27. Blogs

27. Blogs

Despite our busy schedules and long hours, investment bankers are willing to dedicate time to read others’ blogs. When life gets you down, not that I am down by any means, a funny blog can really make your day. Whether it is Dealbreaker.com or Leveraged Sellout (or this blog), my fellow investment bankers and I love to hear about the twisted lives of others in banking or finance. Even if I haven’t had the exact experience, I can relate to it usually. And even if I can’t relate to it, I can steal the story and pass it off as my own (not on this blog though, I do NOT support plagiarism).

The reason i-bankers love reading these sites is that they tend to sound so ridiculous, but still sound pretty real. The leveraged sellout guy will talk about all sorts of parties and experiences, and it may sound crazy to most, but I know there’s people I work with who have those same stories and secrets in their back pockets. Whether they promote clubs in their free time or help run real estate companies, investment banking analysts tend to have some pretty interesting stories that “stay in the vault.” I stick to simply working, working out, and sleeping. Not quite as exciting, but I’ve kept my eyes and ears open enough to take in the craziness around me. So watch out, because you never know who’s watching or listening and will blog about your wild times. You may read about yourself here….

Happy blogs? Bankers don’t like them, can’t relate to them. Bitter blogs? Bankers know where the person is coming from and feel their pain. Many investment banking analysts will be happy on the outside and cheerfully accept another boring, “time sensitive” pitch book, but on the inside will be cursing out their lazy associates and mind-changing bosses. It happens to all of the analysts, even those who deny it day in and day out. Sit down with an analyst over a few drinks, and by beer number 4 (because bankers develop low tolerances) the analyst will be telling you all about the a-holes and d-bags he works with and how if he ran the show everything would be more efficient and business would be roaring. So for both the bitter-denying and truly bitter analysts, blogs are their safe haven where they can read about their pain in the open and know that they are not alone. (Cut to Celine Dion singing “All by myself”….)