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Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle

john rolfe peter troob

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Animal House meets Liar's Poker in this hysterically funny, often unbelievable, and absolutely, positively true account of life at DLJ, one of the hottest investment banks on Wall Street.




"Like most other young business school graduates, John Rolfe and Peter Troob thought that life in a major investment banking firm would make their wildest dreams come true -- it would be fast-paced, intellectually challenging, glamorous, and, best of all, lucrative.




They were in for a surprise. For behind the walls of Wall Street's firms lies a stratum of stunted, overworked, abused, and in the end, very well-compensated, but very frustrated men and women. Monkey Business takes readers behind the scenes at Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette (DLJ), one of Wall Street's hottest firms of the 90s, from the interview process to the courting of clients to bonus time. It's a glimpse of a side of the business the financial periodicals don't talk about -- 20-hour work days, trips across the country where associates do nothing except carry the pitch book, strip clubs at night, inflated salaries, and high-powered, unforgettable personalities.




Monkey Business provides readers with a first-class education in the real life of an investment banker. But best of all, it is an extremely funny read about two young men who, on their way towards achieving the American dream, quickly realized they were selling their souls to get there."

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2000

This edition

Format
288 pages, Paperback
Published
April 1, 2001 by Grand Central Publishing
ISBN
9780446676953
ASIN
0446676950
Language
English

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About the author

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john rolfe

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
36(36%)
4 stars
38(38%)
3 stars
26(26%)
2 stars
0(0%)
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100 reviews All reviews
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Shaya
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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An entertaining read that does a good job of offering a layman understanding of the world of investment banking in a candid and lively, easy to read manner. Even if taken with a grain of salt, it struck the perfect balance between being outright hilarious and engaging, but also very informative and a form of a mid-late 20's/early career coming-0f-age story for the authors.
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KILLJONITAS
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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After an internship interview, the interviewer asked me to read this book and to get back to him with my thoughts and whether or not I still wanted to work for him. I devoured the book in a couple of days. Such an easy and fun read.

The authors depicted fairly how things go in the IB industry: From dealing with clients to supervisors, and even give guidelines on how to be a good sycophant to the printing team; after all your deliverable depends on them.

Following a short career in IB and a longer one in transaction advisory, I still remember some examples from the book. It makes me smirk and accept in a way an otherwise unacceptable behavior.

A great book that I highly recommend to anyone.
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Jiji
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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This book was recommended to me by an interviewer at a prospective employer, and seems to be an honest account of life in investment banking, based on second hand knowledge from friends working in industry. Nevertheless, it is a hilarious and engaging piece, that reinforces my confirmatory bias in not pursuing a career in investment banking.
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ikutocraz3d
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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this was a very entertaining and funny read! out of pure enjoyment this would gets 4.8 stars, but since it has to be a whole number and i’m struggling to justify actually giving this 5 stars because the writing wasn’t spectacular nor do i deem this life changing, it’ll have to go back down to 4 stars.

anyways this book an autobiography of two friends in investment banking, and basically its just them flaming the financial industry/wall street. and while it was hilarious to read, it was actually quite off-putting. everything from long hours, excessive materialism, dehumanization, slaving away at useless boring bullshitting work, drug abuse, extreme hookup culture, manipulation, and living for the hopes of this unattainable dream (ok gatsby vibes?)

i also learned a lot and think it was the perfect time for me to read this. i had just enough background information to take away a lot from this. it also had some good review of the m&i 400 haha. so i think this was a perfect mix of educational, entertaining, and realization. but also i think this would be an interesting and easy read for anyone who is remotely interested in the dramatized? life at wall street.
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Chie_Satonaka
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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I am pleasantly surprised by this book. It has a good mix of humour and insights (albeit a little crude). I would recommend this book to those who are interested in and/or curious about investment banking.
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Dorped
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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This is an absolutely honest and hilarious look into the lives of Associates in i-banking. I read it while I was an analyst and couldn't stop laughing (poop does roll downhill, trust me). This book is filled with true Wall Street war stories and I highly recommend to anyone who wants a glimpse of that world. If you lived it like I did, you are probably already trying to figure out how to monetize your own experiences :-P
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4474289
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Recommend reading this if you want to understand the day to day life of junior investment bankers.
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