Stress levels and Hours

Entirely anecdotal but my ex-girlfriend worked at a F100 and she generally worked 8:30 - 7:00 + 10 hours during busy times. Work definitely seemed stressful and on top of things you have to deal with the big corporate bureaucracy which was frustrating as you'd have to rely on other groups who may or may not have the same sense of urgency as you.

It's all dependent on the role, person, and company. I'd venture to say that the majority of people in corporate finance are "clock punchers" who do the same menial tasks for years and have very low stress working exactly 40 hours. There are also people in highly visible and fast paced roles that work 10-12 hour days and are constantly scrambling. There are plenty of people who stay at the senior financial analyst or manager level their entire careers and have a easy yet boring career.

If you want to move up at a good pace, expect to work 10-12 hours a day.

I totally agree with you Eskimo!

Camomile like others have mentioned it depends entirely on your role, level of responsibility, and what industry you're in. If you're in Corporate Development for a major industrial company versus a Financial Analyst at an O&G company your experiences and hours will vary widely.

The myth that is often repeated on these forums that corporate finance gigs are cushy jobs with little to no stress is BS. I know many in the industry that easily put in 100+ hours during "peak season" or when major M&A activity is taking place (assuming you're scope involves you in M&A).

On the flip side I know people who work 8-5 with a few weeks on occasion where they stay till 11 or later however this tends to be during month close for those in FP&A or other functions heavy on the reporting side.

Im actually transitioning from a F10 corporate finance team into IBD now. 10hrs-ish a day. Work for me at least isn't wildly challenging. I've had more operation related roles though, not true FP&A work. All the work seems so fake to me though and pretty boring. Get paid pretty decent but it takes a while to move up. If you want to skate through work for 30 years, go to a fortune 100-500 type Corp Fin job. Its just not for me so I am moving to a Boutique IB with better long term career ops. Let me know if you have any more specific questions.

I'm in Big 4 and possibly moving into corp finance so this thread has interested me.

Now in corp finance, when you say 10 hour days, do you mean in by 8 and out by 6? Because I think coming from Big 4 has kind of skewed my view on this as if I work 830 - 630 or 830 - 6, it's pretty much expected of me to call that an 8 hour day.

Just wanted to see what you guys think. Thanks.

In my role I work 70 hours a week the first two weeks of each month due to being on a on-call schedule. The sweet thing is my manager gives a comp day each month plus the 20 days I already get for PTO, so basically I get 32 days of PTO a year plus the ten federal holidays off.

I don't think you will see many 40 hour weeks at F500s if you're at HQ. Most people work ~50 hours/week. If you're in some small satellite office, then maybe 40 is possible. Having said that, I don't see anyone working 100 hour weeks. It's possible for corp dev guys to pull a few of those weeks during an M&A deal, but many easily pulling 100+ as one poster said above is just false, or at least unheard of at most places.

i was a corp fin intern at the headquarters of a F50 and we worked about 10-11 hour days with some saturdays prinkled in every 4-6 weeks.

There's elements of truth to your statement, but it just really depends. If you're at small PE backed company looking to grow through acquisition or under-performing, you can easily get crushed with banking analyst type hours.

One of our portfolio companies defaulted on their credit facility two years ago, after doing a full scrape of the company's corporate finance functions, it was clear they were totally fucked. It was a brutal 5 month process to bring them back to solvency and the financial analyst they had was frequently putting in 80-100 hour weeks during that period.

I work in FP&A and if I had to work 100hr weeks I would quit. There is no way making the money we make you should work that many hours. I think the most I have ever done was 65 and that was a special situation when we were involved with something that had a short deadline. I am normally in the 45-50 hours a week range maybe once in a while 55 if there is some ad-hoc project that needs to be done. The work is pretty boring most of the time since you do the same thing month after month except for when I get to work on special projects. Getting my MBA right now and looking to move into a Strategy role where almost all of the work is project based.

I was a part of an FLDP program (my first rotation was at a plant). I worked 9-6 on most days. Maybe 5 times in the year I worked until midnight, when there was an urgent deliverable. I was able to cruise by because everyone thought I was a genius in finance (I was just actually faster at excel than most people). I just did things quicker than most people/came up with solutions for problems that everyone said were "unfix-able/just part of the way things work here." I spent most of my time using Facebook or surfing the web and waiting for the clock to hit 6. I ultimately got bored of that and transitioned over to IB.

I work in corporate finance at a Fortune 200. I am a "Senior Associate" and here is my average month.

•Work about 55 hours a week •Can take as much/unlimited time off, given it is not abused •At least 1 "fun day" where I get to drink beer and eat free food instead of working •Paid a salary that is higher than most IB analysts but less than most IB associates •Paid a bonus that is approximately 15-20% of my salary •Free food is a very common occurrence •I work on modeling, not making power points all day until 2AM •Promotions take about 2 years on average and come with a 15-20% salary bump and an increase in bonus as a % of salary

The hours I work are average for my entire floor. The point is that it is definitely possible to make 100-200K in corporate finance and have a pretty laid back relaxed life and actually spend time with family, friends, and take vacations.