advice for prospective comm/law student please ! (2 Viewers)

[hiphoppresident]

in my opinion (very humble opinion i must add lol)

do a comm/law degree

average 75+ in Com

average 70+ in law

Distinction average at least

do other extra curricular stuff

The rest is up to you and plenty of luck

Don't pin all your hopes on getting into IB - I know what these banks do -they come in to your letcure theatres with their fancy pin stripe suits and tell ya how awesome their job is...then they get 10,000 applications from students but they only have three vacancies lol

It's messed up...I know because I applied for a few in my Bcom degree but they only wanted BCom(Hons) or Comm/Law (or perhaps comm/eng etc.)

So think about other career paths...maybe even better ones

A law degree can lead to many great things, when coupled with a comm degree...well...wow

thats why im goin back to study law

go for gold

HipHop

 

[hiphoppresident]

Work hard play hard. Im in a different industry but I work similar hours - 100/week and I have a good social life (better than what I did have at uni).

100 hours a week and still have a social life?

how do you do it?

lol...seriously?

 

[Omnidragon]

cmon, they dont get 10000 applications for the corporate finance positions. maybe macquarie

look if you were that keen to get into it, what you'd do is apply for internship during the 3rd yr of your double degree. if after the internship they like you, you offer to drop your second degree and start work right away. the team you work with doesnt give a rats ass whether you have a law degree or honours or phd after theyve seen your internship performance

and dont worry bankers in aust dont work 100 hrs per week. so looks like you're built for banking. good luck

 

[geetarjoe]

and dont worry bankers in aust dont work 100 hrs per week. so looks like you're built for banking. good luck

Some do. Most will at some point, but its not a regular thing.

 

[Cookie182]

Some do. Most will at some point, but its not a regular thing.

I know ppl in retail before christmas who do 80+ hrs, so wats the big deal anyway.

 

[nicko1990]

I know ppl in retail before christmas who do 80+ hrs, so wats the big deal anyway.

before christmas right, not the whole damn year.

in one week, there's 7x24 = 168 hours. take away the 100 for work, and you're left with 68 a week for sleep, ie. 9-10 hrs a day

HOW do you do it dude, HOW.

 

[Cookie182]

before Christmas right, not the whole damn year.

In one week, there's 7x24 = 168 hours. Take away the 100 for work, and you're left with 68 a week for sleep, i.e. 9-10 hrs a day

HOW do you do it dude, HOW.

Well you only need an AVERAGE of 7 hrs sleep/night over a week. Be conservative and allow 7 hrs per night (however on any given night u could bump this up by 2 hrs or reduce it to still come out with the average). That's obviously 49 hrs sleeping/week. So we are left with 19 hrs play time/week (68-49=19) 

That's of course determined by you actually doing 100 hrs specifically (of course it’s more or less usually). Take into account, you'll most likely eat your main three meals/day at WORK (not sure if it’s fully paid for, probably is). Those 19 hrs could be used to go out on Fri/Sat night, go shopping, exercise (I’m sure most do this during 'work' hours though, on breaks etc) or do what ever leisure activity it is you desire.

Now I’m not saying this life would be easy AT ALL. I’m just trying to logically break down how one could survive and maintain a relatively normal existence. Effectively, what it shows is that we waste so much time! These jobs would train you to be super time efficient, given that you wanted to exist as a human being.

Remember, WEALTH + HEALTH + RELATIONSHIPS. Now, being an IBnker the first aspect is covered! Health on the other hand, well If you spend your lunchtimes working out/eat healthy all day you might be alright. I personally think that the last one would prob be the hardest- maintaining social and sexual relationships (unless your friends and partner worked in similar jobs).

 

[BeeCom]

I personally think that the last one would prob be the hardest- maintaining social and sexual relationships (unless your friends and partner worked in similar jobs).

/waits for some non-IBanker to say 'models and bottles'

 

[wayneking33]

But then again theres people who work multiple jobs to support families, mortgages and whatnot, but earn a fraction of an IB salary.

In short as velox said, work hard play harder. The IB dough should facilitate some haaard playing.


Oh and I did decide to go with comm/law, looking forward to it.

 

[Omnidragon]

Word of advice to all you kids aspiring to be bankers : easier said than done even if you do get the job.

And it's not half as lucrative as you think if money (this is especially for people who tell me they only want to do it for 2-3 years) is your sole motivation.

 

[Omnidragon]

Some do. Most will at some point, but its not a regular thing.

all do at some point - i did
but its not a regular thing.

its like saying you pulled an allnighter or studied til 4am during swotvac or the night before an assignment is due. but it happens twice a year max

 

[BeeCom]

All I can add is what an actual IBanker told me:

Low amount of hours (for him) is circa ~60 (quiet period) with ~100 the high amount during deal/busy time.

