I HATE Being An Investment Banker (Life Rant)

[Savior]

I assume ur making good money so why not save up and do ur own thing? It aint worth it to get talked down on all the time esp by some old white dudes...I couldnt imagine that type of life. Life's too short for that BS man.

 

[Akata Man Bromo]

bromo

There is no way you can turn that knowledge and experience into something of your own breh?

 

[Savior]

Double post

 

[Theraflu]

Hell look at all the executives of the top banks on Wall Street. That club will never be broken. They give us just enough to not complain, I'm not naive to the fact that the good ol boys still have the power.

Yep, I have honeslty started looking closely and every division in IB from ECM to CBK to DCM all have the same very few black men and women. We are literally there for legalities, literally. Affirmative action and all that jazz means they must let one or two in every year but they have no interest in our development at all.

 

[Savior]

Damn phone triple posting

 

[Easy-E]

It was a risk posting this in TLR but hopefully the HL regulars like @88m3 @newworldafro @Blackking @zerozero @iLLaV3 @BarNone @Serious @Broletariat and @Easy-E will pass though

I'm not a HL guy, buy, all I can say (college degree in a field that ain't exactly hot, right now and unemployed); u have to decide if your mental well being is as important as money.

 

[EA]

I've just graduated and I'm about to get into investment banking, in fact, I just had a meeting with an agency today. Should I be worried @Theraflu ?

 

[Theraflu]

Breh get me a job as junior associate
I have no experience in finance but I took economics 101 back in university


Can I send you my resume ?

ill try my best

 

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

Hang in there breh...I feel ya.

Atleast you got your foot in the door over there...meanwhile I'm just serving yogurt over here til I can find a better job.

I don't even think corporate is for me honestly...I'm not sure that's where my passion lies.

But seriously, I have my doubts about getting in that door...everytime I've been to an interview for a corporate position I've never gotten a call back.

They see my unapologetically Nigerian name that they can't pronounce and they don't want no parts of it...

But they'll hire yet another John, Josh, Bradley, Ashley, or Jen...

So I feel your plight 100% it's rough out here in the corporate world...especially for Africans/West Indians.

Atleast you AAs got slightly Americanized names...like Brad and Tyrone and John...and employers are likeuntil you show up and then are like

Me? You know how many people can't get my name right?And I wouldn't change it for anything in the world just to be "accepted" by this fake as hell society. Cause I got pride in my heritage and background and wouldn't change it for any amount dollar signs.

If that leads o being broke...whatever. I'd rather be broke with dignity and pride than rich knowing that I sold out everything I had physially, mentally, and spiritually.

This is why my aim is to become a fashion designer and basically force my name down people's throats....and force em to get it right...cause I ain't changing for nobody. If yo don't like it or can't get it right...get it right cause you have no choice..TAKE THAT TAKE THAT TAKE THAT!

F*ck working for other people...you know how many threads I read about stories like yours and I feel obligated to go out here nd do it for the Coli, the underdog, the underrepresented...and all that!!!!???? Tons. That's why I fukks with you mane...real talk. People like you inspire me at the end of the day.

 

[Kobes Two Jerseys]

YEPPPP

HENCE WHY IM SPECIFICALLY TELLING them to avoid IB.

The clients we deal with ARENT black friendly.

AT ALLLLL

They beat you. You let them break you. You made it that far, and now you want to pack it up and leave. Even worse, you discourage others from joining that industry. You should be ashamed of yourself. You could have been the Jackie Robinson of banking. But you wilted.

 

[newworldafro]

OP I've heard about IB being an old boys club too. I was wondering how much you've spoken with this intern. Does he have a family member working in the industry? Old college or frat ties?

Best of luck though. Hell I don't even know if it's possible but start your own ALL BLACK(!!!!) IB firm on your own? Hell I'd invest with a company like that

I've known two black guys I grew up with that went to Wall Street, did well and now are off doing things they are really passionate about. So I mean its a good way to get your money up, even with all the fukkery that goes on behind the scenes. So if you can stand the lopsidedness in things, which is not just on Wall Street of course, then I would argue, maintain your integrity make what you can make till you see an opening.

I know I'm talking about Africa like you can just go over there and be a billionaire, but moreso I'm just saying, we as African Americans need to see our destiny is not just in these 50 states, but within this larger diaspora.

I know there are some super -success stories like Reginald Lewis from Baltimore. Dude was a beast.

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

Recruited to top New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP immediately after law school, Lewis left to start his own firm two years later. After 15 years as a corporate lawyer with his own practice, Lewis moved to the other side of the table by creating TLC Group L.P., a venture capital firm, in 1983.

