Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle Reviews

• Male Locker Room Humor about Investment Banking

  
  By A1K1JW1C5CUSUZ on 2000-09-20
  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.

  
  
  

• Get your hands off me, you damned dirty Ape!

  
  By A2HII4U9WQ0XUV on 2005-07-18
  Somebody once said that given an infinite amount of time, a roomful of monkeys with typewriters could produce the entire works of William Shakespeare.
  
  Now that might be true, and it might not. But one thing's for damned sure: give two monkeys a year on Wall Street and a book royalty advance, and they'll produce the rank, reeking, greenish-brown turd that is "Monkey Business".
  
  What "Monkey Business" wants to be: an arch, caustic, crass little volume that channels up the spirit of Michael Lewis (author of the howlingly funny Wall Street tell-all "Liar's Poker") and just lays it all out, tells it like it is, conjures up a few nuggets of humor and a few gut-laughs about the modern Roman Galley slaveship that is Wall Street.
  
  What "Monkey Business" actually is: a dull, unedited, whiney diatribe by two junior i-bankers who managed to last ONE SINGLE PALTRY YEAR at the elite investment bank Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, and were consigned to the copy-room, making oodles of copies of pretty promotional material used to market their Masters' services to Fortune 100 clients.
  
  But let's back up a moment: co-authors Peter Troob and John Rolfe went straight from B-school (Harvard and Wharton, respectively) to Wall Street. That alone was a miracle, as their writing, and general grasp on how deal-making on the Street works, will quickly attest. They got coveted Associate positions with a powerful and savvy Wall Street firm, and quickly discovered they didn't like being at the low end of the totem pole. And from this bitter pill, they concluded that the way to get ahead on Wall Street is just to pay your dues, bide your time, and cross the 3 to 5 year desert that leads from corporate serfdom to a plummy VP role in, say, syndications, or M&A, or structured finance, where you get 500 grand base and a multiple of that in yummy bonuses, all the while throwing a telephone at Carstairs's head or chomping that stogey while screaming at T. Boone Pickens.
  
  Wrong. The biggest problem with "Monkey Business"---other than the writing itself, written in *two different fonts* so you can figure out who is doing the story-telling (though both voices are at the level of an obnoxious eight-year old with remedial writing skills), is that it demeans and cheapens the real madness, and mystery, and financial wizardry done by twenty-somethings on Wall Street every day of the week.
  
  Troob and Rolfe never made the effort to get beyond the copy-boy stage of investment banking: as a rookie i-banker, I put in the 100+ hour workweeks too. I signed the divorce papers and faxed them to my wife, too, because---as my Managing Director confided---I wouldn't have time later. I showed some grit, some ambition, a brutal attention to detail, and an utter disregard for ulcers---and was rewarded by heading up big M&A projects in the Netherlands and South America---and all in my first year. I didn't get handcuffed to the Xerox machine, like Troob and Rolfe.
  
  The point here is this: the working world is what you make of it. "Monkey Business" is a caricature of the business, not a first-hand account, and worse still: a caricature 'written' by two guys whose Maximum Pain Index went no further than one year.
  
  What's next? A tell-all account of consumer-giant Wal-Mart, penned by two disgrunted one-year veteran clerks? A scathing, brutal account of wheeling and deeling at Exxon, written up by a fuming gas station attendant or pump jockey?
  
  Trying to get a handle on Wall Street by reading this book is like trying to get a feel for what a circus a ringmaster does by reading the diary of a circus monkey---and about as rewarding.
  
  A better use of time and money?
  
  1) For a non-bitter account by a Street veteran, try the legendary "Liar's Poker", by Michael Lewis---which is actually scathing, scalding, and really funny.
  
  2) For a highly bitter account by a guy who also lasted just one year---but has some killer points to make on Wall Street and New York City in general---try "Riding the Bull", by Paul Stiles.
  
  3) For a riveting account, bitter and not, of Wall Street shenanigans and hedge-fund double dealing from a guy who has way too much fun in the world of high finance, check out Jim Cramer's "Confessions of a Street Addict", which is pure high-octane hilarity.
  
  Monkeys belong in cages with bananas: leave these guys to it. And for decency's sake---assuming this ever gets a second printing, will the publisher please change the quease-inducing cover cartoon?
  
  JSG
  
  

• Monkey Business is a first class act!

