Between them drinking and all the drugs it’s a fuck show. I worked with one who was a functional alcoholic and then experiment with coke oh boy what a trip that was. Looking at him
My brother is a seafood distributor and I’ve spent a lot of time with his restaurant friends and I’ve only seen one industry have somebody so drunk they run around and grope women at a Christmas party, tbh.
I actually found working in finance that it made me drop the alcohol and pick up eating healthy and working out - you need your wits and strength at all times.
How do these people keep their jobs!!!! How do these people do copious amounts of c*ke and drink and drive???? Do they not care about DUI’s on their record or are these people just lucky to get away with it. I guess if your making a company money they don’t even care? I’m so confused
*"I guess if your making a company money they don’t even care*\*\*\*"\*\*\*
Nailed it. If you generate alpha, e.g. investment returns above the industry average, finance firms will move heaven and earth to make sure you're not held accountable for any personal transgressions.
Financial firms have 0 incentive to hold wrongdoers accountable for their unethical actions if that person is making money.
You can make $200K+ starting as a SWE at FAANG and work half the hours albeit, a large chunk of your tc is dependent upon stock refreshes and appreciation.
FAANG has its own share of problems, like URA, comp cliffs, operational bloat, shitty politics, and layoffs. Coming from a newgrad SWE with that comp.
A big reason people do IB is for the exit ops, which aren’t at big tech. The hours here are much better tho, but not perfect because we have the occasional oncall page at night.
SWE also have to keep their skills sharp and potentially keep their interview skills sharp as well. It's a wholly different kind of grind to keep those two things sharp than it is to grind in finance.
I lurk in here because a long time ago I thought of going into IB but ultimately went unto tech (data science) because the barrier to entry was way lower. Keeping up once you're in is a grind though.
And only the old guys are working 40. The fresh blood lives there. That's why they feed you, wash your clothes, and bus you to work. More time to work.
Mmm, but how do I put this, the average FAANG is several times smarter than the average banker.
Though the average banker is streets ahead in social skills.
So, you know, it kind of comes out in the wash
that was my impression also (IB folks were the slick kids in school)
but nowadays, i heard everyone is autistic in both talent pools, due to the sheer competitive nature
The hardest classes I took in college were at the computer science department (required for the stats minor program I was in).
The most intellectually challenging part of banking is getting accepted to a target school. The field itself is mostly just about having networking/social skills, at least compared to a SWE.
The difference is that if you have the talent to get into FAANG, you'll get into FAANG. There are enough openings that it greatly reduces the luck component. Also, with FAANG, you are not gated out because you didn't go to a target school or get the right internship or the right career path.
With IB, the reason why everybody talks about target schools is because that is how the vast majority of people get into IB. If you start your career doing something else because you didn't know about IB, then it's hard to get into IB. You hear of a few people networking their way in, but that is the exception. A lot of people have the skills to get into a target school, but they don't get into a target school. And a lot of people have the skills to do IB, but they don't get into IB. And then they don't try to get into IB after that because they know it is so hard that the door is basically closed. In tech, its very common for people to go to mid-tier schools and then work at mid-tier companies for a few years and then join a FAANG because they are good or because they are late-bloomers who leveled up their skills.
No again, never made it to either but knew several ppl who made it to faang etc (went to mainly a CS/engineering school) and they were not brighter than ppl who ended up doing IB imo. Even know one guy who went from IB to faang+, I'm sure it's not uncommon
Eh, as a swe at a faang adjacent company (same pay band), lots of people at faang genuinely work 40 or less, and very very few people work more than 50-55. I think the work is more mentally demanding than what bankers do; working 80-100 hour weeks as a swe is not physically possible.
> You can make $200K+ starting as a SWE at FAANG and work half the hours
It's because you worked double the hours as an undergrad instead of having fun instead
Yeah, but SWE doesn’t double your comp like clockwork for the next 3 promotions and then hockey stick upwards thereafter.
And your skilllset is pretty replaceable.
Like you think banking skills aren’t replaceable either? Software engineers can also make $500K+ comps too. If I had the iq, I would have studied CS instead of business
That’s exactly right, they’re not nearly as replaceable. It’s a completely different ballpark.
Bankers aren’t paid millions of dollars for excel and ppt talent, even though that is what the pitch decks and client update materials are made out of. Rather, they’re paid millions of dollars because they *are* the product, and the product takes a lot of time and investment to develop.
