Do you enjoy your job - General consensus?

My flatmates have been arguing that the vast majority of bankers do not enjoy their job, and I want to see what the general consensus on here thinks.

There are obvious pros and cons about having a job in finance, but I was just wondering how many of you take an overall positive view on your occupation. In hindsight, maybe there are also some impacts from working in finance which you did not previously consider when looking to break into the industry.

So, how many of you would actually say honestly that you enjoy your jobs?

Throughout your careers to date, what have been the greatest benefits and the biggest drawbacks of working in the financial sector?

Looking forward to hearing your responses...

 
DaisukiDaYo:
Well you know, the hours are challenging and we're constantly under pressure, but I've learned a lot about finance/modeling and have gained a great skillset that I can carry with me for the rest of my life.

And by that I mean fuck no, first sign of PE/HF/Greatness and I'm peacing the fck out.

This. For the first 6 to 9 months it'll be new and exciting and you'll be learning a lot. Then the bitterness will start to creep in realizing just how much BS you put up with on a daily basis

 
DaisukiDaYo:
Well you know, the hours are challenging and we're constantly under pressure, but I've learned a lot about finance/modeling and have gained a great skillset that I can carry with me for the rest of my life.

And by that I mean fuck no, first sign of PE/HF/Greatness and I'm peacing the fck out.

lol love the brutal honesty in this one

 
procept80:
SirTradesaLot:
Nope

Fair enough! Why do you feel so inclined to staying on at your current place then?

Planning my exit now. The grass is pretty brown everywhere though.

EDIT: I'm not in banking, but in another area of finance.

 
GBB_19NHS:
I love the pain. You can get used to anything reall so I am pretty happy with this job tbh

Do you never regret going into banking? Or do you sometimes wish that you took a nice F500 rotation gig and have a lot more free time?

 
GBB_19NHS:
I honestly never regretted going into banking, cant really imagine how a F500 gig would be like. You can always find time to do things, all pretty accelerated but thats what I like.

Main argument against F500 is that you'll work 9-5 with no discernible skillset. Then again, some people value work-life balance and not looking 30 when you're 24.

Of course, we're all greedy moneygrabbing people, so ibanking ftw.

 

Some people end up lucky enough to love what they do. Honestly, I did this because it gives me access to other things.....kind of like military service does if you're trying for a gov't job

Get busy living
 

I had a short SA stint at a small small firm and actually enjoyed the daily work. I didn't have ANY corporate finance knowledge so I was completely clueless and learned by hitting roadblocks. In my case, the big negative was a lack of any sort of training etc. Needless to say I was given some very boring tasks. I have also worked FT in a completely unrelated industry responsible for millions in revenue and felt the work was so boring I wanted to jump out a window. I guess my anecdotal moral is: IBD can be boring and people complain about it... but those people complaining don't know the joys of working in other "Analyst" jobs in any large corporation.

 

I work at a hedge fund (not technically sell-side S&T, but we are a trading shop) and I do love my job. It seems like more traders actually enjoy the work, as compared to bankers.

 

I like my job. I am in an entertainment group at a BB. We just wrapped up a deal with Vivid, the porn company. -slept with Jenna Jameson, it was hot. Good shit. You know what I'm saying kiddo? Huh, do ya? Do ya kiddo? Good shit. Anyways, I recieved a free box of dildos. Hit me up if you want one to stick up the place where your dumb ass questions fire out from.

 

i love it because I'm young and the upside is large. the downside is that you deal with a huge pressure to perform and often think about your positions/potential trades outside of the office.

it comes down to personality. most traders are bettors and are willing to bet their time and efforts for a potential payout.

most traders have this mentality and do not see themselves in the industry that long... ie 7 years trading is a LONG time.

most want a payout and leave.

I get to enjoy life but i am constantly worried that either i'll get fired if i screw something up or am scared that the money and volatility will leave for another product that I have no clue about.

 

i trade natural gas.

i can now see why trading depts like to hire atheletes. the days are very intense and the whole day my mind is always on 5th gear and never slows down.

from what what my friends tell me in banking, in addition to the long hours during deal time etc, there's still a lot of downtime and facetime "bs". not saying the bankers don't work hard, i'm just saying you guys are probably not working as if you're working against a really short deadline for the whole 80-120 hrs.

That's why traders work less hours. much more pressure in my opinion.

 

i'm not too familiar with the sell side of S&T. I'm currently in a prop division of a bank.

i'm assuming in S&T it's more about market making? Someone please back me up on this. After you cash out and leave, i guess you go retire! or at least that's the goal of most of the traders....

 
Best Response

The role of a sales person depends on the desk. I absolutely love what I do, but I work on one of the most quant sales desks on the floor and do little flow and almost entirely structured deals. I spend an equal amount of time working with the structurers as the traders, and at my desk the sales people build their own models and price stuff out (unlike at a desk like, say, HY sales, where all they do is ask traders for prices then go out to dinner with the client because the product isn't all that complex).

The drawback is that sales is very transaction-oriented, and a lot of what we do is just like what the kids in IB and PE are doing. So analyzing financial statements, researching regulatory and legal issues ad nauseum, etc. Which may be good or bad depending on your interests......

 

Yeah, I was surprised by how quant commodities sales is, as well. At least at the houses that are big in commodities it seems Sales and Structuring are very tied together, so our entire sales desk knows our way around all of our structured pricing models and usually help build them as well. It's also because I'm working in power, which is much more quant than metals, nat gas, oil, etc. I've seen basic options strategies that can take days to price just because there are so many more variables in power, vs. a nat gas swap which you can price in a few minutes. That said, I love commodities. Steep, steep learning curve, but from what I've seen it should be worth it.......

 

skins...howd you transition into power trading? Start off as an analyst or was it a lateral move from another desk?

do you guys get alot of hires from power companies?

was always fascinated by power trading.

 
ChimpTrader:
skins...howd you transition into power trading? Start off as an analyst or was it a lateral move from another desk?

do you guys get alot of hires from power companies?

was always fascinated by power trading.

Went directly to S&T post-MBA. Most of the firms let you rotate either during your summer internship, or when you join full time, or sometimes both. Commodities seems to be roughly half regular recruiting hires from campuses (undergrad, MBA, PhD) and half from industry (oil companies, energy marketers, utilities, etc.). Same breakdown for sales, trading, and structuring.

 

absolutely love it, though it's ups and downs (hopefully with an overall positive gradient..convex is fine too;-) ). today for instance was a shitty day. also very intense, second what 1980 posted above.

 

Dude

I am a 3rd year analyst - work is ok - I would say that there is no job I would love in its entirety - all jobs have some crap

Hours are long but you do it because:

1) You're getting paid well 2) Some of the stuff in interesting 3) You should be learning 4) Your work ethic should be such that you would do it regardless

Being totally frank - I wouldn't see myself doing this for a very long time (maybe 3 years more)

From the ghetto....

From the ghetto....
 

I agree. I truly enjoy investment banking and find it really interesting. Yeah, the hours suck and it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but you can't be a little bitch all your life. Sometimes you just need to suck it up and deal with it.

 

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"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 

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