IB'ers do work hard for their wages

 

[Minai]

All I can add is what an actual IBanker told me:

Low amount of hours (for him) is circa ~60 (quiet period) with ~100 the high amount during deal/busy time.

IB'ers do work hard for their wages

holy shit...maybe I'm just lazy, but I've done 60-70 hour weeks during audit year end busy seasons, but those were like maybe 5 weeks out of the whole year and that was a killer to my health & social/relationship, can't imagine surviving like that on a regular basis...each to their own I guess - we can criticise IB workloads etc, but I'll always be envious of their wealth (after almost 3 years at a Big4, I'm only paid 2/3rds of a grad IB'er)

 

[Cookie182]

holy shit...maybe I'm just lazy, but I've done 60-70 hour weeks during audit year end busy seasons, but those were like maybe 5 weeks out of the whole year and that was a killer to my health & social/relationship, can't imagine surviving like that on a regular basis...each to their own I guess - we can criticise IB workloads etc, but I'll always be envious of their wealth (after almost 3 years at a Big4, I'm only paid 2/3rds of a grad IB'er)

It's true but:

Welath/Health/Relationships

No one can be 'happy' without all of these three things in balance- our emotional circuitry is evolutionarily hard-wired in such a way that it rewards us with pleasurable feeling (ie happiness) when we work towards each of these 3 goals in general unison.

 

[Omnidragon]

M first year as an IB analyst averaged around 75 hrs per week (I kept a log). 60 hours is considered godsend... and tends to only be achieved 4-5 times a year (usually due to public holidays).

One of my friends in audit works til around 11 every night and complains, which I find funny.

Anyway Minai you won't be too envious soon. Companies like Citi and BoA (ML) have just capped salaries at 600,000 pa. I'm sure analysts will be getting like 0 bonuses next year so the question is whether you're prepared to work 75 hrs for 100,000 or so. Reality is heaps of positions at several companies (during boom times) pay those figures in Australia for 2nd yrs or so. In-house M&A advisors at places like NAB, ANZ etc all had 100k or so for 2nd yrs. Lawyers at top tier law firms all hit like 80 or so if not 90 in 3rd yrs. Audit is just an underpaid industry.

 

[3li]

M first year as an IB analyst averaged around 75 hrs per week (I kept a log). 60 hours is considered godsend... and tends to only be achieved 4-5 times a year (usually due to public holidays).

One of my friends in audit works til around 11 every night and complains, which I find funny.

Anyway Minai you won't be too envious soon. Companies like Citi and BoA (ML) have just capped salaries at 600,000 pa. I'm sure analysts will be getting like 0 bonuses next year so the question is whether you're prepared to work 75 hrs for 100,000 or so. Reality is heaps of positions at several companies (during boom times) pay those figures in Australia for 2nd yrs or so. In-house M&A advisors at places like NAB, ANZ etc all had 100k or so for 2nd yrs. Lawyers at top tier law firms all hit like 80 or so if not 90 in 3rd yrs. Audit is just an underpaid industry.

whose ur mate at nabCapital m/a. im sure corpfin here gets paid 75k base (almost no bonus) 1st year.

 

[velox]

Eli what are the hours like at NabCapital?

 

[litany]

I feel a need to reiterate the fact that the pay for IB isn't as lucrative as it sounds. "100k a year" for 2nd years sounds all nice and great, but when you take into consideration the indicative hours (say, a rough figure of 75 hrs/week) that only ends up at a modest sum of $25/hr. Basically, you're getting paid just as much as anyone else, except you've chosen to work double the amount of hours and generally at the cost of your health/relationships.

You might as well go to WA and mine - god knows you'll be getting paid better for less hours.

 

[3li]

Eli what are the hours like at NabCapital?

8-7 is pretty standard

i wuldnt mind doing more cos the internship is per hour ahah

 

[Omnidragon]

whose ur mate at nabCapital m/a. im sure corpfin here gets paid 75k base (almost no bonus) 1st year.

Well no names on a forum obviously...
Anyway my friend moved there from another industry (though at a junior analyst level).

Anyway I've found that working in corporate is a real drainer. I think you need to have a 10+ years view in most of these service industries (eg law, accounting, IB) for it to be rewarding. And what makes IB a real drainer is that you're not doing boring stuff for 10-12 hours a day, you're doing it for 16-18 hrs for 6 days a week.

The pay is good, but you might do better on your own and some do. The work is immensely routine and unchallenging despite what most people write on their cover letters about working in a stimulated and challenging environment. And what's surprised me the most is that people who seemed to enjoy what they're doing/want to climb the corporate ladder in interviews actually doesn't cares about what they're doing. Everyone's here for the bonus and in times like this it really shows (senior staff talking about how they'll leave if bonus is bad etc, or how they'd quit their job and never work if they had 5m cash). It just puts things into perspective...

Anyway happy to take questions from all the aspirants out there