What does an investment banking analyst actually do all day? If you’re recruiting for IB, you’ve probably heard the horror stories about 100-hour weeks and all-nighters. But what does the work actually look like, hour by hour? Understanding the day-to-day reality is crucial, both for interview prep (you need to articulate why you want this specific lifestyle) and for making sure IB is truly the right career move for you.
At Wall Street Mastermind, we’ve coached over 2,500 students into investment banking, and many of them have shared their day-to-day experiences with us in detail. This guide gives you two realistic hour-by-hour schedules (one for a day during a live deal, and one for a typical pitching day) plus insights on how the job evolves over your two-year analyst stint.
A Typical Day on a Live Deal
Live deals are the most intense but also the most rewarding part of investment banking. When your team is executing a transaction (say, advising a client on a $5 billion acquisition) every day is high-stakes. Here’s what a typical live-deal day looks like:
8:30 AM: Arrive at the Office
You get to the office and immediately check email. During a live deal, emails accumulate overnight, from the client, opposing counsel, the acquirer’s team, and your own senior bankers. You scan for anything urgent and prioritize your to-do list. Your VP has already sent a message at 7:45 AM asking for an updated version of the merger model with revised synergy assumptions. That’s your first task.
9:00 AM: Update the Financial Model
You open the merger model, a massive Excel file with dozens of tabs. The VP wants to see what happens to accretion/dilution if you increase cost synergies from $150 million to $200 million and change the financing mix. You adjust the assumptions, flow through the changes, check for errors, and format the output pages for presentation. Understanding concepts like enterprise value vs equity value and WACC calculations isn’t just academic here: it’s the foundation of your daily work.
10:30 AM: Internal Deal Team Call
The deal team hops on a 30-minute call to align on the day’s priorities. The MD discusses a conversation they had with the client’s CEO last night. The VP outlines what needs to be prepared for a board meeting tomorrow. The associate assigns specific tasks to you and the other analyst on the deal. You’re responsible for updating the management presentation and preparing a valuation summary page.
11:00 AM: Management Presentation Updates
You spend the next two hours in PowerPoint, updating the management presentation that the client’s board will review tomorrow. This involves pulling in updated financial projections, refreshing market data, creating new charts, and making sure every number ties back to the model. Attention to detail is everything: a single mismatched number can undermine the entire presentation.
1:00 PM: Lunch at Your Desk
You order lunch through the bank’s Seamless account (most banks provide free dinner after a certain hour, and lunch during live deals). You eat while continuing to work on the presentation. On a live deal, sit-down lunches are rare.
1:30 PM: Due Diligence Coordination
You spend an hour managing the virtual data room, organizing documents uploaded by the target company, flagging missing items, and coordinating with the lawyers’ requests. Due diligence is unglamorous but critical. You’re the one making sure every document is in the right folder and every request list item has been addressed.
2:30 PM: VP Review
Your VP reviews the updated model and presentation. They have comments: adjust the formatting on page 12, add a sensitivity table showing the impact of different purchase price assumptions, and fix a formula error they spotted in the operating model. You take notes and head back to your desk.
3:00 PM: Revisions and Sensitivity Analysis
You spend the next two hours implementing the VP’s comments. The sensitivity table requires building a new data table in Excel and linking it to the presentation. You run multiple scenarios and format everything cleanly.
5:00 PM: Client Call
The MD and VP dial into a call with the client’s CFO and corporate development team. You’re on the line but mostly listening and taking notes. The client has questions about the valuation range and wants to understand the sensitivity to revenue growth assumptions. The MD asks you to pull up a specific page in the model and walk through the numbers. You present clearly and concisely: this is one of the moments that makes the long hours worth it.
6:00 PM: Second Round of Revisions
Based on the client call, there are new comments and requests. The CFO wants to see an additional scenario with lower revenue growth. The associate asks you to update the comparable companies analysis with data from a competitor that just reported earnings. You order dinner and keep working.
