Comments for Investing Banking

Comment on The Gravy Train by Bichon Mom

Bichon Mom — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:46:23 +0000

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful

Perfectly Enjoyable Financial Thriller, April 18, 2011

Bichon Mom (Houston, Texas) -

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This review is from: The Gravy Train (Kindle Edition)

After enjoying Trojan Horse, I knew that I wanted to read more by David Lender. I was especially happy to see the Wall Street setting for this novel since there really seems to be a dearth of good financial thrillers in comparison with other genres.

The Gravy Train reminded me of Grisham's The Firm in that both have smart,young protagonists freshly out of school and eager to make their marks in the world. Unfortunately, that world contains individuals whose questionable ethics seem the norm for certain organizations.

The characterizations were wonderfully drawn and the plot was skillfully developed. Neither the characters nor the scenarios stretched the boundaries of believability.

I see that Lender's next novel has a similar setting and I am eagerly looking forward to reading it since it is obvious that he knows the financial world.

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Comment on The Gravy Train by Kiki Lauren

Kiki Lauren — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:21:24 +0000

107 of 110 people found the following review helpful

The REAL Wall Street; and the greatest "Dare to Be Great" Speech Ever Written., March 29, 2011

Kiki Lauren (Boston, MA, USA and London, UK) -

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This review is from: The Gravy Train (Kindle Edition)

I bought this because I loved Lender's Trojan Horse. As a financial professional, I can tell you this is what Wall Street is really like. The language, the clothes, the banker's mannerisms, personalities, attitudes and the bruising competitiveness. And as Lender says in his description, ruthlessness. I always get disgusted when I read or see something that pretends to depict the financial world as a reality. Trust me, this is it.

And it's a great read. Really gripping. And sometimes funny, touching, heartbreaking and dramatic. It includes a terrific story of the relationship between the kid (Finn) and the old man (Nick) and an erotic, moving and surprising romance.

But one whole chapter (I won't say which, and no cheating and skipping forward) is the greatest Dare to be Great speech ever written. It's a term of art on Wall Street for the banker's pep talk to the client to get him/her to reach for greatness in the 11th hour of a deal. You have to get this book for this alone.

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Comment on Next Generation Excel: Modeling in Excel for Analysts and MBAs (Wiley Finance) by Jaewoo Kim "OB-Wan"

Jaewoo Kim "OB-Wan" — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:00:10 +0000

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

Overpriced but useful, May 27, 2010

Jaewoo Kim "OB-Wan" (Santa Monica, CA) -

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This review is from: Next Generation Excel: Modeling in Excel for Analysts and MBAs (Wiley Finance) (Hardcover)

This book offers some of the more useful features of MS Excel for analysts and MBAs. It does not offer Excel tips that one can't obtain from far cheaper and more comprehensive Excel books.

The explanations are well done and every chapter has review problems. The DVD also contains the Excel spreadsheets for each chapter for practice exercises.

Most of the Excel topics are covered superficially yet enough to benefit most people. For example, the chapter on Pivot Tables was well done but it only covered the main features of pivot table and lacked depth and details. If you want detailed understanding of all the Excel's features, then this book will fall short. If you only want the most useful Excel features specifically for finance and business school students, then this book will do its job.

The book covers the following:

1)Using Excel efficiently (autofill, formulas, functions, naming cells, ranges, charts)
2)If and Text Manipulations(if functions, text manipulation,Stat tools)
3)What if Analysis (What if, goal seek, one and two way data tables, scroll bars)
4)Multiple page systems and lookups (Lookup tables)
5)Data menu and ribbon (Sorting, autofilter, grouping data, subtotal, pivot tables, data mining)
6)Excel financial tools (NPV, IRR, XNPV, XIRR, Amortization, depreciation)

If you already have basic understanding of Excel, then this book will take your Excel skill to the next level. If you are a total beginner, then I recommend a more beginner's book. If you are looking for a comprehensive Excel text and want to become an Excel expert, then I would look elsewhere or use this book as a supplement.

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Comment on Next Generation Excel: Modeling in Excel for Analysts and MBAs (Wiley Finance) by Paige Turner "Paige"

Paige Turner "Paige" — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:23:19 +0000

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

It Didn't Take a Spreadsheet to Figure Out This Book Is Worth Ten Times Its Price, December 6, 2009

Paige Turner "Paige" (New York) -

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This review is from: Next Generation Excel: Modeling in Excel for Analysts and MBAs (Wiley Finance) (Hardcover)

I heartily recommend this book to anyone that uses Excel on a daily basis for business analysis or for MBA students. Early in the introduction, Dr. Gottlieb promises that if you use Excel for 10 hours a week or more, this book will save you hundreds of hours per year. He delivers!

You don't need to build an excel spreadsheet to calculate that this book is worth many times its cover price to users of excel. Even if you are a "power user" you will quiclky find tips that will make you more efficient.