  
  By A1E1HF68QR8VIL on 2000-04-07
  Monkey Business is the finest glimpse of life on Wall Street since Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker hit the shelves over 10 years ago. When I first got my hands on a copy of the book , I was contemplating a career as a veterinarian versus that of an investment banker. The book made my choice clear: I prefer to treat animals than be treated like one, which apparently is the norm in the investment banking industry. Not only did the book chart my future, it also entertained me along the way. Monkey Business is humor at its best and literally had me laughing out loud as the chapters rolled by. Delightfully descriptive, its unsanitized similes, metaphors, and allusions were so direct and honest that they became charming and sweet. In their prose, Rolfe and Troob give the reader that fly-on-the-wall feeling as they escort us around the confines of the investment banking powerhouse, DLJ. Monkey Business is a must read for anyone considering business school and a highly recommended read for anyone who can read and wants to be educated, informed, and entertained.
  
  

• exaggerated and badly written

  
  By on 2004-04-09
  I don't normally write bad reviews, but felt compelled after I saw the gushing praise on this site, many from young people who say they were considering a career in investment banking but decided against it after reading this book.

  Well, I am a senior investment banker in my tenth year at one of the bulge bracket firms - one of a group that the authors like to make fun of - and I feel compelled to say that this book gives a twisted, exaggerated, and very shallow view. This is not surprising given that the authors only stuck around for 2 years, hardly enough time to understand what investment banking is. Their inexperience shows in this pathetic attempt to emulate Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.

  Yes, investment banking is grueling much of the time, there are jerks above you, and the atmosphere can wear you down. But think about it: you could say the same about being a medical intern, and I don't see many interns trashing the medical profession.

  The fact of the matter is, no company or organization is going to give you glamorous, intriguing work straight out of college or any graduate school. FRESH GRADUATES OF ANY DISCIPLINE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS. This is especially true of the professions (law, architecture, medicine, and I would include investment banking as a profession) where you have to pay a price early on to really master the in-depth knowledge and know-how that the profession demands.

  I went through the same disillusioning process that these authors did. I went to law school, and during my summer internships at law firms I was given drudgery to do, which is why I decided to go into investment banking instead. But, alas, I realized the hard way that the life of a junior investment banker is equally painful. But unless you are a rock star or a star athlete, is anything at the junior level terribly exciting? No, all jobs will have their share of tedium, stupid politics, and exasperating colleagues, especially at the junior levels. Yes, investment banking has more of these pains than your regular corporate jobs, but you also get to learn more and make more money in the process.

  That's not to say that investment banking is for everyone - you do have to sacrifice more in terms of personal life. Moreover, investment banks have dysfunctional management philosophies, where the managers' solution to most problems and dissatisfactions that bankers have with the organization is to throw more money at them.

  If you want to learn how to be a leader and learn how great organizations are run, then stay away from investment banks and join GE or P&G instead. But if you like challenges, problem solving, understanding how businesses work (other than management) and, yes, making lots of money, then investment banking can be rewarding. But of course, if you stick with it for a year or two, you may think it is stupid too, though I think you learn quite a lot in those two years. And I bet that the authors of this book will admit, when they are alone and don't have to try to be so cute or glib, that it was a good learning experience.
  
  

• Hilarious, Great Book

  
  By A1SKROYFBCCF98 on 2000-04-01
  Monkey Business is great! The book is well written and extremely entertaining. The story is lively and the overall cadence of the book makes it easy and fast to read. Rolfe and Troob have a nice style of writing and are two authors that the reader really likes. They seem like good guys. What I really like about the book is that it is not about deals. I was worried that when I picked it up to read that it would be about boring deals. It is just the opposite. It is a joy to read and I think I learned something in the process.

  I have lots of friends who are bankers and I never understood why they never seemed happy. They made lots of money, but always seemed nervous and jumpy. This book allows the reader to "jump on board" and experience what junior investment bankers do. The stories are great and the characters are unforgettable. This book is not just for men. Monkey Business is a great read for anyone who wants to understand banking and laugh while reading and learning. It is perfect for a plane trip or while on vacation. It is lots of fun.
  
