Investment Banking

As a BBA entering the search, the most I had ever heard about I-Banking was that the hours are long, but the pay is amazing. However, what exactly is it? There are a few subdivisions within this field. For example, Corporate Finance within Investment Banking mostly works with restructuring deals within a particular company. It measures equity-debt ratios and evaluates the firm's performance in the industry.

The most popular division within I-Banking is Mergers and Acquisition. They evaluate internally what companies are worth to help them extract the greatest value in a merger or acquisition. For example, when Citigroup bought Smith and Barney, I-Bankers were working with each side to evaluate proper valuations of the companies to help with the merger.

A third division of I-Banking is the IPO group or Initial Public Offering. This group works with small companies or established private companies that want to go public. Fast growing companies usually issue stock to the public in an IPO to raise funds for growth opportunities. The I-Bank works with the company and evaluates price for the stock to go on the public market. The price cannot be too high where the public will not buy it, but it cannot be too low or the company (as well as the I-Bank) may lose value. It should reflect the potential value of the company.

There are a few other sectors a little bit outside of the mainstream Investment Banking, including private wealth management, sales and trading, and equity research. Private wealth management deals with wealthy individuals such as CEO's of public companies. The job is exactly what it sounds like, managing the wealth of these individuals.
Most of the work includes managing portfolios, issuing loans, making pitch books with various products and services, trusts, and if the client wants, philanthropy donations.
Private wealth management requires more interaction with an individual client versus something like mergers and acquisitions, which is more interaction within your team.

Sales and trading is another division within and I-Bank that is very high-stressed and fast-paced. Most of the people in this field are very enthusiastic, high energy, outgoing people. This field deals with buying and selling stocks and making quick decisions. The hours for this field tend to be quite long as the day starts at 5 am and ends around 6 pm.

Overall, in this field the hours are very long. All-nighters are not uncommon and neither is coming in at least once on the weekend. However, the pay makes up for these intense hours. The average salary of a BBA starting is about $60,000. However, the bonuses can range anywhere from $60,000-$200,000, depending on how well your team performs within that year.