Harvard students both rush to investment banking info sessions and lambaste them in editorials. They speak ironically of "i-bankers" and long hours on The Street. The field, though, remains a mystery to most students--even to some who are planning to pack up and move south after graduation to spend 80 hours a week crunching numbers and pushing papers in a New York i-banking firm.

Investment banking, in the most general sense, involves advising clients, usually businesses, on managing funds as well as helping to engineer mergers and acquisitions between these companies.

Entry-level salaries of up to $50,000--plus bonuses--can lure students who have little experience with finance or investing. Reports from inside the firms confirm that only those prepared for the heat end up enjoying their investing jobs.

Ning Wang '97, who is in his second and last year of training at Merrill Lynch, says the work involved with the entry-level investment banking positions is often long and tiresome.

"Those first years can be pretty hellish and not worth the money for some," he says. With the long hours, young investment bankers need a strong interest in finance or business to sustain them, Wang says. He cautioned against entering banking "just for the sake of doing something."

Wang works in the branch of Merrill Lynch that advises health care clients on managing investments. He says that upon entering the office, at about 9 a.m., he is involved in everything from entering numbers into the computer to doing basic research.

Much of his work consists of helping to create "pitch books," which are presentations to sell the firm's investment plan to a client. These pitch books, sometimes called prospectuses, play the role of both a marketing document as well as a legal document, according to Tom J. Hsieh '97, an analyst at the firm Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette. The prospectus is used to sell the company to possible investors, but it also protects the investor from scams.

In addition to the hefty amount of paperwork, analysts do everything from answering phones, to scheduling plane flights and limousine rides when company executives travel to meet with client management.

"You have the role of being a total gimp," one banker says.

He rarely leaves work before 8 p.m. and says that during his first year there were spans of three to four months where he never made it home before midnight.

Wang says he, along with many of the other bankers he knows, consider the type of banking he is involved with as a temporary job. He thinks of it as a way to enter the world of buying and selling stocks and bonds, work that he finds more interesting.

Many analysts enter i-banking firms right after college and only stay for only two or three years. Hsieh cites the fact that he is going through the two-year training program with 15 others--only one of whom plans to continue with the firm after the program ends.

"The job is a great springboard to do other things in finance. It's grueling though. It is akin to slavery and it will break you," Hsieh says.

Mona Abraham '97, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, offers a more optimistic view of her investment banking job. But she stresses that she is not involved in what is traditionally thought of as investment banking.

Instead, Abraham helps clients decide in what form their debt should take. She helps them distribute their debt between stock issuance, bond purchase and borrowing. In the office, she spends most of her time trading bonds or on the phone with clients.

"It's fun and it's intellectually stimulating," Abraham says about her work.

Abraham has found that even a person in an entry-level position like hers can take on responsibility. A senior member of the firm manages each account. A junior member is associated with each senior member.

"You can do as much as you are qualified to," Abraham says. "It just depends on what you are capable of."

After the completing training programs, upward mobility is a possibility in most investment firms. Hsieh says that the process is usually very structured with the requirements for advancement very clear. However, he adds that many bankers wish to move to different areas of finance instead of concentrating on moving up in the company where they trained.

Walk into an investment banking office, and you will see mostly young faces. Since bankers are drawn directly from colleges, a characteristic office is made up mostly of people in their twenties. Both Abraham and Wang say their offices' social atmosphere is a benefit of their jobs.

"It's sort of like school again. You get a bunch of 22-year olds hanging out late at night. It's not very formal, so people will play music at night and joke around," Wang says.

Abraham says that she never feels isolated, rather the large amount of work each client demands makes the work team-oriented.

"Most our stuff is teamwork," she says.

Despite their affinity for numbers and balances, bankers try to enjoy the excitement in their field.

"It could get tense in the trading room," Abraham says. "A sense of humor alleviates the tension."