A day in the life of a corporate banker

The day begins at 8:30am as she drives to work. The road seems choked. As usual another traffic jam on II Chundrigar road. All of a sudden she hears a thud. She realizes someone just banged into her brand new Civic given to her by her bank. She votes if she should get off to inspect but realizes she’s already late for a client meeting. Like most corporate bankers her life revolves around 90-hour work weeks crafting deals that she will present to prospective clients.

Her first meeting starts with a possible client where she has to present the pros of her bank even though she knows her bank might be giving lousy service. Her next meeting is a lunch scheduled by her boss at Sakura, PC where over a few drinks her boss discusses golf while she herself presents the competitive rates the bank can offer the company.

In between she receives a call from her friends in the fashion industry inviting her to a launch of a new fashion brand, but she turns down their invitation knowing that she would either be in office or too lethargic to go out at night.

The red light on her blackberry blinks because of low battery as she gets transaction requests all day from existing clients while she argues for better service with the bank’s internal trade departments.

On her way back to office she and her colleagues discuss the implications of political and macroeconomic trends, and she personally thinks of taking a take at trying to unearth some new business from the client. If she can do that, it would impress her boss and pave the way to a job description with fewer spreadsheets and more five-star dinners—not to mention a six-figure raise.

On the way home at 9pm after getting stuck in yet another traffic jam for an hour at Chundrigar Road she stops to work out in a gym before she slumps in front of the television at home to watch stock market news before hitting the sack at 12am.

Nojeba Haider is a corporate banker who tweets here .