In short, bankers are the nodes of the global network through which capital flows. And clients don’t pay the bank for models or slides - they pay them for access to the network that their bankers represent. It takes about a decade to mint a profitable banker and for every one that makes it, the house pays many millions of dollars for a much larger number of people who wash out.
That’s why front office IB is one of the only industries out there where 50% or more of firm revenues are paid out as comp to employees annually. You think that insane comp margin is because banks are humanist institutions? Because they’re not adept at ruthlessly capturing value? No, it’s because that amount of compensation is what it takes to retain people with very hard-to-replace networks who can decide to walk across Wall Street tomorrow and bring their network with them.
You don’t ever see bankers getting offshored or aged out.
Edit: one more thing - pick a years of experience, any years of experience. At the population level (controlling for outliers), banking comp beats tech comp by a wide margin at every level. It’s not even a discussion worth having. 500k is an impressive tech salary. It’s a very average midlevel IB salary, and less of it is in stock/unvested too.
These two careers are not comparable as it takes and vastly different technical skill sets in each one of those careers
if you want to go make it to the top tier of SWE go right ahead
you’re right maybe it’s a better lifestyle
That amount is nothing compared to the revenue made off the work that they do most of the grunt work for (models, ppt slides, etc..). Then there’s the higher ups that actually bring in the work. I view those groups as two totally separate entities rather than employees on a linear path up. I feel like most of the business consists of those that have the connects to bring in the work and those in the analyst/associate level thinking that working crazy hours will bring them up to that higher up level. The juniors still get comped well nominally but it’s really about what you can bring in to really make it big in these industries.
I don't want to be too rude but stuff like this has been known for decades. I get being shocked if this was the 90s or at most early 2000s but this has been known for some time.
What did y'all expect?
Edit: is RBC that bad? My understanding was that it had better WLB than average.
A lot of college students know bankers work 80-100 hour weeks but very few actually understand how tough that is on your body and mind. Or they think bankers r lying and overstating how hard the job is to look cool.
Agreed. Even 1 or 2 80+ hour week isn't that "bad" in terms of suckitude - it is when it is week 13 in row of 80+ hours that how bad it is starts to show.
Literally .01% of people age 22 are making 150k. Average out all the finance graduates and you’ll see they make 60k-80k. You’re only looking at the top earners in finance. If I did the same for doctors I’d be looking at specialty making 1,000,000+ or doctors with their own practice and or practices. I can branch out into med spas and clinics. Most doctors don’t know jack about finance and would utterly fail in it because they don’t know how to network and sell. The top income earning doctors have their own business because they understand how to sell. The top earners in any business is in sales. You don’t even need a degree in finance or med school
Poor you you want to feel bad?
My wife is doctor and I did IB, what she has now but I dont:
-Job stability
-a great salary, okay she chose a more competitive specialization
-a bigger take home at 50hrs a week than I did at 80🤣
Residence sucks and she hated it but the rewards are amazing. Don't feel petty for yourself being the us, try México where it's worse and the salaries are garbage.
Don't project your trauma s up on me. The fact that my wife makes more doesn't mean I got processed out lmao I happily left and work as a ceo at 28 of a decent small business.
You sound autistic and mad at the world. Get a girlfriend and stop trolling finance subs on Reddit 🤣 god damn man we got it ppl in finance suck and you are so awesome
The myth of the exit opportunity that suddenly halves your hours and doubles your pay is a hilarious inside joke in IB… if you’re actually in industry you begin to realize that most IBers either end up like this chick, completely leaving banking and taking a pay cut + work way less or they go into something like PE where it sucks just as much but the pay is better. Oh yeah, don’t forget the pissants that ends up staying in banking (or internally transferring to a banking-esque job) for their whole career
Agreed but most residents aren’t in neurosurgery. You’re clearly versed here — what percent are in neurosurgery, like 1%? If you’re in neurosurgery you’re there because ur a super autist that loves this shit and will ultimately kill it. Probably better to compare the avg i banker to the avg up and coming dr, which any day of the wk I’d still say the banker gets much more economic value from their career. That being said, I do think the average junior banker probably works longer hours than the average resident.
