for those of you entered banking during down times

No banking sucks when markets are bad, you should quit now.

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Remember, you will always be a salesman, no matter how fancy your title is.
- My ex girlfriend

dude, stick with it if u have it. yea, its gonna suck 4 a while but when times are good, it will show u were commited and it will matter. however, if u are young, do it until u figure out the next move. a job is better than no job, especially in banking. if this is really what u want then stick with it. another good option is to get a jd/mba from a top tier school and re-enter the business world. times are tough and u dont want to make a drastic move and regret it later. if u dont want to do banking anymore then atleast have a clear and concise plan.just my 2 cents.

this is probably the best time to get into banking. when times are better, you'll be higher up on the chain. next time there's a boom, you'll be able to ride the wave as a vp

bonuses are not close to nothing. bonuses are still in 50-60K range which means you still make about 120K which is a lot more than you would make in any other job as a college grad.

You don't do banking for the comp in the first 2 years anyway. You do it for the comp that follows in banking or in a myriad of other opportunities that banking experience opens doors to.

Besides a 50k bonus instead of an 80k bonus is still pretty damn good for a 23 year old.

Just be grateful you got in while lots of other qualified people didn't--just bad luck of graduation year timing.

I was one of these people who wasn't able to get in during the last downturn because recruiting at my non-target dried up. Fortunately, I was able to break in down the road and then move over into a successful PE career. But it wasn't easy--I had to scrape my way back in.

The train left the station and you got on just in time. Be thankful.

As one of those who had a job and lost it before I began, I would give anything to be in your shoes. Finding another job right now is miserable and I agree with mlamb, hang in there now and by the time the economy recovers, you will be at the level where the pay really matters. At that point, the comp will make up for whatever you may have lost in these first couple of years. Stick it out... or let me trade positions with you, you can search for new jobs and ill gladly slave over a comp for 2 years for "only" 120k per year.

In the interviews didnt you say you wanted to do it for the challenge, not the money?

Ok, now prove it.

Jimbo

Interviewers still buy that? Hilarious...

If you're doing I-banking for the money then don't get into the game. Even when times are good one has to have some strong underlying motivations greater than money to withstand the very real tradeoffs of poor romantic relationships, cancelled vacations, personality changes, and harsh treatment by "strong" personalities. When the hours are tabulated junior I-bankers can make less than minimum wage. You can make more money doing something entrepreneurial if your motivation is money... imagine what you can do if you worked that hard for yourself.

Having said that, I-banking is a great environment to learn business from the periphery as an advisor or by raising capital. It instills or strengthens work ethic, attention to detail, analytics, negotiation skills, etc. I stuck it out during the 2001-2003 slow period and made it beyond 7 rounds of layoffs and through my analyst program. The deals I worked on then as well as the experience of making it through a fearful and paranoid environment is now paying career dividends.

"Low" bonuses are better in your early years when you get 50k instead of 90k, then when you are higher up and you get 500k instead of 2mm.

Considering how many people are getting laid off and how many more qualified people are not getting any job opportunities, you should look really strong 2-3 years from now when you are looking for your next move. You'll be one of a small group of people who survived the credit crisis with a job and therefore will have SOME deal experience to show to PEs/HFs/MBA programs. It might not be the deal experience guys 2-3 years ago were getting, but it's a helluva lot better than 95% of people right now, since they won't be in IB at all.

And as for the pay, you're getting a $10k sign-on, $60k base, and likely a $50k bonus in a year. That's $110k all-in. Even factoring in the brutal hours, you're still earning around $20-25/hr, which is way better than a lot of people are getting. I know several smart kids whose only options were taking a $20k job with Fidelity or working construction.

"Fidelity or working contstruction"- bullshit.

You could at least get a better non-finance job: assuming, of course, you were really as smart and motivated as ibers are supposed to be.

And of course interviewers don't buy "its not for the money." They know you wouldn't be there if you made $60k a year. They were in your shoes a while ago.

If you're starting of as an analyst, as far as I'm concerned, your bonus doesnt fluctuate that much when you're at the bottom of the foodchain. Bank bonus pools are bank-wide and not based on each individual dept. So sure the credit depts will drag you down a bit but all in all, you'll prolly make 100% bonus or so im guessing. Or around $50k im pretty sure.