What is the work of IT Analyst?

Losing interest at work and thinking about switching to something banking and finance related. What is it like working as an analyst?

• Currently working in the construction industry full time for almost 3 years since graduation and considering switching fields. The reason being - I feel like my day to day operation is purely completing tasks - but I am not mentally challenged. My job is basically manage all the subcontractors on the project. Basically a lot of administrative work. Lots of headaches dealing with them. The other reason I am considering switching is I am not excited about the position above mine - its basically the same deal - you get a new title, more pay, more perks - but the actually work is essential the same - with the exception that you could have someone to delegate the stuff you down want to deal with. Bottom line - Because I am not really into my work - I don't see any benefits of investing more time in it. I basically doing the task in good quality in the fastest possible way. In short - motivation is low. I did major in construction management - with a minor in business. My academic record is not great 2.8 from a cal state school. Not because I wasn't smart - just because I was immature, and focused on the social aspects of school. I am interested in the economy, real estate, construction (currently not working for me), and finance. I have family friend contact who works for one of the big four and I've thought of reaching out to him for some guidance. He's a smart guy and he's good at what he does. Then again, I am sure he got to his job from his grades and he has an MBA. The following areas seem interesting to me - anything related to stocks, mergers and acquisitions, wealth management, finance. These are just the ones I can think of now. What is it like starting out in the banking industry? I heard that the entry position is an analyst? What is it like day to day? What are the other positions available?  Just want to get a feel of what its like to see if I should pursue this thought further and also see what steps I need to take to get there.

• Answer:

  TLDR: The hours are LONG, the tasks can oftentimes be routine and boring, certain tasks require a LOT of knowledge or the ability to consume it quickly, and the pay is very good I'll get the hard truth out of the way up front and you can decide to continue reading if you want or not.  With a 2.8 from a state school you are highly unlikely to get as job at a decent financial firm.  From my personal experience and the experience of my colleagues in the industry you usually need a good GPA and have gone to a good school.  i-Banking and buyside opportunities (PE / HF) require better credentials.  Unless you have an "in", which it seems you do, you probably won't even be interviewed.  However, you may have a chance of securing a position at a small private wealth management (PWM) firm or another small institutions.  I cannot speak for the experiences at those places.  Anyways, on to what the analyst role (the starting position as you mentioned) actually entails.  For a typical week I work between 80 to 100 hours depending on the amount of activity I have.  I know kids who work 100+ weekly non-stop.  It is a two year role and you are expected to be crushed week-in week-out until the role is over.  You come in between 9 and 10 (sometimes early if a client is based internationally... I once had a call from 3 am to 6 am) and you stay late (1am to 2 am regularly).  You work non-stop if you are busy and you almost always have weekend work that you may or may not be able to do at home. With respect to the actual tasks you are expected to be very flexible worker.  Your job is to do everything the higher level guys don't want to do.  Sometimes this means printing and binding a lot of pitch books.  Sometimes this means setting up meetings with the client.  Sometimes this means other mundane stuff.   However, the majority of the time you are expected to pursue deep-level analysis of the companies you are working with or trying to work with.  You need to understand the company inside and out.  You should have technical knowledge of how the company operates like a half-decent COO recruit, you need to have very very deep insight into the financial health of the organization like a CFO, and you should understand the management team and how it operates like a CEO.  Of course you can't be as knowledgeable as each of these people but you need to have a fairly good understanding of all parts of the company.  And that's just the start.  You sometimes cover 10+ companies at once if not more.  You should have knowledge of each.  If you are on a capital markets team you need to know the market itself.  How much debt / equity you can issue, etc.  Other deals that have completed.  If you are in an M&A role you should know all relevant transactions and competitive players.  You are expected to know the market itself and the competitive environment BETTER than the company as you are to advise them on their strategic options.  And you are supposed to know all of this accurately so if you are ever asked a question in a meeting you will know it so your MD does not look bad.  If a client asks the client should get a response.  Once you have all this knowledge you are responsible for constructing powerpoint presentations to convey this knowledge.  That is one of the more time consuming processes there can be.  You need to not only be 100% accurate but you have to make the presentations aesthetically pleasing as you are either marketing the company or your firm to the company to win business.  You have to make clear and concise statements while at the same time conveying large bodies of knowledge and thus you need to be a good synthesizer of information. On top of all that you are expected to value companies or model transactions.  You build complex financial analyses to demonstrate the amount of debt that can be added to a company or the amount a company is worth.  You spend a lot of time in excel and you get very very good at it.  You know all the shortcuts and could do them blind.  If you use a mouse EVER it is a travesty.  It gets rather competitive.  Oh, and btw, all of that doesn't even tell the HALF of how hard you work and the amount of stuff expected from you.  However, the exit opportunities are good. The route to promotion is stable and the pay, as mentioned above, is exceptional for an entry level.  Plus the people are all very smart and hardworking.   Now you can see why banks usually only higher kids with top level educations and good GPAs.  A lot is expected from an analyst and they want to be sure you can handle it.  In fact the top level institutions only take kids from target schools (usually Ivies + Stanford + MIT + Berkeley + UVA + UMich).  Some banks have 30%+ from Wharton alone.  Its a competitive environment and they need to make sure you can swin and not sink. Anyways hoped that helped.  Need to get back to work.