INVESTIGATION – Salaries can easily exceed 100,000 euros from the start of a career. Wonderful sums that hide an equally extraordinary reality.
75 hour weeks. Angela knew well these years of intense work. This young investment banker who graduated from the prestigious ESSEC business school in 2020, who spent several months on an internship in the merger-acquisition department of the Lazard bank two years ago, has no regrets. In a sector where developments and salaries remain very attractive, the 25-year-old young woman made her decision knowingly. ” I knew that you had to work very hard. When I left at midnight, it was relatively early. I wouldn’t change my career for that. I learned a lot. When you close a deal, it’s very satisfying “, she explains. In the secret universe of “M&A” (understand “Mergers and Acquisitions”, for mergers and acquisitions) where Anglicisms reign supreme, “closing a deal” means concluding a merger or takeover operation between two companies.
Read alsoSix-figure salaries, cascading resignations… Fierce war for talent in consulting firms
These schedules seem crazy and the wages remain up to this excess. When she leaves school, after a six-month internship at Lazard, Angela is offered a salary of 70,000 euros (“70K” in the jargon) with the added bonus of a bonus of 80 to 100% of her salary…