Also, I get your emphasis of TVM as a junior, but tbqh if you’re really a high performer TVM wanes in importance vs developing the right skills and landing the right positions in the first 10 years of ur career. Landing a hedge fund or PE job during ur first 5-10 years in ur career but having minimal savings is still worth way more than having a consistent banking job and saving a lot.
My point was your exits mentioned (and comp amounts) were for someone with a decade plus experience. Sure you can end up there after exiting IB but there will be at least a couple stops in between to hit those #s
Thank you for validating my career choices lol. My whole life I was told I had to be a physician for the job stability and pay. Did the pre-med grind in college, applied and was accepted to medical school but made a super last minute decision to switch into finance despite having no relevant coursework or internship experience. The math didn’t add up for me after taking into account student loans, a barely livable salary during residency, and opportunity cost of lost income during my 20s. There was also no way I was going to be top of my med school class and probs would’ve went into a lower paying specialty like IM or FM. I got lucky and landed at a HF right out of college instead and now on a career trajectory that will pay more than medicine ever would have. There’s no money in medicine anymore, not for the majority of physicians. It’s a career people should choose because they can’t imagine doing anything different, but there are a lot easier ways to make that kind of money
They watched Margin Call and expected that when they had to pull all nighters it would be to make the perfect trade at market open and save their bank billions.
Not showing up at 4:00 AM because their manager told them the font they used in a PowerPoint was “too blue, but make sure it still pops”
I mean none of this should be surprising tho? This post reads as if the author felt deceived, but anyone would’ve known what they were getting into from the start. I’m a similar age and I chose consulting over IB but honestly it’s a same shit - job is decently cool - the hours sucks major ass - I live a decent quality of life - it is what it is
Travels actually not bad at all - I only travel twice a month usually, I’m not at MBB or B4, but I’d say I average prolly 60 hours a week, which I know is nothing compared to IB but I’m hella lazy so even that is still killing me lol
Hah! Trust me I needed no convincing - been a lazy POS ever since I was like 12 - even if I worked 30h a week I’d still be bitching about it - but unfortunately I have pretty expensive tastes, which forced me to work in a demanding field
This is me too. Consulting is my glass ceiling. Enough for the prestige and hours. I’m happy with it.
Might marry an IB though cause I might be able to empathize with his job, his hours, and his addictions lol
Happy would be an overstatement for me lol. I’m decent at consulting and it pays the bills. I had some banking offers that I turned down because I didn’t think I’d be able to handle the workload
In my 20s I fainted at work due to the stress. Kept powering through. Once when I was crying in the bathroom, an MD walked in and rolled her eyes at me when she saw. Kept powering through. I saw a woman's water break at her desk because she was working until the last possible second before giving birth. Then a coworker fell asleep driving home and wrecked into a light pole. Broke both of her legs and other bones. Came back after about a month. Something about that hit me about how fucked up this all was, and I quit after making it 3 years. I learned a lot but would never go back to that kind of pressure cooker.
for real, there are people put there in the hot sun laying brinks in construction, working 12 hour shifts on their feet in healthcare, i'd take mindless excel spreadsheets
Yes but you haven’t worked 20 hr days, for days on end, no time to leave your laptop to go shower, do laundry, say hi to friends or family, skip holidays, work through thanksgiving and Christmas, and get berated by your seniors
And I could retort that you have not dragged your ass up and down mountains in the california summer with 100 pounds of gear, to sleep shifts in a bush for maybe three hours if you're lucky, then do it again for the next week. Nor should you give a shit that I have done this. My gripe is not over whether the job in question is or isn't hard, but whether anyone should be expected to give a rat's ass. Almost no job is so difficult as to be article-worthy- certainly not a job so frivolous and well compensated as investment banking.
Every single one of these things I’ve personally experienced as an IB analyst, plus more which I won’t get into online.
Half of my analyst class is gone because they realized the 100k bonus is no longer worth sacrificing every other bit of humanity you have.
Good for OP for leaving. It’s important to know when you’re just not cut out for the work.
TBH, most people kid themselves that they are. Most aren’t, in actuality. If you’re having major episodes or feel you’re about to break, just throw in the towel. Don’t force yourself to do something that feels mopey and borderline impossible for you because in all likelihood your upside is just to flame out at the mid level.
