Day in the life: Olaf Van Tuijl, investment banking analyst

0730 The alarm goes off in my flat in Islington, in London. It is very conveniently situated for work. Every morning I walk the short distance to the bus station and buy a cappuccino before settling on to the bus and reading the newspaper. I prefer the bus to the tube; it's more laid back.

0830 I arrive at the office. My first task is checking all my voicemails and emails. Some are from clients; some are internal. Every morning there are things to be done or documents to be sent.

I work within the financial institutions group of the investment banking department. We provide strategic advisory services mainly on financing and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to banks, insurers, asset managers and other financial institutions.

I'm focused on the Benelux market and spend a lot of time travelling in Europe. Over the past year, about 40% of my time has been spent outside the London office.

After dealing with emails and voice messages, I scan all the latest news, looking for things concerning the Benelux market. I usually send a short email to my direct colleagues summarising the main stories as information is key!

0930 One hour after I've arrived, the day begins in earnest. Advisory work is very wide ranging. You normally work on several different projects simultaneously. Each project is unique.

In addition, the workstreams within a project differ from day to day. One day I could be focussing on a client presentation discussing acquisition opportunities in the banking sector, the next day I could be engaged in financial modeling of an asset manager etc. No two days are the same.

This morning I started by sending out some information I prepared for the potential purchasers of a subsidiary of a client company.

Then I settle down to work on a pitchbook. Pitchbooks are basically ideas, i.e. strategic advice, presented by investment bankers to their clients.

They could cover everything from strategic and financial analysis, to industry benchmarking and ideas on mergers and financing opportunities.

Putting together a pitchbook is not about producing a presentation, but delivering the right message in the right order with the right arguments. The practical side includes collecting information on a company and its targets, including annual reports, press releases and interim reports, and presenting it originally and logically.

In investment banking we work in small groups. At the top of each group is a managing director (MD), or client executive, who manages client relationships and talks to clients about different strategic possibilities.

If a client is interested in pursuing an opportunity, the MD enlists the assistance of a vice president (VP), associate, and an analyst (me). Then the work begins.

Compiling a pitchbook is a joint effort. Essentially, the MD provides the rough guidelines, the VP sets out what it should contain, the associate adds detail, and the analyst establishes the actual presentation under supervision of the VP and Associate.

I'm currently working on five different projects. This is not unusual, and makes it important that I am able to multitask and prioritise. It's a judgment call: I know that I have a deadline this Monday, a deadline on 18th Feb and another on 24th of Feb; I also have an ongoing live transaction that consumes most of my time.

It's all about making sure that everything is happening at once.

I begin with a small pitchbook that I'm preparing for a couple of US bankers who are visiting one of their clients in Europe. I need to map small private companies in a particular area of the Benelux market.

It's a question of describing every company and showing their key financials. Unearthing this kind of data can be difficult for unlisted companies. Fortunately, we have an in-house business research service to assist us.

1300 Most days I eat a sandwich at my desk, and try to read the paper to catch up with the latest news. Lunch is a flexible affair and if there is time I meet up with colleagues in our canteen.

1400 The afternoon is devoted to work on the live transaction. I'm preparing an information memorandum in advance of a company sale. I call the client to ensure that information I have is correct, and confer with them on how to present it.

This is one of the amazing things about investment banking: after only a year and a half, I already have a lot of contact with finance directors and other senior corporate staff.

Working on a live M&A transaction differs considerably, depending upon whether a company is to be bought or sold. If you're working on the buyside (i.e. buying a company) everything is run by another bank. A strict procedure is adhered to. Firstly you receive all the information on the company for sale. You have to scan it in detail, build valuations, and discuss with the client their interest in going ahead with a potential purchase.

If you are on the sellside (i.e. selling a company), as I am in this instance, then you are in charge.

First comes the information memorandum, which describes the company for sale in detail. The memorandum is circulated to parties who expressed their interest after being contacted by our bankers.

Normally a list is produced with the most likely buyers. These parties are contacted by sending them a 'Teaser': a small memo describing the opportunity on a no-name basis.. All these different workstreams are performed in co-operation with my associate.

An M&A process is strictly run and involves many different steps, each of which are confidential and require a lot of work. Three weeks into the sale process, we expect to receive 'non-binding' offers from some purchasers.

We discuss these with our clients, and if they want to go ahead, we invite the potential purchasers to visit a data room. This is a physical place, usually in a lawyer's office, which contains all the information pertaining to the company being sold.

Together with a team of advisors, the purchaser visits the data room for a week or two, and examines it with a fine-toothed comb.

If there is more than one potential purchaser, we set up more than one data room. The rooms are in different places: none of the interested parties must be aware of the existence of the others. Working on a sell-side deal is all about organisation.

1845 It's going to be a late night. Normally I have dinner in our canteen or order something in. Working hours in investment banking do not follow a set pattern. After I've eaten, I put in some extra time on one of the other pitchbooks.

The hours in investment banking are sometimes unquestionably long, but if you're doing something interesting, time passes quickly.

2330 I leave the office and take a cab back to Islington. It's midnight by the time I get home. I'm very happy to get into bed.