  

• Monkey Business is a first-class act!
  By A1E1HF68QR8VIL on 2000-03-28
  Monkey Business is the first good book on investment banking to hit the shelves since Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker. As a friend of a friend of the authors I was able to get my hands on one of the first copies printed, and I shall be eternally grateful for this fact. Before reading the book I was contemplating between going into investment banking or becoming a veterinarian, and the book left no doubts in my mind: I prefer to treat animals than to be treated like one, which is apparently the norm in the investment banking industry. Not only did this book chart my furture, it gave me a bundle of laughs along the way. We're talking humor at its best, the kind of humor that has you laughing aloud even in public places. The book raises the definition of entertainment to new levels. It is delightfully descriptive and informative, and the authors' frequent, unsanitized allusions, similes, and metaphors are so clever and honest that they become charming and sweet . Rolfe and Troob managed to give me that fly-on-the-wall feeling, bringing me inside the actual rooms of the investment banking firms. Monkey Business is a must read for every business school student and a highly recommended read for anyone who can read and is looking to be informed and entertained.
  
  
• Trash this book
  By A1TC5HHLTUY6RN on 2000-04-03
  Monkey Business is the story of two investment bankers trying to make sense out of the career that they have chosen. As we all know, jobs can be stressful and it often helps to temper a little humor to keep one's sanity. However, investment bankers have never been known to be top comedians and Rolfe and Troob are no exception. This book is a whiny litany from two little rich boys from Ivy League schools who did not have the tenacity to put in the hard work it required to rise to the top of their chosen field. It is written in a vernacular that one can only call high school locker room and is about as funny as a fart joke. In their world, banking assistants are to be used as sexual toys, the word processing department is a group of "Christopher Street fairies" and the copy center is "a platoon of patriotic Puerto Ricans". The book is neither informative nor funny.If you want workplace humor, stick with Dilbert.
  
  
• Must read before you consider a career in I-banking
  By A37DAAORNEU8GX on 2002-10-28
  Written by John Rolfe and Peter Troob, the book recounts their journey from MBA school (Wharton and HBS) to Wall Street. Rolfe is the career switcher jumping to investment banking and Troob is the former Kidder Peabody analyst returning because he didn't want to be a consultant and couldn't get a job in private equity. While their interview processes were divergent, their lives ultimately converge with their summer intership at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette (now merged with Credit Suisse First Boston), securing a full-time job offer, and finally finding redemption in the world of hedge funds.
  
  This is a must-read for anyone seriously thinking about investment banking as a career. This book will help job candidates understand the process for getting hired (e.g. culture and fit) and the mascochism that is involved once employed (e.g. late nights, no social life unless strip clubs count) for what is ultimately "monkey work". Associates are paid ridiculous amounts for that does not require reason and/or creativity and for the heaps of abuse piled on from the vice presidents and managing directors. While this book obviously focuses on life at DLJ in the 90s, this book is in my opinion a fairly accurate portrayal of life at all investment banks no matter what insiders at other firms may say...

  Stylistically, the authors take turn writing about their experiences and though with different fonts allowing the reader to easily differentiate the author's thoughts. This is useful in helping you understand which author is offer his thoughts. Overall, it is written in the colloquial manner typical of a men's locker room conversation. Expect numerous references to bodily functions (e.g. farting, defecation) and sex...
  
  

• Very funny, but definitely exaggerated
  By A34U6WKGEO82P2 on 2003-02-21
  Having been an analyst at an investment bank, I faced a few situations that were very similar to the ones mentioned in the book. However, as I read it, it was clear that the authors were trying to exaggerate the pain and suffereing involved in the business. With that aside, it is a very funny account of i-banking life.
  
  
• A must read for new MBA's
  By on 2000-06-28
  As a MBA student at a top B-School, the lure of the investment banking siren rings loud every day. I hear how much my friends are getting offered in banking and think, "What can be so bad?" Thanks to this book, I now realize why the big bucks are there!

  If you are considering going into banking, this book is an absolute "must read". The book is entertaining, easy to read, yet full of content. You feel like you are sitting at the desks with them, getting screamed at. I found myself actually feeling stressed over the routine I saw these guys doing.

  This book is great for anyone in B-school, banking, or business in general. However, if you are not a capitalist, you should probably save your money.

  The language is fairly rough, but I felt it was important because it gave you a good feel for the atmosphere. The limited audience appeal dropped the overall rating a little, so I gave the book 4 stars. If you are interested in this subject, it is a full 5.

