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Rating:  -
As an undergrad finance major, I enjoyed this book a great deal. Not only does it teach you about the life of a banker, but you also enjoy the comical situations the authors provide. By reading this book, you find there is much more to investment banking that fancy dinner, first class flights, and stretch limos. Anyone looking for a carrer in finance MUST read this book.
Rating: -
One of the most fun books I've ever read, as well as one of the most honest and insightful about Investment Banking. The book was hillarious at times and educational at others. It is great to see that many people new to a profession are not alone in their on-the-job suffering.
Rating: -
The authors not only talk the talk but walk the walk. They've been there and done that... to say the least. As a relatively inexperienced MBA whirling about the world of finance and producing endless Excel spreadsheets, I find this to be the most honest picture as to what awaits an I-banker whether they do their stint in Manhattan or here abouts in Chicago. If you want a true to life picture without any of the glitz and propaganda that so often accompanies this little understood industry then this most definitely is a "must read".
Rating:  -
I currently work at CSFB in New York investment banking (yes, we're the company that took over DLJ in what is considered one of the worst mergers in recent history). I've also worked in Salamon Smith Barney and Chase Manhattan. I'm not a banker, I'm an artist who works in the Word Processing Dept.
I gave it 3 stars only because it is fairly accurate in a lot of the facts, but the portrayal is poorly written and actually offensive. They talk about the "fairies" that work in the Word Processing dept, "busting a move" with and paying off the Puerto Rican copy center guys, urinating on a Managing Director's shoes while drunk at a table, masturbating at his desk late at night.
In a nutshell this book is 18-25 year old white males from nowhere desperately trying to make investment banking look like John Wayne in the Wild West, which is laughable because bankers are in the most effeminate industry I know of, except for maybe the fashion industry. I'm not quite sure when they started thinking that not having a skill (because anyone, literally can be an investment banker, its not a skilled job) and kissing up to rich old bald men was masculine.
I do know that the CSFB bankers and the CSFB environment is not at all like this book, however DLJ, which was a much more whites only environment (literally), did actually have a lot more people like the authors in this book. Luckily we got rid of most of them.
The reality is that investment bankers work 19 hours a day 7 days a week compiling reports, nothing more. It's neither glamorous nor exciting. It's boring, stupid work.
Its sad really, the ones who are in it for any length of time miss out on their developing years and typically become nothing more than shells of human beings.
Rating: -
I just read this book over the weekend. It is absolutely dead-on. And about the other reviews posted here that say otherwise - just look at the cities they're posting from. These people claim that they're also "real life investment bankers". Please, places like Shorewood, Wisconsin don't do big-time deals and don't have the talent and egos that exist in New York. Read the comments from the guys in NYC.
I worked as an analyst at a bulge bracket firm in NYC for two years before going on to greener pastures after grad school. This book is absolutely on-point. In fact, I've got even worse stories of torture than these guys wrote about.
A must read for anyone thinking about a career in i-banking.
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