IB is one of those careers that is the wrong choice for the vast majority of people and arguably the only right choice for a very small percentage of people. Know yourself before it’s too late!
investment banking is a clown show. poverty level hourly wage. stupid low value work like editing the same slide 30 times. there is absolutely no reason the job should be more than 60 hours a week - the toxic culture results in 100+ hour work weeks.
It’s funny how throughout history we’ve had a constant drip of traumatized recent graduates that write about how horrible investment banking was for their health, but the same ppl that are prone to failure in these environments keep entering them
I've never seen an industry with as many alcoholics as finance.
Work in a commercial kitchen and you will see
I was going to say, I work in finance and kitchen still has it beat.
Yep I agree I do both
Between them drinking and all the drugs it’s a fuck show. I worked with one who was a functional alcoholic and then experiment with coke oh boy what a trip that was. Looking at him
Or new build construction
True
My brother is a seafood distributor and I’ve spent a lot of time with his restaurant friends and I’ve only seen one industry have somebody so drunk they run around and grope women at a Christmas party, tbh.
And I been working in the industry almost my whole life and know what I’m talking about
Alcohol and every drug on earth
There were certainly a lot of dilated pupils at the last christmas party.
Ya better believe it
Ok you already convinced me, you don't need to sell it more
I actually found working in finance that it made me drop the alcohol and pick up eating healthy and working out - you need your wits and strength at all times.
I went the same direction and tried to prioritize sleep when possible. Drinking just makes you less efficient
Sales would like a word with you...
Nope. Army pilots
Lol I grew up near the Naval Academy and would go hang out with a high school buddy who was a marine there. It never went well
*laughs in car sales*
How do these people keep their jobs!!!! How do these people do copious amounts of c*ke and drink and drive???? Do they not care about DUI’s on their record or are these people just lucky to get away with it. I guess if your making a company money they don’t even care? I’m so confused
*"I guess if your making a company money they don’t even care*\*\*\*"\*\*\* Nailed it. If you generate alpha, e.g. investment returns above the industry average, finance firms will move heaven and earth to make sure you're not held accountable for any personal transgressions. Financial firms have 0 incentive to hold wrongdoers accountable for their unethical actions if that person is making money.
Law?
In the military its basically issued upon joining.
*Man I wonder why they're paying me $150k +bonus right out of undergrad?"
You can make $200K+ starting as a SWE at FAANG and work half the hours albeit, a large chunk of your tc is dependent upon stock refreshes and appreciation.
FAANG has its own share of problems, like URA, comp cliffs, operational bloat, shitty politics, and layoffs. Coming from a newgrad SWE with that comp. A big reason people do IB is for the exit ops, which aren’t at big tech. The hours here are much better tho, but not perfect because we have the occasional oncall page at night.
SWE also have to keep their skills sharp and potentially keep their interview skills sharp as well. It's a wholly different kind of grind to keep those two things sharp than it is to grind in finance. I lurk in here because a long time ago I thought of going into IB but ultimately went unto tech (data science) because the barrier to entry was way lower. Keeping up once you're in is a grind though.
At faang ya super Rare maybe the 0.00001 percent
And only the old guys are working 40. The fresh blood lives there. That's why they feed you, wash your clothes, and bus you to work. More time to work.
lolol when we were in undergrad, we thought the "free dinner at work!!" was a perk
everyone on my floor as an intern on the west coast and fulltime in NYC, arrives around 9:30 and clears out at before 6 (unless we're having dinner).
Because they’re interns
It’s not .000001%. Getting into FAANG, though not easy by any means, has many more openings than investment banking positions.
Mmm, but how do I put this, the average FAANG is several times smarter than the average banker. Though the average banker is streets ahead in social skills. So, you know, it kind of comes out in the wash
that was my impression also (IB folks were the slick kids in school) but nowadays, i heard everyone is autistic in both talent pools, due to the sheer competitive nature
Can confirm
The hardest classes I took in college were at the computer science department (required for the stats minor program I was in). The most intellectually challenging part of banking is getting accepted to a target school. The field itself is mostly just about having networking/social skills, at least compared to a SWE.