  I must admit, the money sounds great, and I may in fact fall in the snare, but I go in with my eyes wide open! Thanks guys!

  john.grounds@sirjohnathon.com
  
  

• Halfway accurate, poorly written, highly glorified
  By on 2002-06-11
  I currently work at CSFB in New York investment banking (yes, we're the company that took over DLJ in what is considered one of the worst mergers in recent history). I've also worked in Salamon Smith Barney and Chase Manhattan. I'm not a banker, I'm an artist who works in the Word Processing Dept.

  I gave it 3 stars only because it is fairly accurate in a lot of the facts, but the portrayal is poorly written and actually offensive. They talk about the "fairies" that work in the Word Processing dept, "busting a move" with and paying off the Puerto Rican copy center guys, urinating on a Managing Director's shoes while drunk at a table, masturbating at his desk late at night.

  In a nutshell this book is 18-25 year old white males from nowhere desperately trying to make investment banking look like John Wayne in the Wild West, which is laughable because bankers are in the most effeminate industry I know of, except for maybe the fashion industry. I'm not quite sure when they started thinking that not having a skill (because anyone, literally can be an investment banker, its not a skilled job) and kissing up to rich old bald men was masculine.

  I do know that the CSFB bankers and the CSFB environment is not at all like this book, however DLJ, which was a much more whites only environment (literally), did actually have a lot more people like the authors in this book. Luckily we got rid of most of them.

  The reality is that investment bankers work 19 hours a day 7 days a week compiling reports, nothing more. It's neither glamorous nor exciting. It's boring, stupid work.

  Its sad really, the ones who are in it for any length of time miss out on their developing years and typically become nothing more than shells of human beings.
  
  

• Monkey Business is da bomb
  By on 2000-04-01
  This book was da bomb. This is exactly the kind of truth that the establishment doesn't want spoken. I wouldn't be surprised if the big investment banks all banded together and tried to get this old puppy squashed. Ha! Not able to. God bless America, the 1st amendement, and the two guys who wrote this book. Funny as all hell.
  
  
• Where's The Plot?
  By on 2000-04-26
  While Monkey Business contains some funny anecdotes, two things become quickly aparent when you read this book. The first is that Troob and Rolfe are a couple of clowns. I have little sympathy for a banker who complains that he doesn't get any sleep, but spends a few nights a week at Shenanagans until 4am. However, they should be commended for not masking their initial naivite in the industry as it makes some of their actions understandable.

  The second (and most important) is that the story reads like a pitch book of complaints - section by section with no conflict or compelling reason to keep you reading. The book is enjoyable in chunks, but it could have been so much better in more capable hands.

  Anyone dying to read a great book about Wall Street greed should check out Liar's Poker and F.I.A.S.C.O. Monkey Business will leave you wanting more than it can give.
  
  

• Money, Power, Glitz, and Glamour!!
  By A57Q87B0TC9IJ on 2002-08-24
  First, a confession. Another reviewer posted a scathing review of this book and said it was so bad he would send it for free to anyone who wanted it. I took him up on his offer and promised to write a similar review if I felt the same way. The problem is... I really liked this book!

  I wanted to read Monkey Business as I used to consider investment banking as a career and wondered if the tremendous investment of time and money was worth it. The answer, according to authors Rolfe and Troob, is a resounding "NO." You will probably make a lot of money once you do get in. But ultimately it's not worth it, not by a long shot.

  Written during the height of dot-com mania, the authors pull no punches in proceeding to lambaste almost every aspect of the house of money formerly known as Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette, as well as the entire investment banking industry. It's an episode of "Behind the Music - Wall Street", that strips away the Hollywood notion of the wealthy, jet-setting investment banker and exposes the underbelly of tedious boredom, bureaucracy, posturing, and incompetence that make up this awful work environment. The book is so strong in its criticisms that I'm surprised Rolfe and Troob weren't sued for libel. Given all the Wall Street scandals making the headlines lately, they'd probably get their money back.

  Colorful language is an understatement. By the end of the book, the guys are doing calculations to determine the "expected value" of attempting to bed a banking assistant at the holiday party versus the "present value" of a sure thing at the local strip club. The chauvanism, vulgarity, racism and anecdotes comparing co-workers and bosses to everything from dung beetles to excrement might lead you to believe they're exaggerating just to trash their former employer. However, the numerous reviews on this site exclaiming, "Yes! This IS life at (-insert investment bank here-)" could indicate they may not be far from the truth.

