Comments on: What Investment Bankers Actually Do

By: Inquisitor

Inquisitor — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:23:46 +0000

Have you seen the same episodes of Entourage I have? Ari Gold is a slave to his clients, at least Vince. Remember in Season 1 when he runs off from his wife at the movies to go secure a deal for Vince?

He constantly sacrifices his personal life and family to close deals. So although there may be less gruntwork involved, it’s still a big sacrifice.

By: Not Quite

Not Quite — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:15:06 +0000

Even at more senior levels, investment bankers are far less glamorous versions of Ari Gold than are actual agents. Ari Gold wouldn’t spend all that time doing intensive diligence to win a bake-off before running an intensive, prolonged sale process (and hosting an enormous data room) just to get a buyer across the finish line.

By: Proud Ex-Analyst

Proud Ex-Analyst — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:14:34 +0000

I’ve only seen one episode of Entourage, and I like the analogy already. The analogy fits my experience in investment banking very well.

In response to the previous two comments, very good points both of you. At times I felt like a mailroom boy, and for a while I was so focused on making sure my numbers were right and footnoted and my pitchbooks were grammatically correct that it actually took me a while to figure out what our whole IB business was all about. It should be the goal of any analyst to go the extra distance to make Ari Gold’s job easier, because that’s how the analyst will get a taste of what Ari Gold’s life is about.

This is easier said than done though - I have seen many analysts just get used and abused because they were too focused on finishing their tasks like obedient children, and then never ask for things for their own professional development. That’s tunnel-vision that only stunts your own career.

The extra distance could include doing super awesome research, suggesting approaches to a prospective client, even pitch ideas. If you’re pitching a web hosting company, put your team’s pitch on the prospective’s hosting service and deliver the pitch from online - that’s the sort of thing your staid senior bosses probably won’t think of and will both impress the client and earn you some extra respect capital, which you then expend to insist on being brought to more meetings while the obedient sucker in the next cube gets left with the menial tasks.

By: DB

DB — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:00:57 +0000

Of course it’s misleading - he’s describing what the very high-level people do here. Analyst/associate work is like entering Ari Gold’s agency is a mailroom boy. Still, the analogy holds in the sense that bankers are just agents/middlemen, just like Ari.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:46:46 +0000

This description of IB is misleading. Maybe on the senior levels there is some Ari Gold involved… but if your dream job is coming in as an analyst expecting to be a high-powered financial agent, you are mistaken.

That’s not to knock the actual job as an analyst or associate, but envisioning an Ari Gold role is more a delusion of grandeur than anything else.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 07:29:32 +0000

I have no idea, I had to read that comment to understand what you meant. But Turtle would be like the IT guy at a bank maybe haha.

By: EB

EB — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:10:37 +0000

so if I most identify with Turtle does that make me Sergey Brin’s estranged plow-mechanic half-cousin that calls in the dead of night pleading for money to pay back the loan sharks I owe for my recent extravagant purchase of a rusted nazi era outhouse?