absolute sense is because of the soul crushing hours. The per hour wage is lower than a typical engineer or CS job. It's only slightly above the normal starting hourly wage for typical business jobs, particularly with a finance focus. And considering lots of "Finance" or "Accounting" majors end up working in Virginia and Utah, while the majority of IB is in Manhattan(where wages and cost of living is much higher), I would say they are paid a slightly sub-standard wage for the time they put in.</p>
<p>Is there something I'm missing here, or have the major firms just done a tremendous job making an average waged position something akin to the holy grail of job seekers. Only about %1 of people who apply for IB are accepted, so there is no question the job is in fabulously high demand.</p>
<p>First off, the salary and bonus numbers are wrong. second, the majority of people dont stay in IB for their careers. The exit opps from IB are much more important than the salary from two years working in IB</p>
Average of a sample of seven people. I’ve not seen it often posted, so feel free to provide the corrected numbers. “Not that” is not a reply that contributes much of anything to the topic.</p>
<p>And the vast majority of people I see dreaming of IB talk endlessly of salary and rarely mention exit opportunities. As a matter of fact, most of them have no idea what they want to do after IB or even seem to plan to leave after two years.</p>
<p>I’m aware that a very small segment of people enter IB with the intention of parlaying it into a job in PE or prop trading, etc. Most see it not as a mean but an end unto itself.</p>
<p>I dont know about engineering jobs that you mentioned where on a per hour basis the pay is higher, so cant address it. I do see highly competitive jobs in fields other than IB commanding similar hours for a fourth of the salary (Vogue interns, movies, pr etc). That comes with the territory of starting out in a competitive field and wanting to move ahead. Noone keeps the 90 hrs per week past a few years out of school. They still work long hours once they move up, but then the salaries shoot up.</p>
<p>There are other positions within top investment banks that pay much more than a typical engineer or CS job with a similar amount of hours (I speak from personal experience). </p>
<p>Some people just like to work long hours. D1 is a type A that likes to get up early (5 am at least) and get going. She gladly works many hours. </p>
<p>And she earns a whole lot more than the OP states, 3 years out of college, although an associate now. She is in trading. </p>
<p>She is strongy involved in encouraging women into trading. It is a very much male dominated occupation.</p>
<p>I want to emphasize what trapezius said. Investment Banking is really just a fast track to a top b-school or a more “comfy” career. It’s all about exit opps. For example, you’ll find a lot of people in corp dev/finance who used to work in ibanking/consulting. They make great money working good hours.</p>
<p>Those salary and bonus numbers are not even close. </p>
<p>That being said, on a per hour basis, you’re right that banking sucks. You won’t feel good about your decision to do finance until you get into PE/HF</p>
<p>D is leaving for her “two weeker” in a week. This year it is Dublin, London, Berlin And Moracco. Last year it was walking the Inca trail in Peru. The year before that, well you get the picture. It is great that they must take two weeks in a row off every year. </p>
<p>D also gets another 2 or 3 weeks. Now that she is an associate, she does take long weekends. Flew to ski in Colorado twice last winter. She even took a full week this past summer and rented a house on the beach in Cape Cod for our whole family. It was great!</p>