Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle [Paperback]

John Rolfe (Author), Peter Troob (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2001

They Hit "The Street." Forget what you've read, forget what you've heard, forget what you've been taught. Monkey Business pulls off Wall Street's suspenders and gives the reader the inside skinny on real life at an investment bank, where the promised land is always one more twenty-hour workday and another lap dance away. "The Street" Hit Back. Fresh out of Wharton and Harvard business schools, John Rolfe and Peter Troob ran willingly into the open arms of investment bank giant Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. They had signed on as foot soldiers in a white-collar army of overworked and frustrated lemmings furiously trying to spin straw into gold. They escaped with the remnants of their sanity-and, ultimately, this book. Uncensored, unsanitized, and uncut, it captures the chaotic essence of the Wall Street carnival and the outlandish personalities that make it all hum...and it will become the smartest, most entertaining investment you'll make this year.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As eager-beaver business school students, Rolfe and Troob garnered job offers as junior associates at the elite Wall Street investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, lured by dreams of wealth, glamour and power. Readers whose fascination with Wall Street shenanigans has been fueled by Michael Lewis's Liar's Poker will find this thorough rundown of an investment bank associate's daily routine sobering. By the time Rolfe and Troob were able to discern the key fact that the "investment banking community has long been an oligopoly, with only a handful of real players with the size and scale to drive through the big deals," they were already grappling with the gritty reality of performing grunt labor in an environment ruled by despotic senior partners who called innumerable meetings to set unrealistic deadlines and make superhuman demands on anybody within screaming distance. The authors' resulting disappointment and disaffection leaps off every page. Unfortunately, they take out their frustrations with indiscriminate potshots at such easy targets as word processors ("Christopher Street fairies"), copy center personnel ("a platoon of patriotic Puerto Ricans" they offhandedly refer to as "militants") and female research analysts (whom they describe as "under-sexed, eager-to-please"). Long before the hapless authors have stooped to expressing their fury at the bank by such puerile antics as urinating into a beer bottle while seated at a banquet table at the Christmas party, readers will have had enough. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Time was when you took a job that you realized was not for you, you made the best of it and moved on. Now, though, you get your bitter revenge by writing a book trashing your former employer and coworkers. Rolfe and Troob worked as associates at investment banking powerhouse Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. It's hard to sympathize with the pair. Their first full-year compensation was about eight times what average college graduates earn at their first job, and they traveled by private jet, stayed in the best hotels, and ate in the best restaurants. On the other hand, they put in 20-hour days, suffered the abuse of "rabid, power-mad bosses," and lacked meaningful personal lives. Relying heavily on "frat-house" humor, they tell the tale of their brief careers. Rolfe and Troob do provide some insight into what investment bankers do, and their story may serve as a warning to others considering entering the field. But if, as they claim, business school graduates are clamoring for such jobs, this warning will fall on deaf ears. David Rouse --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Business Plus; First Paperback Edition edition (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446676950
• ISBN-13: 978-0446676953
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (312 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Male Locker Room Humor about Investment Banking, September 19, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle (Hardcover)

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.

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monkey Business is a first class act!, April 6, 2000

By 

Shirley Wright (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle (Hardcover)

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.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read for new MBA's, June 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle (Hardcover)

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!

[e-mail]