Product Description

Like most other young business school graduates, John Rolfe and Peter Troob thought that life in a major investment banking firm would make their wildest dreams come true - it would be fast-paced, intellectually challenging, glamorous, and, best of all, lucrative.  They were in for a surprise.  For behind the walls of Wall Street's firms lies a stratum of stunted, overworked, abused, and in the end, very well-compensated, but very frustrated men and women.  MONKEY BUSINESS takes readers behind the scenes at Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette (DLJ), one of Wall Street's hottest firms of the 90s, from the interview process to the courting of clients to bonus time.  It's a glimpse of a side of the business the financial periodicals don't talk about - 20-hour work days, trips across the country where associates do nothing except carry the pitch book, strip clubs at night, inflated salaries, and high-powered, unforgettable personalities. 

MONKEY BUSINESS provides readers with a first-class education in the real life of an investment banker.  But best of all, it is an extremely funny read about two young men who, on their way towards achieving the American dream, quickly realized they were selling their souls to get there.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42563 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author

John Rolfe graduated from Virginia Tech, The University of Florida, and Wharton Business School.  At Wharton, he was the editor of The Wharton Vulgarian.  Following his sentence with DLJ, he spent several years working at a private investment fund.  In 2001, he co-founded an equity-oriented money management firm, and today manages the firm from a top secret location deep in Vermont.  He lives with his wife and two children, and is currently attempting to learn how to produce maple syrup.

Peter Troob graduated from Duke University and Harvard Business School.  At Harvard, he was the humor editor for Harbus.  After a gross error in judgment caused him to return to the investment banking world at DLJ, he left for the greener pastures of distressed debt investing at a private investment fund.  In 2002 he co-founded a debt-oriented money management firm, which he continues to manage today.  He lives with his wife and two children outside of New York City, where he can often be seen limping around the neighborhood and complaining about his bad knees.

Customer Reviews

Male Locker Room Humor about Investment Banking
Before going into my review, let me start with a caution. This book is the grossest, most vulgar business book I have ever read . . . by a very wide margin. This book would have been banned in Boston 50 years ago. If that sort of thing offends you, this book is a minus ten stars. Many women will feel this book is anti-female. On the other hand, if you happen to like your humor male, bold and brassy, this book will be one of the funniest you will ever read.

As someone who often works with investment bankers, the descriptions about how business is sold and delivered should be tempered a bit. This book describes pretty much every investment banker as shoddy, shallow, and manipulative. That has not been my typical experience. There are terrifically smart, talented, ethical and humane investment bankers. For example, one of my favorites never used a pitch book during his first meeting with a client. Pitch book preparation is one of the banes of the young investment banker's existence. But like all professions, investment bankers vary a lot. There are certainly some less capable ones, and I have seen their work too. I would describe it much like the authors do.

In terms of the working conditions, they are mostly a reflection of weak management in the industry. Investment banks reward doing deals, not being good managers of the deals. A fellow I know became CEO of a major investment bank, and made much less money after that than when he was just a deal-maker. He found little interest on the part of his colleagues in improving management, so it was pretty frustrating. It just doesn't pay to work on making life better for the investment bankers in training, compared to producing more business.

The book's main point is that many young people enter investment banking without knowing what it is like, and are overly impressed with the financial prospects. If your values really favor having time for yourself, your family, and developing your other interests, this is probably the wrong career for you. There are plenty of other ways to make lots of money. The richest people I know are entrepreneurs, not investment bankers.

The book's other main point is that you should take a look at close yourself before you compromise too many of your values. The authors should have never joined an investment bank. Having done so, they should have left much sooner.

CEOs and CFOs should read this book also, to know what to check out carefully in the work that investment bankers do. Most companies now develop their own ideas, and just hire the investment bankers for implementation. In that role, fewer problems will occur of the sort described here. Perhaps the most dangerous role is having an investment banker help you select and pursue an acquisition. Many expensive mistakes follow under those circumstances. Caveat emptor!

You will probably find the monkey drawings in the book add to the humor. The text frequently refers to monkey-see, monkey-do type examples, and the whole story is seen more usefully as a bunch of monkeys playing in a gilded cage. That takes some of the sting out of the gratuitous grossness.

If you liked the put-downs of investment bankers in Liar's Poker, this book will be irresistible to you.

After you have had a good laugh, take a look at your current job and see how well it fits your values and life goals. Chances are that it doesn't. Be prepared to figure that out, and move onward and upward out of whatever gilded (or not-so-gilded) cage you are in today into the freedom of self-actualization.

Frighteningly true
As a former City solicitor, I can say that this book reads very true to life. When you are living in the world described in the book, you think that it's normal. It's only once you get out that you realise it was a bizarre and unpleasant way of wasting years of your life. (Of course, there are lots of other bizarre and unpleasant ways of wasting time, and most of them don't pay so well, so maybe potential recruits shouldn't be put off too much.)

Anyone thinking about becoming a lawyer should turn to page 182: "As junior bankers, whenever we were feeling low, we'd watch the junior lawyers and start feeling better . . ."

Clients of investment banks should read this book too. Exactly why do US banks get 7% commission on new equity issues? Pierpont Morgan and the other robber barons of the 1920s must be laughing their socks off in their graves. I hope companies don't pay that much here in Europe.

Easy read - funny but grossly exaggerated
Maybe an eye-opener for those on the outside but too close to reality for those of us who work on Wall Street 24/7. Elements are exaggerated (especially the whole sexual frustration angle - there are many happily married bankers) but it does take away a lot of the myth surrounding investment banking. An easy read - worth it, provided you don't take it too seriously.