num_pages: 320
description: A newly-minted MBA recounts his first years as a Wall Street investment bankerunredacted.Why arent you using LTM EBITDA for credit metrics? asked the managing director who sat across from me his widows peak clearly visible as he inspected the sheet in front of him. His spacious office looked out onto New York Harbor. Bust said the vice president a younger douchier version of Widows Peak. He slashed his red ballpoint pen across the sheet and flipped to the next page. Walk me through the debt paydown and your interest rate assumptions continued the VP. Pretty dovish view. Maybe the Fed knows what theyre doing after all said Widows Peak. He shot a glance at the VP. They shared a chuckleat what I couldnt tell you. This question about interest rates I knew: Dovish I thought. Doves fly south for the winter so dovish is downwardslow interest rates Were running short on time said Widows Peak. He flipped to the cover page of my presentation. One final pointall pitch decks should have the same title. Since this presentation was geared towards an LBO analysis I was thinking No thinking. All deckssame titleDiscussion Materials. Noted.Discussion Materials gives the reader an honest look at Wall Street from someone in the trenches. After graduating from Columbia Business School Bill Keenan joined Deutsche Banks investment banking division as an associate where despotic superiors (and the blinking red light of his BlackBerry) instilled low-level terror on an hourly basis. Youll join him in his cubicle on the 44th floor of 60 Wall Street as he scrambles to ensure floating bar charts are the correct shade of orange and all numbers are left-aligned but whatever you do dont ask him what any of it means. Leaning heavily on his fellow junior bankers and the countless outsourcing resources the bank employs he slowly develops proficiency at the job eventually gaining traction and respect one deal at a time over a two-year span ultimately cementing his legacy in the group by attaining the unattainable: placing a dinner order on Seamless one Sunday night at work from Hwa Yuan Szechuan amounting to $25.00 (tax and tip included) the banks maximum allowance for mealsthe perfect order.
language: English
title: Discussion Materials: Tales of a Rookie Wall Street Investment Banker
publisher: Post Hill Press