  Ironically, my latest read, Frank Partnoy's F.I.A.S.C.O., describes the investment banking division (IBD) as follows: "In IBD, young associates spent twenty-four hour days preparing 'books,' the bound presentations senior bankers flipped through during meetings with corporate executives. You took a job there at your peril. After several years preparing these flip books, you would either be fired or promoted, assuming you were still alive. After several more years you would be allowed to carry the books to meetings, and at some point you might even be permitted to speak... I wanted to steer clear of IBD."

  Ultimately, I believe the authors succeeded in writing a book that provides an honest account of the business. Those in the industry are sure to get a good laugh out of it and those considering this career should definitely read this book first.

  Hope the review helped.
  
  

• Wonderfully Hilarious
  By A3M1ASDBPZTI5X on 2000-07-16
  Oh yeah, those guys on Wall St. are rakin' in the dough and living the high life. Right? Wrong! This book is a hilarious account of two investment bankers (IB's) and their exhausting lives as associates at DJL. The book covers their pre-IB lives in business school (at Harvard and Wharton) all the way to the end of their IB days. Whether you're in the industry, know some one in the industry, or have absolutely no connection to the banking industry whatsoever, you will love this book!
  
  
• Excellent Book! Both Wildly Funny and Accurate.
  By A2ZB704TRMOL4O on 2000-04-01
  As a former junior investment banker, this book brought back chilling memories of my life as an associate in an investment bank. Rolfe and Troob have really captured the essence of what life is like at ground zero and how easy it is too get caught up in the bizarre culture. The book is a quick read and had me laughing out loud. It is the next Liar's Poker or Bonfire of the Vanities. This book is great for everyone as it lays bear the mystique surrounding Wall Steet -- and it is a must read for anyone working on Wall Street or considering it. I hope they make a movie out of it.
  
  
• Vulgarity Lives!
  By AVFAFSN7FUDMW on 2000-04-04
  How typical of a person who works at a successful firm to write a bunch of garbage about the firm that pushed this person above the ordinary and through the mill to become a trained and skilled Wall Street employee. I for one thought this book would be a good read, and looked forward to its release. How disappointing for me! I can only hope that the garbage spewed by these so called former bankers does not reflect how many others on the street feel towards their fellow workers, the work and their firm! I am proud to state that I work for the very firm they are slamming, but then they could not withstand the challenge of the firm they are writing about. I have been at DLJ for 14 years and can honestly say, only the good survive at DLJ. Others write books!
  
  
• Entertaining but biased
  By on 2000-10-10
  First let me say that this book was fun to read. I finished the entire book in about a day. I found their stories entertaining and interesting. However...that's fine for a fiction book, but since this book presents itself as an honest look inside the industry, entertainment is not enough.

  What the authors fail to realize is that anything worth having requires sacrifice. The greater the reward, the more you must be willing to give up. An Olympic athlete must sacrifice free time or eating that pizza and suffer through hours upon hours of painful practice in order to make it to the final round. A doctor must go through undergrad school, med school, and years and years of grueling work before actually becoming a doctor. So is the case with investment banking. Do the authors really think that having a job that pays multiples of six figures--and maybe seven--is going to be easy? Of course it isn't!! There is nothing wrong with admitting (which they didn't) that it isn't the right thing for everone to do, but to make the blanket statement that their book does that banking is a horrible place and nobody in their right mind would do it is not fair. Why didn't they just say that it wasn't their "thing" instead of being insulting? The rewards required a sacrifice that they weren't willing to give, but some people are willing to make that sacrifice.

  Yes the authors moved onto greener pastures with the hedge fund world, but what they don't say is that without their banking experience, they would have gotten to those pastures at all.

  There was little insight on how deals were constructed which to me would have been more entertaining then listening to the authors whine.

  Also, the spelling mistakes, third grade writing, and shortness of the book, would make me think twice about buying this again.
  
