Why investment banking?

Three reasons, in order of how they actually drive me.

First, the apprenticeship. There's no other entry-level seat in finance where you spend two years getting paid to learn how companies work — capital structure, valuation, negotiation, the actual mechanics of M&A. Other paths optimize for one of those. Banking is the only one that forces you to build all four in parallel, on live transactions, with senior bankers reviewing your work line-by-line. That breadth is what makes the optionality on the back end real.

Second, the proximity to decisions that matter. I want to be in the room when a CEO is deciding whether to sell, when a board is debating how to fund a $2 billion acquisition, when a sponsor is calibrating whether to bid. The advisory seat is the one place a 22-year-old can be in those conversations early and contribute to the analysis the principals are using.

Third — and I want to be honest about this — I work hard, I like working hard, and I've found that I'm sharpest when the stakes are real and the deadline is tomorrow. I had that summer between sophomore and junior year on a sale-side process where we lost a week to a re-trade and pulled three nights to get the revised CIM out. That was the most engaged I've ever been. I'm not chasing pain, but I want a job where the intensity matches the stakes.

I know what the lifestyle is. I've talked to enough analysts to be clear-eyed about it. I'm signing up for it.