I was fortunate enough to take an Excel class from Dr. Gottlieb a few years ago during the "crash math course" week while getting an MBA at Columbia University. I don't want to offend any of my esteemed professors, but those few hours with Dr. Gottlieb were probably more useful than several of my semester-long courses to me. I currently use Excel for 3-4 hours per day to analyze stocks at my hedge fund and his tips have saved me hours and helped to make my graphical representation of data look top-notch.

This book is not a basic "how-to" or "for dummies" book on Excel. It is the perfect book for you if you use Excel frequently, but are frustrated that you have to perform certain repetitive keystrokes or clicks to get it do what you want. Perhaps you want your charts to look better. Maybe you didn't even know that you could have custom lists built in, for example, instead of manually entering FQ01, FQ02, etc. You can add trend lines to graphs; you can format parts of graphs differently than other parts. You can name cells, groups of cells to make your work easier.

Dr. Gottlieb exposes the many keystroke shortcuts that can make your daily grind with Excel less laborious. His book is laid out in a very concise, neat organization. I think the best way to really benefit from it is to power through entire sections that apply to your work and try his examples. He provides some problems at the end of each chapter (he is in academia, after all) but mercifully; he provides the answers, too!

This book is only about 280 pages long, but don't let that fool you, if you compare it to some other Excel books with 800 pages. He has more time-saving information in it than books 2 or 3 times as long. The beauty of his book is everything he shows is something an analyst using Excel in the real world actually uses it for. He is not just running through every menu, detailing every useless capability of Excel, like the other books.

This is the key advantage to Dr. Gottlieb's book. He has a list of over 50,000 people that he sends his "tip of the month" to and they (like me) are not shy about emailing him questions. This gives him keen insight into what real Excel jockeys are interested in, and he addresses those issues in this book. Get it today and you will discover many things that Excel can do for you, in a much easier way than you are using it today!

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Comment on What is the average salary of a person with an MBA from NYU? investment banking…? by NYC_Since_the_90s

NYC_Since_the_90s — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:52:01 +0000

If she has a kid posting this, then I would think she is older. I doubt she would take one of the jobs that a 24 year would take (80 hours/week, being treated like crap), so I also doubt she will ever get one of the high paying jobs. You just do not get the job by getting the MBA, you still have to pay some dues when you get to the IB.

She would probably do a little better than she is doing now, but her base would not go up. It would probably go down and then have a bigger bonus. I would expect $ 100K total comp to start (since she will not work 80/hours) and then go up from there

Comment on What is the average salary of a person with an MBA from NYU? investment banking…? by jargent100

jargent100 — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:18:11 +0000

It’ll vary tremendously from year to year, because investment banking salaries are wildly dependent on company performance, individual performance and the firm you work for. She can probably expect to more than double her salary (with most of the additional money coming in discretionary yearly bonuses), and the sky is the limit on the top end. But a lot of people wash out too. If you can’t perform, you won’t be around long.
Unfortunately, there’s a huge time commitment, so you won’t see your mom very often, either during the MBA or the new job. Investment banking is a tough line of work.

Comment on Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking, 6th Edition by btib1102

btib1102 — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:56:15 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Good read for the aspiring undergraduate/business school ibanker, August 6, 2010

btib1102 -

This review is from: Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking (Vault Career Library) (Paperback)

This book is effective in explaining the overall functions of an investment bank within the larger investment community and how the different divisions co-exist inside the bank. Worthwhile read for those aspiring bankers to develop an understanding of the relentless culture that is investment banking.

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Comment on Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking, 6th Edition by Joan Cashmere "future08"

Joan Cashmere "future08" — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:40:25 +0000

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Good Book To Have For Investment Banking, August 10, 2008

Joan Cashmere "future08" (New York, NY) -

This review is from: Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking (Vault Career Library) (Paperback)

This book is a good book to have, but I can't say it's the best. It is very detailed about what exactly investment bankers do and the different services they provide. Otherwise, there is little to no information about the lifestyle of investment banking, the qualifications to becoming an investment banker, the best banks for investment banking etc.
I would recommend Private Wealth Management by Vault Career Guides

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Comment on Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking, 6th Edition by Mallory Warner

Mallory Warner — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:59:05 +0000

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Great for General Information, December 27, 2007

Mallory Warner (Washington, DC USA) -

This review is from: Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking (Vault Career Library) (Paperback)

This guide provides a general overview of the investment banking industry - all the divisions and opportunities, positions available, salaries, hours, etc. I recommend it to anyone who wants a very honest and straightfoward description of I-banking. This book is great for sparking interest, but further investigation in desired fields is necessary. Aside from the numerous typos and poor editing, the guide has served me well.

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Comment on Investment Banking – Careers advice by nuncadelosnuncas10

nuncadelosnuncas10 — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:29:13 +0000

Dan, you have it nice… I am an investment banker and never have I ever left the office at 8 or 10. We leave at 2am-4am, and 2 days a week an all nighter. Please send the right message to appliers, its not fun working with someone who doesnt want to be there at late ours…