7:30 PM: Dinner at Your Desk
Free dinner: one of the few perks of the long hours. You eat while finishing the comp analysis update.
8:00 PM: Finalize the Board Book
You spend the next few hours assembling the final board presentation. This involves combining the updated model outputs, the valuation summary, the market overview, the synergy analysis, and various appendix pages into one polished deck. Every page needs to be pixel-perfect, every number needs to tie, and the flow needs to tell a coherent story.
10:30 PM: Final Review With the Associate
The associate reviews the final deck, catches a few formatting issues and one number that doesn’t match the model. You fix them.
11:30 PM: Send to the VP for Final Sign-Off
The VP reviews, approves with minor tweaks, and sends it to the MD. You make the last adjustments and send the final version.
12:30 AM: Head Home
You take a car home (most banks provide free car service after 9 PM). Total hours today: roughly 16. During a live deal, this is a typical weekday. You’ll likely work at least a half-day on Saturday and possibly Sunday.
A Typical Day When Pitching (No Live Deal)
When you’re not on a live deal, the pace is somewhat slower, but still demanding. Pitching days involve creating materials to win new business.
9:00 AM: Arrive at the Office
You arrive slightly later than on a deal day. Check email, review your task list. The associate asks you to start building a pitch book for a potential new client, a mid-cap software company that might be considering a sale.
9:30 AM: Industry Research and Company Overview
You research the target company and its competitive landscape. You pull data from Capital IQ, Bloomberg, and equity research reports. You create the “situation overview” pages: company overview, market positioning, shareholder base, historical financial performance.
11:00 AM: Comparable Company Analysis
You build a comparable companies analysis, selecting the right peer group, pulling trading multiples, calculating medians. This is one of the core valuation methodologies you’ll use constantly. You also build a precedent transactions analysis looking at recent M&A deals in the software sector.
12:30 PM: Lunch
On a pitching day, you might actually leave your desk for lunch and grab something from the cafeteria or a nearby restaurant with other analysts. These moments of normalcy matter for maintaining your sanity.
1:15 PM: Pitch Book Assembly
You work on building the pitch deck in PowerPoint: credentials pages (showcasing J.P. Morgan’s relevant deal experience), valuation analysis, potential buyer universe, process overview, and a section on why the bank is best positioned to advise this client.
3:00 PM: Training Session or Team Meeting
Many banks organize training sessions, speaker series, or group meetings during slower periods. Today there’s a lunchtime-turned-afternoon presentation from a senior MD about a recent deal. These sessions are valuable for learning and networking within the firm.
4:00 PM: Continue Pitch Book and Modeling
You build a preliminary DCF model for the pitch book’s valuation section. Even though this is preliminary, it needs to be thorough: the MD will present it to the prospective client.
6:30 PM: Associate Review
The associate reviews your work, provides comments, and asks you to add a few more pages. You make the updates.
8:00 PM: Finish Up and Head Home
On a good pitching day, you can leave by 8-9 PM. Total hours: roughly 11-12. This is the “light” end of the spectrum in investment banking. Enjoy it while it lasts: you could get staffed on a new live deal at any moment.
Analyst Tasks: What You Actually Do
Across both deal and pitching days, here are the core tasks that fill an analyst’s time:
- Financial modeling (30-40% of time): Building and updating DCF models, LBO models, merger models, and operating models in Excel
- Pitch books and presentations (25-30%): Creating and updating PowerPoint decks for clients, internal reviews, and board presentations
- Data gathering and analysis (15-20%): Pulling data from Capital IQ, Bloomberg, and research reports; building comp tables; conducting industry research
- Administrative and coordination (10-15%): Managing data rooms, coordinating with lawyers and accountants, scheduling, proofreading, printing
- Client interaction (5-10%): Listening in on calls, presenting specific analyses, answering data requests
Managing Up: Working With Your VP and MD
One of the most underrated skills for a successful analyst is managing up, effectively working with your senior bankers. Here’s what the best analysts do:
- Anticipate needs: If you know the VP will ask for a sensitivity analysis after seeing the base case, build it before they ask
- Communicate proactively: If a task is going to take longer than expected, flag it early. Don’t wait until the deadline to say you’re behind.
