Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle Book

This is an incredible book written by 2 Associates who used to work at DLJ back in the day and is the most accurate book I have ever come across for anyone to get a full understanding of what the life of an investment banker consists of. This is one of those books I wish I would have read in college as would have made me even that more excited about what the life was like, but after a few years in the industry, reading it now really allowed me to appreciate everything these guys went through and see everything in a completely different perspective. The 2 came from Wharton Business school and Harvard Business school and the book starts from when they are a 1st year in business school all the way through to them finishing up their 2nd year as an Associate at DLJ. Anyone working within investment banking will be able to relate to this book and will make you feel like you are just reading about your life / job so I actually highly reccommend this book for anyone not working in the field as opposed to anyone working within the field. However, despite the 2 Associates (Peter Troob and John Rolfe) end up both burning out and leaving the firm to go to the buy side at hedge funds, it made me realize that you don't leave investment banking neccessarily because of the work, but you leave investment banking if you burn out. These two describe in the book countless stories of personal sacrifices that they had to make on a nightly basis and consistently over the course of several years which led to almost a breakup with one of their long term girlfriends. Yes they also bash the work and the downsides of the job that we all have heard countless times, but the key thing in my mind that stood out was the continued personal sacrifices these 2 were forced to make for their job. I still believe the job itself is a great overall job whenever you think about things such as learning / compensation / security / etc., but what this book makes you realize that is no job is worth the personal sacrifice. They speak of countless people who have moved up the ranks at DLJ who just had all the money in the world, but so little personal happiness and lives that were an utter mess who they never wanted to be like. Again, highly reccommend the investment banking field for anyone for 2 years and then after that it is only worth staying in the field and moving up the ranks if you can find a situation whereby you are able to have a good work / life balance.