Product Description: Meet John and Peter, two young business school graduates about to become frustrated foot soldiers for the world of high finance. 20 hour days, inflated salaries, senseless prospects, outlandish characters and strip club lap dances make escaping with their sanity sound like the best deal of all.
Now I know what happens inside the Investment banks' walls in Wall street It is an eye opening book. It answers the questions: What do investment bankers actually do and why they are paid so much? I didn't want to have an academical answer, and I had much more in fact. The authors worked almost 3 years as associates in DLJ and wrote their unbelievable accounts so that all of us can understand what an investment banker is. They describe the selection process that takes place during postgraduate MBA courses and the jobs that these young talended people must do. Their frustration, their greed and ambition, the uninterrupted stream of work and duties that literally overwehelmes everybody at the lower levels of the hierarchy. Nothing is left at the end of the dreams of glory if not a bunch of human wrecks without dignity and real life. A big plus of this book is the humor which makes the descriptin really entertaining and funny. That is the only way to show all the misery that they had to endure. Thanks for this book.
Must read for anyone considering this career As someone looking to break into finance, although not specifically investment banking, this book was an awesome glimpse into what really goes on behind the scenes. It is a must read if you hope to make a career in IB since it strips away at lot of the hype and gives you the bad side. Some of the stories are truly hysterical. Some will have your head scratching as to why these guys make so much money.
The authors need to consider a career in writing as they kept me firmly enraptured the entire way. I got the book yesterday afternoon and it was done by 9pm, that's how good it was.
This book is a must read before you go into an IB interview, you will sound much more intelligent about what an IB'er really does, you will know how to target your questions accordingly, and at the bare minimum will know what to expect once you're in the field. Also, there's a chapter in here that goes into how the field has changed a lot in the past decade or so. IB as we know it may eventually become very commoditized and those recent college grads who think it'll be the same way for the next 20 as the last 20 would be wise to pay heed.
My only criticism was that the authors focused on the bad side. I have a hard time imagining that all of their work was on worthless going nowhere pitches or deals that were complete ripoffs for the end buyers. We all know Corporate America is full of waste of time projects. It would have been nice to get at least one story on a deal or pitch that was an example of how it should be done. Would have made the book a bit more complete and well rounded.
The other issue I had was that at times it was hard to keep track of who was telling the story, Rolfe or Froob. The change in font was designed to help, but after 4-5 pages you start to forget who started the section. Minor quibble tho.
Overall, this is a great book and a must read for anyone considering a career in IB or who is just curious what the high paid guys really do.
funny, helpful, insightful, but dated Monkey Business is a larf riot accurately describing the early stages of a young investment banker's career through the "Associate" level (pecking order runs "intern" "analyst" "associate" "vice president" "director" "managing director" and "executive director"), and as such is excellent reading for the inside look at what your calendar really will look like for these crucial early years.
The technology described herein is a bit dated, but the insights into personality and deal-making stages are timeless. Behind the scenes banking is filled with perverts, boobs, nut-cases, and whack jobs, as well as the obvious and expected evil selfish greedy unscrupulous dastard. What is surprising (and they don't make interesting copy so they don't show up in this book) is banking is also filled with honest, hard working, intelligent, devout, and dedicated financiers who do have client's interests at heart. This book isn't about that, that is boring. This book is about guys who abuse the expense reports for sushi served on a platter of "topless girl" at expensive strip clubs.
It also covers and compresses the mind numbing long hours at thankless tedious and repetitious but all important deal book preparation. Face the music young banker: this is your life.
A breezy fun to read book that doesn't take itself too seriously but provides many accurate worm's eye views of banking from inside the spoiled apple.
Very Enjoyable Read Really hits the little details that drive analyst/associate level bankers craaaazy! E.g. the constant rewrites only to end up back to the original, the md on the phone making edits to a draft from three days ago, the drunken Christmas party... Very fast, enjoyable read.
Very funny and needs to be read with a certain perspective This is a funny book no doubt. Its not written by writers and thus there is no rules of writing that have been followed which makes it funny.
Even though some have said the life style is exaggerated (and maybe it is) but unless you are an I banker or part of the fraternity in some way, there is no way to denounce what has been written about the profession.
I really think that while being a cautionary tale for fledging IBankers, this book is also a testament to the hard times they spend in pursuing their dreams. Some have the balls to go through to the end while others (like the authors) bail out when they cant take it anymore.
In any case, this is a laugh a minute book with some witty writing. Reading it was a breeze !
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
