Be gentle , I'm a newbie.....

Wow, finally i've gone live with this... not that it really matters to anyone. I never knew starting up a blog would be this tough...pardon my ignorance, and of course the horrid layout that I came up with (never had an ounce of art in me). I was told that blogging would be therapeutic...well, we shall see about that won't we. For what it's worth, with this blog I present you my life as a "young" (if you consider 29 young) Investment Banker, a struggling one for reasons that would soon be apparent to you (sounds corny I know). Totally stripped, without pretense, I will try as much as possible, to debunk the myths that you have all heard about this industry. You may need to tolerate some of the bullshit and profanity i spew though...

" The Investment banking industry is no longer going thru a cyclical problem, the problem is structural now"...were the words of one of my bosses...In other words, if you had entered the industry at or after 2007, you're screwed... Well I and numerous others are products of this structural problem, a price we had to pay for being born later (no exact solution there).  You will begin to understand why soon enough. Lets flashback 5.5 years ago...

In my third year of University, I heard my seniors speak about the glory of being in a coveted front office role in a top Investment bank, top notch pay far above peers at the same level, huge ass bonuses,  in short, a high flying corporate career. I , like any other greedy undergraduate, driven by dreams of becoming a corporate bigwig, was of course taken by this idea. Of course, there were also discouraging statements like , " You will not stand a chance compared to an Ivy Leaguer", " The interview processes will kill you" ..yadayadayada and the list goes on. I knew it would have been tough, especially given I was from an engineering background and knew jackshit about finance, and my only asset was being excellent at Math. Besides, competition was ruthless with Indian and Chinese scholars mainly all vying for the same freaking positions (By now u would probably get the hint that I am a local Singaporean, born and bred. Well if you haven't guessed, there you have it). Honestly, I didn't have anything to lose. In my final year (4th) , I went full steam ahead in terms of preparation for battle, i.e the interview processes, reading up, keeping track of news etc, I blocked out any negativity and discouragement from peers. When my buddies were busy getting interviews for engineering jobs, and even offers at cushy engineering companies, I had none of that (As a result, some of them landed jobs months before me). There was only one thing that drove me , MO MONEY (yeah there we go with the corny lines again). I didn't have the luxury of growing up in a well to do family, hence the piercing ambition. I didn't just want to graduate and secure a stable cushy job, I wanted a GREAT JOB, that would put me ahead of peers (no pride or hubris intended) Oh and I forgot to mention a critical aspect, I was doing pretty well in school. I attended at least 3 of those bullshit career talks by banks and I stopped... because I knew the pressure would be tremendous after. You have a lecture theatre packed with close to a thousand students all wanting a piece of that MD who was giving the opening speech...I'll tell you a secret.. most of the MD's want to go home after that or at least scroll thru their blackberry's for the massive amounts of emails they have been receiving whilst giving that opening speech! So the longer you hold them back, the more it pisses them off! Over enthusiastic students swamped the booths after that ...Seriously what's the point? They are not gonna hire you there and then people! Half of them wont even remember you. And most of the information are available on the websites anyways. These were some of the reasons why I gave up going to career talks after the third. But I must admit the buffet spread the career offices set up were pretty decent. I graduated in mid of 2007, and clearly remember some of the bright Indian scholars boasting they had secured jobs in Investment banks (what kinda roles weren't important at that stage, at least they made it). I had 10 applications out. Yeah, I remember the essay questions, numeracy tests and all that crap. I applied for most of the graduate analyst programmes amongst which were UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Barclays , HSBC etc...And I was the least confident that I would make it to anyone of the above. I figured, hey if all else fails, there's always that engineering job waiting... perhaps oil and gas or aerospace.It was already 2 months into my application, no calls whatsoever, and I was about to give the f**k up. I remembered jumping at every phone call and brightening up when an unknown number flashes. So what if I did well in school, I didn't have income, or more importantly a freaking JOB! I did go for  some interviews thru leads (not one of the graduate program applications).One was with a Private bank, and it was one of those positions for a Private Bankers assistant. The interviewer mentioned that I would do binding etc, which honestly, at that point of desperation I wouldn't mind...Seriously, I figured that would be a stepping stone at least...but that was a load of bullshit of course. That didn't go well and I was thinking how I really sucked. Then that fateful Tuesday morning in August came, the call from one of the Investment Banks I applied for ...ahhh..a phone interview alas!

To be continued...I have an early client meeting tomorrow to explain why a product i didn't sell them f**ked up.... Goodnight folks...