His first major deal was the purchase of the McCall Pattern Company, a home sewing pattern business for $22.5 million. Lewis had learned from a Fortune magazine article that the Esmark holding company, which had recently purchased Norton Simon, planned to divest from the McCall Pattern Company, a maker of home sewing patterns founded in 1870. With fewer and fewer people sewing at home, McCall was seemingly on the decline—though it had posted profits of $6 million in 1983 on sales of $51.9 million. At the time, McCall was number two in its industry, holding 29.7 percent of the market, compared to industry leader Simplicity Patterns with 39.4 percent.

He managed to negotiate the price down and then raised $1 million himself from family and friends and borrowed the rest from institutional investors and investment banking firm First Boston Corp.

Within one year, he turned the company around by freeing up capital tied in fixed assets such as building and machinery, finding a new use for machinery during downtime by manufacturing greeting cards, and he then started to recruit managers from rival companies. He further strengthened McCall by containing costs, improving quality, beginning to export to China, and emphasizing new product introductions. This new combination led to the company's most profitable year in its history. With the addition of McCall real estate worth an estimated $6 million that the company retained ownership of, he later sold McCall at a 90-1 return, resulting in a tremendous profit for investors. Lewis's share was 81.7 percent of the $90 million.

In 1987, Lewis bought Beatrice International Foods from Beatrice Companies for $985 million, renaming it TLC Beatrice International, a snack food, beverage, and grocery store conglomerate that was the largest African-American owned and managed business in the U.S. The deal was partly financed through Mike Milken of the maverick investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert. In order to reduce the amount needed to finance the LBO, Lewis came up with a plan to sell off some of the division's assets simultaneous with the takeover.


When TLC Beatrice reported revenue of $1.8 billion in 1987, it became the first black-owned company to have more than $1 billion in annual sales. At its peak in 1996, TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc. had sales of $2.2 billion and was number 512 on Fortune magazine's list of 1,000 largest companies.

 

[DrX]

anybody that dont believe the op is naive...hell i work shytty retail in a rich withe area....and i can tell u hes not lying...my uncle is a supervisor at an all white company, he gets disrespected my everybody but the owner....he gets treated like garbage, on top of that he got health problems and problems with his son being a knucklehead....


that shyt scare me , i save every dime and im in the process of starting my own business....

 

[Theraflu]

i feel the op whole hearty thats why i always preach about blacks owning their own businesses....op is strong because i rather b homeless then to have to put up with that bs.....if ur a conscious black man in that environment itll eat u alive


my advice is to really reduce ur standard of living for a while and be super frugal...save a ton of money and use it to flip and ur an investment banker so i assume ur really smart with investing......youll be free in no time


but eventually it something done change, the job will eat away at u and u might snap and do something thatll change ur life in a bad way

Breh, I agree with all you've said. Since I have become more concious, worked in the family business, really began to take a look at racial relations and became more aware. It's harder to deal with. The worst type of racism and discrimination is the subtle kind, the kind you can only see but it's hard to put in words.

I'm saving HARD CORE ATM and just need to decide what I actually want to do with my savings.

 

[Serious]

i feel the op whole hearty thats why i always preach about blacks owning their own businesses....op is strong because i rather b homeless then to have to put up with that bs.....if ur a conscious black man in that environment itll eat u alive


my advice is to really reduce ur standard of living for a while and be super frugal...save a ton of money and use it to flip and ur an investment banker so i assume ur really smart with investing......youll be free in no time


but eventually it something done change, the job will eat away at u and u might snap and do something thatll change ur life in a bad way

@HideoKojima hopefully this answers your question....

In the suburban (surrounding area is not diverse,) rehabilitation clinic i work at the last 5 new Physical Therapists are from India. In total the rehab therapist staff consists of 1 Japanese, 1 Taiwanese, 5 Indians and just 2 (White) Americans. It's crazy man. The 4 Indian therapists all pool together in one car, and live in one bedroom apartments in the same complex. Each of them makes 80+ a year too. Their hustle is amazing. One only been in the U.S 2 years, and already adjusted completely.

4 people splitting rent in a one bed room apartment??? All of 'em making 80k? What are they saving money for?

 

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

Damn, I'm sorry.

Nothing against you...but I hate it when people got something bugging them and this is the best they can come up with...(I guess it bugs me cause I've had white people say this to me when I've tried talking to them about thangs and stuff and thats why I don't bother talking about this type of thing with them and it's a complete waste of time).

You (not you personally...I'm just saying in general) are not sorry...that person is not an object of pity to bestow upon. Either offer some tangent advice or STFU.