  

• 5 Stars for the book, 0 Stars for the authors
  By AIFX0RAO0S6L8 on 2000-12-23
  I have a friend who graduated 2nd in our high school class, went on to a topnotch university, scored exceptionally well on her GMAT, went on to a topnotch business school, and is now an I-banker. She loves the job. She's a perfect fit for it. She also happens to be a wonderful person. Ever since she was in junior high she has wanted to be "rich." Money has always been her biggest motivator. It's what motivated her throughout high school to repeatedly get straight A's. It's what motivated her to take prep courses for the SAT's. It's what motivated her to pull many all-nighters throughout college. It's what motivated her to thoroughly prepare for the GMAT. It's what motivated her to work exceptionally hard in business school. It's what motivated her to pursue a career in investment banking. It's also why she doesn't mind the "monkey business" involved in being an investment banker. She has absolutely no regrets. She makes the kind of money she has always dreamed of making. She also very much enjoys traveling the world and is now able to do so as much as she likes. When I read the reviews of this book I see mostly jealousy in the remarks. Many people pick up this book because they know reading it will make them feel better about their own situation in life. They can thumb their nose at investment bankers. My whole point is this: Many investment bankers love what they do. Many people say in their remarks that the next time they see "a Wall Street type" that they're going to laugh. All I'm saying is that before you do that realize that person most likely loves what they do and wouldn't want to be doing anything else. I give the book 5 stars because when it comes to entertainment purposes it is worthy of such a high rating. I give the authors 0 stars because I think they lack class. Just because they weren't cut out for investment banking it is no reason to ridicule the profession or others in it.
  
  
• Real Investment Banker says "Accurate and Entertaining"
  By A1AND9840DAP7V on 2001-12-18
  Anyone who thinks this book is untrue or is in any way an exaggeration obviously has not gone through the experience of being a junior investment banker. I have spent the past two years as an analyst (pre-MBA) at an investment bank and can honestly say that this book is an accurate representation of what goes on in investment banking. When the book came out, many junior bankers (analysts and associates) immediately picked up copies of the book and thoroughly enjoyed it as it summed up what makes banking such an awful work environment in a fast reading format. The book gave comfort to us bankers as it demonstrated that the type of things that happens at DLJ happens at other banks as well. Investment banking is truly a dysfunctional place to be with senior bankers having absolutely no concern for what happens to the junior bankers. I would highly recommend this book as it is very entertaining and very accurate and I would also recommend anyone thinking of working at an investment bank to do something else, as the money is really not worth all of the (...) you have to deal with on a daily basis.
  
  
• Sad but true
  By on 2003-07-31
  One of the things I find so interesting about this book is that when reviewers who either still work in investment banking (or who cite friends who do) undermine the veracity and extremity of the authors claims, they become living proof that Troob's revelatory conclusion in the final chapters is absolutely true.

  The problem with I-banking seems to be that its culture brainwashes its practioners into thinking that they are indeed Masters of the Universe - the world revolves around them. The extraordinary recruiting pitches delivered by the senior bankers and described by the authors were just the beginning of the process - reinforced by the unlimited expenses, enormous bonus checks and ego-bolstering (and not quite honest) appraisals. As M&A bankers at an elite firm, Troob and Rolfe sat at the top of a pyramid of self-perception, viewing and often treating everyone below them in a pretty insulting way. Below them in this pyramid were were M&A bankers at other firms; then, their own colleagues in other departments at CSFB, such as the equity traders and salesmen, then probably just below that, the clients. Ranking even further down the pecking order came lawyers and CPAs, and then right at the bottom the real dregs: the financial printers, photocopiers, PR people, lap-dancers. It was more or less unthinkable to any self-respecting egotistical i-banker to voluntarily leave these ranks, or even worse, move down the pyramid, except occasionally when offered huge financial enticement to defect to do the same job at a more prestigious M&A firm.

  Why? It's like a mirage. I-bankers don't live on top of any pyramids, and aren't really superhuman: they're just suspended in a web of self-persuasion that they are, because otherwise why would or could any human tolerate such unpleasant working conditions? They don't usually realize that the planet would keep on rotating without the activities of their M&A department until they leave the rat race, the mirage dissolves, and they can see their former life from a normal person's perspective - apart from Troob, that is. What was so cool about this book was the extreme circumstance which led Troob to his moment of revelation - while he was still working at the bank. While extreme, it perfectly captured the unique self-centeredness of the i-bankers world in a way I don't think any similar book has done to date.
  
  

• Funny!
  By A19ICFUGOSZIRQ on 2004-08-25
  A lot of people compare this book to Liar's Poker, and with good reason. Both tell the tales of young MBAs and their experiences at invesment banks. The big difference here, is that this book answers the question of what it's like to be a junior investment banker in your first year. Liar's Poker is more of a book about the climate on Wall Street in the Reagan years, spliced with personal stories. Monkey Business is ALL personal stories, most of them quite funny, about what you can expect if you're considering being a junior investment banker at a bulge-bracket firm.
  