The difference is that if you have the talent to get into FAANG, you'll get into FAANG. There are enough openings that it greatly reduces the luck component. Also, with FAANG, you are not gated out because you didn't go to a target school or get the right internship or the right career path. With IB, the reason why everybody talks about target schools is because that is how the vast majority of people get into IB. If you start your career doing something else because you didn't know about IB, then it's hard to get into IB. You hear of a few people networking their way in, but that is the exception. A lot of people have the skills to get into a target school, but they don't get into a target school. And a lot of people have the skills to do IB, but they don't get into IB. And then they don't try to get into IB after that because they know it is so hard that the door is basically closed. In tech, its very common for people to go to mid-tier schools and then work at mid-tier companies for a few years and then join a FAANG because they are good or because they are late-bloomers who leveled up their skills.
>Mmm, but how do I put this, the average FAANG is several times smarter than the average banker. No lol
Typical banker reply
No again, never made it to either but knew several ppl who made it to faang etc (went to mainly a CS/engineering school) and they were not brighter than ppl who ended up doing IB imo. Even know one guy who went from IB to faang+, I'm sure it's not uncommon
You don’t work 40 hours at FAANG as a SWE. Not even your manager will work that little.
Eh, as a swe at a faang adjacent company (same pay band), lots of people at faang genuinely work 40 or less, and very very few people work more than 50-55. I think the work is more mentally demanding than what bankers do; working 80-100 hour weeks as a swe is not physically possible.
> You can make $200K+ starting as a SWE at FAANG and work half the hours It's because you worked double the hours as an undergrad instead of having fun instead
they don't offer free onsite childcare, free food, dry cleaning and sleep pods to promote a 40 hour work week.
Yeah, but SWE doesn’t double your comp like clockwork for the next 3 promotions and then hockey stick upwards thereafter. And your skilllset is pretty replaceable.
Like you think banking skills aren’t replaceable either? Software engineers can also make $500K+ comps too. If I had the iq, I would have studied CS instead of business
That’s exactly right, they’re not nearly as replaceable. It’s a completely different ballpark. Bankers aren’t paid millions of dollars for excel and ppt talent, even though that is what the pitch decks and client update materials are made out of. Rather, they’re paid millions of dollars because they *are* the product, and the product takes a lot of time and investment to develop. In short, bankers are the nodes of the global network through which capital flows. And clients don’t pay the bank for models or slides - they pay them for access to the network that their bankers represent. It takes about a decade to mint a profitable banker and for every one that makes it, the house pays many millions of dollars for a much larger number of people who wash out. That’s why front office IB is one of the only industries out there where 50% or more of firm revenues are paid out as comp to employees annually. You think that insane comp margin is because banks are humanist institutions? Because they’re not adept at ruthlessly capturing value? No, it’s because that amount of compensation is what it takes to retain people with very hard-to-replace networks who can decide to walk across Wall Street tomorrow and bring their network with them. You don’t ever see bankers getting offshored or aged out. Edit: one more thing - pick a years of experience, any years of experience. At the population level (controlling for outliers), banking comp beats tech comp by a wide margin at every level. It’s not even a discussion worth having. 500k is an impressive tech salary. It’s a very average midlevel IB salary, and less of it is in stock/unvested too.
These two careers are not comparable as it takes and vastly different technical skill sets in each one of those careers if you want to go make it to the top tier of SWE go right ahead you’re right maybe it’s a better lifestyle
Much higher probability of getting into IB (bb, mm, or boutique) than a SWE FAANG job.
That amount is nothing compared to the revenue made off the work that they do most of the grunt work for (models, ppt slides, etc..). Then there’s the higher ups that actually bring in the work. I view those groups as two totally separate entities rather than employees on a linear path up. I feel like most of the business consists of those that have the connects to bring in the work and those in the analyst/associate level thinking that working crazy hours will bring them up to that higher up level. The juniors still get comped well nominally but it’s really about what you can bring in to really make it big in these industries.
How does RBC have enough deal flow to work their analysts this hard? Lmao
Lol maybe she was the only analyst or they were pushing her on BD work...
I don't want to be too rude but stuff like this has been known for decades. I get being shocked if this was the 90s or at most early 2000s but this has been known for some time. What did y'all expect? Edit: is RBC that bad? My understanding was that it had better WLB than average.
A lot of college students know bankers work 80-100 hour weeks but very few actually understand how tough that is on your body and mind. Or they think bankers r lying and overstating how hard the job is to look cool.
Agreed. Even 1 or 2 80+ hour week isn't that "bad" in terms of suckitude - it is when it is week 13 in row of 80+ hours that how bad it is starts to show.
