A Day in the Life: Investment Banking Senior Associate

We've asked insiders at leading investment banks to offer us insight into a day in the life of their position. Here's a look at a day of a senior associate at a major investment bank.

6:00 AM: Wake up.

6:30 AM: Jump into car to go to the airport.

7:00 AM: Meet MD in line and take shuttle [from New York] to Boston for client meeting, lugging eight books.

9:30 AM: Pitch client with a few M&A ideas and some financing strategy, stumbling a bit in part of the pitch, so the MD helps out.

11:00 AM: Drive high speed back to the airport to catch 11:30 a.m. shuttle.

11:28 AM: Make flight by two minutes.

1:00 PM: Back in office. Call desktop support because BlackBerry and cell phone are acting weird again, then quickly clean out e-mail inbox.

1:30 PM: Conference call (running customer due diligence for a deal).

2:30 PM: Meet with first-year associate and analyst to go over follow-up from the morning meeting. Give them an outline so they can start working on modeling/presentation.

3:00 PM: Call a few clients to see what's new.

5:00 PM: Do some work on filing for a deal, and schedule the next drafting session.

8:00 PM: Do some work on various other pitches.

10:00 PM: Leave and meet boyfriend for late dinner. Spend part of dinner on now-fixed BlackBerry and cell, going over various issues with associate and analyst.