  Of all the Wall Street books I've read (I've read several) this one offers the least insight into the financial climate of the times, what kind of business was being done, etc. It's basically a diary of two guys, one who worked on Wall Street and should have known better, and one rookie to the world of I-banking, from enrolling in top-tier MBA programs to their last frustrating days as co-workers at DLJ. Because of this, it's a quick read and highly relatable.
  
  
• wall street buffoons
  By A20QIVJA3QID6R on 2000-04-07
  As an attorney who represents several Wall Street clients, I couldn't wait to read this book, which promised to give me a glimpse behind the $2000 suits and formal demeanor of the men and women (mostly men) who sit in my conference room striving to convey an aura of power and prestige. The book was better than I could have hoped. Not only did it confirm one of my nagging suspicions-- that these men are deeply flawed-- but it made me laugh out loud. The sheer enormity of the egos and the psychological insecurities is almost beyond belief, and if it wasn't for the honesty of the authors, it would in fact be easy to dismiss this book as the ravings of disgruntled employees. But the stories told here have the ring of truth, and the authors don't shy away from skewering themselves in the process, no matter how embarassing their revelations may be. The men of power immortalized in this book reminded me of immature frat-boys engaging in ritualized debauchery, only these men now have the power and the money to do things that college kids could only dream of. This is a wonferful book about a bizarre world that is rarely seen in all its ugliness. I now see my clients in an entirely new light, and there are even times in meetings when I have to stifle a chuckle because I am thinking of a scene from the book and wondering if maybe one of these men has done the exact same thing.
  
  
• The system works fine
  By A2L9K5BV3UI45 on 2000-07-23
  Having had the pleasure of working with investment bankers from several firms recently, this person was looking forward to learning more about what these guys have to go through. Sure, the hours are tough and long, and the perks are even more tremendous than anyone could imagine. But go figure, to succeed in any high powered profession, there is a period of ungodly work hours required, and a true dedication to be successful. Go ask any physician, who has to work harder in the early parts of a career than any banker. The authors prove what anyone who has been through a successful career chase knows, to be able to persevere and be successful at something, you have to enjoy doing what you are doing. The system has a way of weeding out those who are only in it for the money, and it worked fine here. Rolfe and Troob are opposites in many respects, but brought together by a disdain for a career path they had chosen - and chosen only to get rich. Troob on the one hand, decides that life has more to offer than the commitment to a successful career in investment banking would allow. He comes across as decent, bright and able to be successful at lots of things. Misery loves company, and Rolfe is the loser who even after leaving DLJ can't make it in a job. He tells how he got in through good fortune, and appears to detest every thing he was doing. Now let me see, I get a job, but I can't stand the work, and I hate it, therefore the system must be terrible that this career that pays so well isn't fun for me. Jealous of those who are successful in a career where he doesn't belong, he tries to blame the system for creating the scumbag that he is, and take it down with him on his spiral to nowhere. The American dream has warped to the desire to be financially successful without having to pay the price. The instant riches of Lotto drawings and the drive-through McDonalds mentality of financial expectations are alive and well in Rolfe. By writing the trash called Monkey Business and wrapping it in the glamour of Wall Street, Rolfe and Troob give a powerful example of just how easy the warped American Dream can be.
  
  
• Great at describing what beginning bankers do
  By A136YD08SCJ2LV on 2000-05-27
  This book did a great job of describing what beginning I-bankers do. Unfortunately, the clear bias that they didn't like their jobs is too strong. Nothing good was said about any Managing Directors. Now surely, we could find some social, redeeming value in a person you worked for when you worked for so many? Or maybe controversy and criticism sells better.

  The book goes into extreme detail of the mundane tasks of an I-banker, ie, copy duties, word processing duties. Do we really need a chapter on these subjects? They leave the impression that they never used their brain at all and the whole profession is a shame. Isn't that a little strong? I particularly like his comment in due diligence that beginning attorneys are lower than I-Bankers. I thought that was a little self-serving.