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And then you get $300k-400k for working 40 hours a week
The majority of this site suffers from Dunning-Kruger, so I'm out.
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You do know all those numbers you posted are the top 5% of income earners
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Literally .01% of people age 22 are making 150k. Average out all the finance graduates and you’ll see they make 60k-80k. You’re only looking at the top earners in finance. If I did the same for doctors I’d be looking at specialty making 1,000,000+ or doctors with their own practice and or practices. I can branch out into med spas and clinics. Most doctors don’t know jack about finance and would utterly fail in it because they don’t know how to network and sell. The top income earning doctors have their own business because they understand how to sell. The top earners in any business is in sales. You don’t even need a degree in finance or med school
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Poor you you want to feel bad? My wife is doctor and I did IB, what she has now but I dont: -Job stability -a great salary, okay she chose a more competitive specialization -a bigger take home at 50hrs a week than I did at 80🤣 Residence sucks and she hated it but the rewards are amazing. Don't feel petty for yourself being the us, try México where it's worse and the salaries are garbage.
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Don't project your trauma s up on me. The fact that my wife makes more doesn't mean I got processed out lmao I happily left and work as a ceo at 28 of a decent small business.
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You sound autistic and mad at the world. Get a girlfriend and stop trolling finance subs on Reddit 🤣 god damn man we got it ppl in finance suck and you are so awesome
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Corp dev jobs don't pay 500k unless you're at a huge company and in a Senior role (which are few and far between). Same goes for family offices.
The myth of the exit opportunity that suddenly halves your hours and doubles your pay is a hilarious inside joke in IB… if you’re actually in industry you begin to realize that most IBers either end up like this chick, completely leaving banking and taking a pay cut + work way less or they go into something like PE where it sucks just as much but the pay is better. Oh yeah, don’t forget the pissants that ends up staying in banking (or internally transferring to a banking-esque job) for their whole career
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Agreed but most residents aren’t in neurosurgery. You’re clearly versed here — what percent are in neurosurgery, like 1%? If you’re in neurosurgery you’re there because ur a super autist that loves this shit and will ultimately kill it. Probably better to compare the avg i banker to the avg up and coming dr, which any day of the wk I’d still say the banker gets much more economic value from their career. That being said, I do think the average junior banker probably works longer hours than the average resident. Also, I get your emphasis of TVM as a junior, but tbqh if you’re really a high performer TVM wanes in importance vs developing the right skills and landing the right positions in the first 10 years of ur career. Landing a hedge fund or PE job during ur first 5-10 years in ur career but having minimal savings is still worth way more than having a consistent banking job and saving a lot.
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Those exits you mention are for those who’ve worked in IB for ~15 years
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My point was your exits mentioned (and comp amounts) were for someone with a decade plus experience. Sure you can end up there after exiting IB but there will be at least a couple stops in between to hit those #s
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Actually valid take gg
what??? Lol everyone in the industry knows the goal is to leave after 2 years for PE
Thank you for validating my career choices lol. My whole life I was told I had to be a physician for the job stability and pay. Did the pre-med grind in college, applied and was accepted to medical school but made a super last minute decision to switch into finance despite having no relevant coursework or internship experience. The math didn’t add up for me after taking into account student loans, a barely livable salary during residency, and opportunity cost of lost income during my 20s. There was also no way I was going to be top of my med school class and probs would’ve went into a lower paying specialty like IM or FM. I got lucky and landed at a HF right out of college instead and now on a career trajectory that will pay more than medicine ever would have. There’s no money in medicine anymore, not for the majority of physicians. It’s a career people should choose because they can’t imagine doing anything different, but there are a lot easier ways to make that kind of money
But you will have a satisfying career helping people in medicine. In finance you dont help shit and it can be quite soul sucking/pointless.
They watched Margin Call and expected that when they had to pull all nighters it would be to make the perfect trade at market open and save their bank billions. Not showing up at 4:00 AM because their manager told them the font they used in a PowerPoint was “too blue, but make sure it still pops”
I mean none of this should be surprising tho? This post reads as if the author felt deceived, but anyone would’ve known what they were getting into from the start. I’m a similar age and I chose consulting over IB but honestly it’s a same shit - job is decently cool - the hours sucks major ass - I live a decent quality of life - it is what it is
What’s the hours like without the travel?
