When you reflect on your banking career — the thousands of pitch books, the countless analyses, iterations, scenarios, recommendations, and timetables — the gnawing question is whether you ever really added any value. Were you a strategic advisor and master tactician or just a Willy Loman with more air miles?

My boss sent me a message this year. I don’t want to hear it

The investment bank compensation process is as much ritual as reckoning — a yearly exercise in hope, dread, and, for some, quiet fury. But while everyone’s sweats over their number, few stop to ask how it’s calculated. Here’s a blow-by-blow breakdown of what really happens behind closed doors

How can I rise above the persistent short-termism on my desk?

If bankers face tough rules over personal investments, shouldn’t politicians too?

Make their weakness your strength, but find your future fiefdom