- Ask smart questions: Before starting a task, make sure you understand exactly what’s being asked. Five minutes of clarification upfront can save hours of rework.
- Triple-check your work: Errors erode trust fast. Check every number, every formula, every page before sending anything upward.
- Stay organized: Keep clean file structures, maintain version control on models and presentations, and always know the status of every open task.
Weekend Work: What to Expect
Weekend work depends heavily on deal flow. Here’s the range:
- No live deal: You might work a few hours on Saturday to get ahead on pitches. Sundays are often free.
- Active live deal: Expect to work most of Saturday and at least part of Sunday. During critical deal phases (like the week before signing), you may work the entire weekend.
- Multiple live deals: This is when things get truly intense. You may have very little free time on weekends for weeks at a stretch.
Most banks have implemented “protected weekends” or “pencils down” policies, typically one weekend per month where analysts are guaranteed time off. In practice, enforcement varies by group and deal timing.
How the Job Changes Over Two Years
Your experience as an analyst evolves significantly from Year 1 to Year 2:
Year 1: The Learning Curve
- Everything is new: you’re learning the tools, the processes, and the culture
- You’ll make mistakes (everyone does) and learn from them quickly
- Most of your time is spent building models and creating decks under close supervision
- You’re primarily taking direction from the associate and VP
- Hours tend to be longest because tasks take longer when you’re still learning
Year 2: Hitting Your Stride
- You’re significantly faster at modeling and presentations
- You start to take ownership of workstreams, managing parts of deals more independently
- You begin mentoring incoming first-year analysts
- More direct interaction with clients and senior bankers
- Hours can improve somewhat because you’re more efficient, but deal flow ultimately dictates
- You’re actively thinking about exit opportunities: private equity recruiting typically happens during your second year
Coping Strategies: How to Survive (and Thrive)
Two years of investment banking is a marathon, not a sprint. Here’s how successful analysts manage the intensity:
- Prioritize sleep when you can: On lighter days, go home at a reasonable hour and sleep. Don’t stay late just because others are.
- Exercise consistently: Even 30 minutes of exercise a few times per week makes a huge difference for mental health and energy. Many analysts use the office gym early in the morning or during brief breaks.
- Build strong relationships with your analyst class: Your fellow analysts are going through the same experience. These bonds provide essential emotional support and often become lifelong friendships.
- Take your vacation days: Most banks give analysts 2-3 weeks of vacation. Use them. A few days away from the desk can be transformative.
- Keep the end goal in mind: The compensation is exceptional, the training is unmatched, and the exit opportunities are the best in finance. The sacrifice is temporary, and the career capital lasts decades.
- Eat well: Take advantage of the free meals, but make healthy choices. Good nutrition directly impacts your energy and focus during long days. Stock your desk with nuts, fresh fruit, and other clean snacks.
Is the Investment Banking Analyst Lifestyle Right for You?
The analyst lifestyle isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. This career path is right for you if:
- You’re motivated by steep learning curves and tangible skill development
- You thrive under pressure and tight deadlines
- You’re willing to sacrifice short-term comfort for long-term career optionality
- You genuinely enjoy working with numbers, building models, and solving complex problems
- You’re excited about advising on transactions that make headlines
If you’re not sure, our free course and student testimonials can help you understand what the experience is really like from people who’ve lived it.
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Wall Street Mastermind has guided over 2,500 students into top investment banking roles at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and every other major bank. Our coaching program provides personalized technical training, behavioral prep, and networking strategies to help you land the offer and thrive once you start. Apply to work with us today.
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