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A Day in the Life: Associate, Investment Banking at JPMorgan

Published: Mar 31, 2009

 Finance       
8:30 a.m.: Walk down the escalator from Mid-Levels to the office. Check e-mail and voice mail.

9:00 a.m.: Drink coffee or Chinese tea delivered to the desk by breakfast cart lady. Start pitchbook request sent via voicemail from VP left late last night.

10:00 a.m.: Sit down with desktop publishing guys and ask for special graphics pages and color images. Ask them to complete them by 3 p.m.

11:00 a.m.: Sit with loan syndication group meeting to discuss major client financing needs.

11:30 a.m.: Check up on analysts in the group to assign them work and answer any questions.

12:30 p.m.: Lunch. It is too crowded at most eateries in Central to have a pleasant meal. Pick up sandwiches at Seven Eleven or Starbucks. For a sitdown meal it is best to wait until late afternoon.

1:30 p.m.: Conference call with an MD in Korea and a client's CFO about meeting next week in Hong Kong for a loan syndication deal.

3:00 p.m.: Read through and check work completed by desktop publishing. Complete your section of pitchbook. E-mail draft to VP for review.

5:30 p.m.: Meet with analysts to dole out work such as research and financial modeling.

7:00 p.m.: Take the elevator to the fitness center for 30-minute run on treadmill.

8:00 p.m.: Order meal and eat with others in the large conference room overlooking Victoria Harbor.

9:00 p.m: Log on to global conference call run by New York media and telecoms group for deals in the pipeline this week.

10:00 p.m.: Call VP at a dinner meeting to go over schedule for tomorrow and current pitchbook sent to him.

11:00 p.m.: Take a cab home or walk back home via escalator if the night is not hot and humid. ("The Hong Kong office is the hub for Asia and thus is rather busy most days. I would stay until I am done with the most immediate deliverables. Once or twice a week or so, the associates and an MD who is still single will meet up at dinner time in Lan Kwai Fong for a drink or two and return to the office at around 10 p.m. to continue the work at hand.")

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