  I don't underestimate the hard work the authors put in and while I think they could have included some positives of their job, I did learn how mundane the job can be and recommend this book to anyone interested in finance and particularly a career on Wall Street. Everyone knows the risk/reward of making big money on Wall Street. Yes, maybe you have to sacrifice horribly to have a chance to be a managing director. But the rewards are so great, it's understandable why so many people try. In the end, maybe these two guys were a little soft or just didn't want it bad enough. Irregardless, I enjoyed the read but just wish it had had more "meat" in the subjects.
  
  

• They speak the truth.
  By on 2000-07-13
  For years, investment banking has been a staple of the business school recruiting machine. Other fads (Internet, VC, private equity) come and go, but investment banking is always there calmly picking off some of the best and brightest to fill their ranks. Horror stories from summer banking internships have always floated around the business schools, but until now nobody has put names and faces to them. I'm glad they did, because I haven't read anything more entertaining in a long time. Monkey Business will hopefully cause those who are thinking of going into investment banking to do some hard thinking about what matters to them before they prostrate themselves on the altar of megabucks. This is the best education that you'll get!
  
  
• Another DLJer...
  By on 2000-05-05
  Pretty entertaining, but the book has no real plot or story flow. Additionally, most bankers I know don't have the authors' sophomoric, frat-inspired sense of humor and view of non-blue blooders, and can write at a level more sophisticated than a high school senior's.
  
  
• Made me laugh, and made me glad I'm not a banker
  By A21CXR9Z495DEU on 2001-07-21
  I'm tempted to give this one 5 stars, but time will tell -- books like these always tend to seem better when you first read them than the second time around -- especially when that's 5 years down the road.

  First, it's nice to have a 90's update of what life is (supposedly) really like in the trenches of Wall St. I'd read Liar's Poker (a look at life as a trader in the 80's) just a few weeks ago. The obvious topical differences between the two are:

  1) "Monkey Business" is about the 90's, not the 80's 2) "Monkey Business" looks at M&A guys, whereas LP was about (bond) traders 3) "Monkey Business" looks DLJ, whereas LP looks at Salomon Brothers.

  This book is hilarious first and foremost. Anybody could read this book and get a huge laugh, although think twice before giving this to your mother to ease her concerns about your new life as a banker -- one of the authors is humorously, but graphically, frank about how he goes about his (solo) "love life" inside the office. It's the solo bit that I found so funny.

  Secondly -- don't read this book if you don't want to be talked out of the banking world (at least the M&A wing). The examples of communiques between associate, vice president, back to associate, back to vice president, to sr. VP, back to associate, back to VP, ad nauseum -- all over the proper capitalization of "Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette" would be terrifying if they weren't so funny. Makes me think of these guys as glorified copy boys, in suits, on non-stop international flights, who *really* like to frequent strip joints.

  My cousin just graduated college and just accepted his first job -- as an M&A guy for one of the big banks. Someone recommended he read this book. Unfortunately for him -- he took their advice -- and boy is *he* sweating bullets now. I never saw the guy read a book so fast in his life -- he was too terrifyingly fascinated with what was about to become of his life to put it down.

  Best of luck to him -- and to you, if you're reading this as the hysterical primer on M&A life that it is.
  
  

• Sadly It's True
  By on 2003-12-04
  After doing a three year tour of duty in the investment banking industry, I can say with much confidence that this book is more true than it is fiction. Granted there seems to be some exaggeration for comedic purpose. This book gives a good depiction of the life of a junior I-banker (associate or analyst). It's also a very entertaining description of the classic "churn and burn" philosophy of I-banking. For anyone with any interest in the finance industry, this will be an easy read and a good chuckle. That being said, my parents (neither in finance) stole my copy and laughed non-stop particularly in regards to one of Rolfe's more revealing late night endeavors.
  
  
• Monkey Business: Wall Street 101 for all bankers
  By A3IPVJ7XHQJV9U on 2000-04-01
  Finally someone is speaking the truth about life on Wall Street. It is amazing with what tricks and finesse investment banks recruit young people into their torture chambers and turn them into money-hungry paper-pushing machines. It was delightful to read Monkey Business and learn that other former Investment Bankers feel the same way. And its a relief to know that Rolfe and Troob have made their way out of the industry and moved onto bigger and better things. I highly recommend this book for anyone currently or historically involved with the whole Investment Banking and Wall Street culture. It certainly is hilarious to read about the authors' own experiences, and you can even learn a thing or two.
  
  

• Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street
• When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
• The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade That Transformed Wall Street
• Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
• Den of Thieves