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Why I left London to live in Frankfurt
It used to be a no-brainer- if you wanted to succeed in finance, you needed to get to London. Today it is less obvious. Thanks to Brexit and the decentralization of finance, Frankfurt is back in play....
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Senior investment bankers dumped as 2018 turns sour
It’s turning out to be a bad year to be a high ranking investment banker in Europe. As costs are cut and capital markets deals remain low, banks are doing away with some of their most senior and...
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I am a PA in an investment bank. These are my secrets
If you work in a front office job in an investment bank and are unhappy with your pay, your hours or your prestige, you should try being a personal assistant. I am the PA to a managing director and his...
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Junior banker? You’re not that rich
Last year, I was at a friend’s birthday party, who, like me, worked in investment banking. Unsurprisingly, most people at the party was working in the same space; many well-off, promising faces from...
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Deutsche Bank’s problem: a historic culture of ruthless internal competition
Whenever things go wrong in any company, sooner or later fingers will point accusingly at its culture. Deutsche Bank is no exception. Despite a recent pop in the share price following a rare positive...
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Why I left a large investment bank to join a small boutique
If you ask someone at a big bank for career advice, they will usually answer that it is best to work for a bulge bracket. However, if you ask someone at a boutique, they too will likely favor their own...
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“Senior bankers are silently leaving London. I should know”
There is an exodus from banks in London. Few people in the industry are talking about it, because even in banking Brexit raises high emotions, but people are trickling away in large numbers and it is...
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“The images and feelings of 9/11 remain branded on my mind”
It’s been long years since the planes came in and changed the landscape of lower Manhattan forever; long years since two commercial passenger airliners were turned into weapons of mass destruction by a...
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I was an associate at Lehman Brothers. Then I had to wash my own shirts
For a brief few months I was living the dream. After finishing my MBA I was an associate at Lehman Brothers in London. I was a single man, in a fancy flat (yes, I signed a year-long lease), with people...
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The big mistake of my hedge fund career: taking my wife on a business trip
I’ve worked on the buy-side for many years now. As I’ve complained here before, they pay isn’t enough (it never is), but there’s one area in which they make it up to me: hotels. Long years ago, when I...
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My warning to any London bankers thinking of moving to Paris
So, Bank of America is trying to persuade London staff to move to its new office in Paris. Doubtful London bankers are being sold the story that France has fine wines, mountains, beaches, famous chefs...
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The longer you stay in banking, the lower your chance of succeeding at...
I began my career in the investment banking division of a major European bank. Three years later, I left. Getting out of banking was the best decision I ever made. It wasn’t just about the working...
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Did it get too easy to get a job at Goldman Sachs?
Has Goldman Sachs dropped its standards? The firm itself would undoubtedly argue that it hasn’t, but some veteran Goldmanites and people exiting the firm suggest that it has. At issue is the constant...
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COMMENT: My bank is unfairly penalizing me for not being a charity volunteer
I am a technologist at an international investment bank. My job is to help the bank create best in class technology systems that will allow it to make money. And yet for some reason, I am being...
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COMMENT: Why you will lose your girlfriend/boyfriend in your 1st year in...
So, another analyst friend of mine has broken up with her boyfriend. I’m not surprised: almost everyone I know has broken up with their girlfriend or boyfriend in the first year of a banking career....
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COMMENT: Banker who’s thinking of moving to Paris? You need to know what it’s...
I’m a banker who works for a leading French bank in Paris. I’ve have been here for over a decade and I feel it is my duty to warn London bankers who think Paris is a dream world of chansons and...
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BNP Paribas should probably admit the plan for its investment bank is going...
So, BNP Paribas’ corporate and investment bank (CIB) didn’t have a great third quarter. The French bank announced its quarterly results today and revealed that CIB revenues fell 8.4% year-on-year in...
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COMMENT: How I retired from finance aged 47 AND provided for my children
Three years ago, I retired from banking. After more than 20 years working in financial services in the City of London, I am now a man of comparative leisure hanging out at my home in Surrey. Although...
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Do you suffer from ‘buy-side personality disorder’?
There is never a nice time to talk about nasty things. But there is a phenomenon in our industry which many people suffer from – it’s an occupational hazard and it needs to be brought out into the...
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COMMENT: These new ‘trader-coders’ are a problem for the real coders in banks
I’m a software programmer in an investment bank and I can see a problem on the horizon. Right now, I produce software for a derivative trading desk, but this year that desk has begun hiring computer...
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