I've heard about it recently, but I really have no clue what it is.

Can somebody please fill me in?

 

Investment Banking/Wall Street

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_banking

 

selling your soul in exchange for $$

 

haha that's so true...especially for the first few years. but from those that i know that made it past the weed out stages, it's worth it. though it's interesting to see how friends of mind that are in i-banking all got really fat.

 

You sound slightly jaded young jedi, are you still having second thoughts about your career path?

It's not selling your soul if you love what you do.

 

I am jaded (although i do agree with you that if you like what you do, it's not selling your soul). I'm going to exit ibanking and try to find something where i have a little more control over my schedule/life. Seriously, its the lack of control that is really difficult for me to deal with. The things that are hardest to deal with are:

1. not having any idea what time i will be going home when i arrive in the morning
2. not knowing if, by the off chance, i may have a saturday off until friday at 7pm
3. If i do get off "early", checking my blackberry every 30 min to see if somoene needs something. Two sautrdays ago, i was getting ready to go out, and had to put that on hold to field a request fora two hours.


I got an email about 20 minutes ago that I'm staffed on a pitch for a Tuesday meeting, and the pres. needs to be done by Sunday. So there goes my weekend, and who knows when i'll be going home. It's seriously depressing. Needless to say, come july, i'm out.

 

If the lack of control over your schedule is depressing to the extent that it is affecting your physical/phsychological well-being...I don't blame you for finding another career.

Investment banking is an extremely demanding and time consuming endeavor when you work on Wall Street. You are figuratively swimming with the sharks so to speak, even more so at the bottom, which is where you are at right now.

Before you make your final decision though - if I can offer you some advice (for whatever it's worth) the pay-off can be very lucrative. But it takes time.

To me, money isn't so much about being greedy or vicarious consumption, yada yada. Money to me represents freedom. Freedom to choose your own priorities, freedom to spend your time as you wish and not be tied to a paycheck. Good luck with whatever you choose, and feel free to send me a PM if you want to discuss further.

 

<---- thought iBanking was banking over the internet.