One interesting bit of feedback I received from my survey the other week was that my “Day In The Life” posts were among your favorites. Whether it’s the worst day or best day, everyone’s interested in… what bankers actually do.

In the spirit of those previous posts, this week I’m posting an entire Week In The Life Of An Investment Banker. Today I’ll cover Sunday and Monday (what, you thought we had weekends off?) and each day I’ll cover another day of the same week.

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“Why are the girls flocking? It’s Bonus Season, and the numbers are looking good. The average on The Street is around ~50-55K. Blackstone Group leads the group at 60k with Bank of America IBD rounding up the pack at ~$200.00 CAD (up 30% from last year).”

-Bonus Season, The Leveraged Sellout (note: these refer to 2005 bonuses)

So the question of the hour (and all the 1st Year Analysts have been asking me about lately) is what 2008 analyst bonuses will be.

You might have seen the spreadsheet Dealbreaker posted awhile back on expected bonuses (the sources are all either “Staffer,” “Rumor” or blank, so this is obviously reliable information).

Some variant of this spreadsheet floats around every year, and it’s always overly optimistic. Over the past few years, though, bonuses were close to predictable because M&A activity was up each year, investment banking revenue kept rising, and America wasn’t in danger of being sold to China.

No one knows what’s going to happen, but we all like to speculate. And hey, I work in the industry so I must know something more than the average person, right? Right?

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“Hahah, oh snap! That is hot. Get this though, the other day, this MD accidentally spills coffee on this analyst’s shirt. MD doesn’t really say anything, just goes on working. The analyst is moping around all day whining about his shirt. So finally, the MD drops $100 bill on the analyst’s desk and goes ‘Quit whining and just go buy yourself a new shirt if it’s that big a deal.’ So the analyst is all happy because he got the POS at Marshalls for like $15. But then, the MD says ‘But I own that shirt now, give it to me’ and makes the analyst give him the shirt go the rest of the day with no shirt!”

-MD’s, The Leveraged Sellout

Continuing our series in Investment Banking Lingo this week, we resume today with more essential vocabulary that any good banker must know to get ahead in today’s tough market.

Even Frank Quattrone had to learn the meaning of “Alt Tab” at one point or another (ok, maybe he was born knowing that one…).

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What is Investment Banking?: Ari Gold: What Bankers Actually Do, Why NOT Do Investment Banking

Investment Banking Lifestyle: A Day in the Life - Worst Day and Best Day, How to Stay Fit, Investment Banking Wardrobe for Men, Investment Banking Lingo Part 1 and Part 2, A Week in the Life (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)

Breaking into Finance: How to Get an Investment Banking Job, Networking into Investment Banking, Recruiting in a Tough Market, Breaking in from Engineering, Breaking in from Law, Breaking in from the Back Office

Investment Banking Resumes: How to Write an Investment Banking Resume, How Investment Bankers Read Resumes

Investment Banking Interviews: Investment Banking Interview Guide, The Interview Selection Process, How to Close Your Interviews

Summer Internships: Summer Intern Success Guide, How to Dominate Your Summer Internship, Tips from a Former Summer Analyst, What You Do as a Summer Analyst, 10 Summer Internship "Don't's", How Summer Interns Get Full-Time Offers

Investment Banking Salaries: Investment Banking Salaries vs. McDonald's, Why Investment Bankers Make So Much Money, 2008 Analyst Bonuses

Private Equity / Buyside Jobs: Private Equity Resumes, Private Equity Interviews, The Myth of the Buyside Job, Headhunters: Friend or Foe?

Specific Groups: UBS LA, Boutiques, Restructuring, The Back Office

Quitting Finance: The Conference Room: How You Get Fired, The Farewell Email, A Day in the Life of a Former Investment Banker