Investment Bankers
Overview
Introduction
Investment banking (IB) is an umbrella term for a wide range of financial activities. Investment bankers help clients (companies, governments, and other entities) raise money in the capital markets and advise them on financial issues such as stock buybacks, corporate restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions. They also create and operate derivative markets (e.g., futures, options) and manage assets for retail investors (typically high-net-worth individuals) and institutional clients (pension funds, governments, etc.). They typica...
Quick Facts
Median Salary
Employment Prospects
Minimum Education Level
Experience
Skills
Personality Traits
Earnings
Total compensation for investment bankers varies greatly based on the size and prestige of one’s employer. In 2018, the business news Web site Business Insider and the salary benchmarking Web site Emolument collected salary data from 1,236 finance professionals in the New York City area to calculate the following average salary and bonus figures for different Wall Street careers:
- A...
Work Environment
Top investment bankers are involved with billion-dollars deals daily and, as a result, this job can be intellectually fulfilling and exciting, but also very stressful (both physically and mentally)—especially when deals go bad or advice they provided turns out to be not so good. Investment bankers frequently travel to meet with clients and to industry conferences; this time away from home can b...
Outlook
In recent years, investment banking has lost some of its allure for current and prospective bankers because of the long hours, the decline in revenue by banks (which has prompted staff cuts and lower bonuses), the uncertainty of promotion (as investment banks reduce the number of managing directors), and the public’s negative perception of the industry. The Boston Consulting Group reports that ...