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&lt;p&gt;As part of our ongoing series &quot;A Day in the Life,&quot; here&#39;s a typical 13-hour period in the&#160;day of a merger and acquisition analyst at RBC Capital Markets (which has been called &quot;The Goldman of Canada&quot; in our Banking Surveys), proving that it&#39;s possible to work in M&amp;amp;A and leave before midnight. This analyst works in RBCCM&#39;s Toronto office.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7:30 AM:&#160;&lt;/strong&gt;Wake up to my&#160;phone alarm and check emails that came through overnight. This morning a few came in from a U.K.-based client (it&#39;s now past noon their time). A hostile bid has been announced and the client wants a summary.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7:45 AM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Eat breakfast while reading the Canadian business news (I always eat at home since it saves money and is a good way to get the day going).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8:15&#160;AM: &lt;/strong&gt; Brush my teeth, shower, then head to work (it&#39;s about a 40-minute commute; I take the bus to the subway and the subway to the office). As long as I have cell phone service, I keep on top of what&#39;s happening.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9:00 AM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Arrive at the office and immediately begin preparing the summary of the hostile bid. On this deal, our internal M&amp;amp;A deal team consists of me, an associate, a vice president, a director, a managing director and the co-head of the M&amp;amp;A Group. I work with the associate to prepare the analysis in Excel (which is fairly detailed and quite interesting). Then we paste it into a presentation for the client.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;11:30 AM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Our M&amp;amp;A group has our tri-weekly conference call, which serves to update the whole group on news and developments over the past three weeks. The Toronto team takes the call from a conference room, and usually around 20 people show up. Teams from New York, London and San Francisco also participate. In total probably 40 to 50 people are on the call.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12:00 Noon:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Eat a sandwich (that I brought from home) at my desk. (I usually make myself a sandwich in the morning; it&#39;s healthier than eating in the food court.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12:30 PM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Spend the rest of the afternoon updating the summary of the hostile bid, as the client had some follow-up requests, and on another deal. I&#39;m usually working on a few deals at a time. For this other deal I chart the target company&#39;s share prices over time, analyze the metrics of comparable companies (such as P/E and EV/EBITDA ratios) and consider who might want to acquire it. Again, a lot of the work is done in Excel and then pasted into a PowerPoint presentation. Also, a managing director is traveling today and needs to monitor how a company is trading. So, every two hours I send him a brief update with things like its share price and volume.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3:00 PM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Short break. Eat a snack and read the news online.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3:15 PM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Return to the hostile bid summary and analysis regarding the other deal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4:30&#160;PM: &lt;/strong&gt; Prepare daily trading summaries for some of our clients. Email the summaries to everyone on various deal teams to keep them up-to-date with how the respective client, its peers, and certain indicators are performing in the market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6:00 PM:&#160;&lt;/strong&gt;Dinner arrives at the office. (There&#39;s a rotation of analysts who order dinner for the M&amp;amp;A group; typically a menu gets sent around&#160;by group chat&#160;and I respond with my order.) Tonight we&#39;re having sushi (a popular choice). We eat together in a conference room (a good chance to take a break and chat with coworkers).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7:00 PM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;I&#39;m on a deal involving a Calgary-based company, and the Toronto M&amp;amp;A deal team heads to a meeting room to dial into a conference call. The deal is mostly being run out of Calgary since they&#39;re closer to the client, but we still need to stay up-to-date.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8:00 PM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Head to the gym for a squash game. I keep my&#160;phone with me and check it between games in case something urgent comes up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9:00 PM:&lt;/strong&gt;&#160;Back at the office, I tie up loose ends on the deals I&#39;m working on. By this point the office is mainly filled with analysts and associates so it&#39;s easier to get work done. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;11:00 PM:&#160;&lt;/strong&gt;Leave for the day. (In the past I&#39;ve left as early as 7 p.m. if I&#39;m not too busy, but I&#39;ve also spent the entire night at the office. It&#39;s not uncommon to have a string of nights where I leave before 9 p.m., or a string where I leave after 2 a.m.)&lt;/p&gt;

Derek Loosvelt

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