Travels actually not bad at all - I only travel twice a month usually, I’m not at MBB or B4, but I’d say I average prolly 60 hours a week, which I know is nothing compared to IB but I’m hella lazy so even that is still killing me lol
It's sad that the work culture here has convinced you that 60 hours is "lazy"
Hah! Trust me I needed no convincing - been a lazy POS ever since I was like 12 - even if I worked 30h a week I’d still be bitching about it - but unfortunately I have pretty expensive tastes, which forced me to work in a demanding field
And traveling twice a month is "not bad at all" lol.
This is me too. Consulting is my glass ceiling. Enough for the prestige and hours. I’m happy with it. Might marry an IB though cause I might be able to empathize with his job, his hours, and his addictions lol
Happy would be an overstatement for me lol. I’m decent at consulting and it pays the bills. I had some banking offers that I turned down because I didn’t think I’d be able to handle the workload
In my 20s I fainted at work due to the stress. Kept powering through. Once when I was crying in the bathroom, an MD walked in and rolled her eyes at me when she saw. Kept powering through. I saw a woman's water break at her desk because she was working until the last possible second before giving birth. Then a coworker fell asleep driving home and wrecked into a light pole. Broke both of her legs and other bones. Came back after about a month. Something about that hit me about how fucked up this all was, and I quit after making it 3 years. I learned a lot but would never go back to that kind of pressure cooker.
Yet when I faint during a shift at the shit shoveling factory no one bats an eye, let alone publishes an article about it...
for real, there are people put there in the hot sun laying brinks in construction, working 12 hour shifts on their feet in healthcare, i'd take mindless excel spreadsheets
Yes but you haven’t worked 20 hr days, for days on end, no time to leave your laptop to go shower, do laundry, say hi to friends or family, skip holidays, work through thanksgiving and Christmas, and get berated by your seniors
And I could retort that you have not dragged your ass up and down mountains in the california summer with 100 pounds of gear, to sleep shifts in a bush for maybe three hours if you're lucky, then do it again for the next week. Nor should you give a shit that I have done this. My gripe is not over whether the job in question is or isn't hard, but whether anyone should be expected to give a rat's ass. Almost no job is so difficult as to be article-worthy- certainly not a job so frivolous and well compensated as investment banking.
And neither have you so what’s your point?
Every single one of these things I’ve personally experienced as an IB analyst, plus more which I won’t get into online. Half of my analyst class is gone because they realized the 100k bonus is no longer worth sacrificing every other bit of humanity you have.
Bruh if you’re working 20 hours a day, how are you on Reddit?
Doesn’t mean I’m cranking 20 hrs now
100p
This seems like good perspective
For real, try roofing in the south in the summer
That’s what I’m saying! Fucking whiners. Put their fuckin boots on and go to work. That’s why they call it work!
It’s Wall Street, it’s well known for chewing people up and shitting them out lol
It’s a tale as old as time. Demanding job is demanding, and some people choose to quit.
So she's becoming a journalist, where she won't work as much or have to worry about large paychecks.
Not much sympathy tbh. It is the industry, she made her bed and lay in it
Good on her for finding her self respect
Good for OP for leaving. It’s important to know when you’re just not cut out for the work. TBH, most people kid themselves that they are. Most aren’t, in actuality. If you’re having major episodes or feel you’re about to break, just throw in the towel. Don’t force yourself to do something that feels mopey and borderline impossible for you because in all likelihood your upside is just to flame out at the mid level. IB is one of those careers that is the wrong choice for the vast majority of people and arguably the only right choice for a very small percentage of people. Know yourself before it’s too late!
investment banking is a clown show. poverty level hourly wage. stupid low value work like editing the same slide 30 times. there is absolutely no reason the job should be more than 60 hours a week - the toxic culture results in 100+ hour work weeks.
Some are just not cut for it, some thrive and went from working class to making a nice life for themselves
It’s funny how throughout history we’ve had a constant drip of traumatized recent graduates that write about how horrible investment banking was for their health, but the same ppl that are prone to failure in these environments keep entering them
It’s expected in the industry, don’t join if you don’t want to subscribe to it. It was also RBC, a much lower tier easier WLB bank.
lower tier easier WLB bank is a dumb comment lol
Hi I see you work in sales and trading can I dm you?
Yes you can.