To those who have worked for both, how did the stress and hours compare between the 2? I'm burning out of the sell side
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Will be highly variable depending on firm, coverage, team, etc. Anecdotally for me, hours/stress are worse on LO vs sell-side. However, I think the WFH/virtual environment and all the Covid related news flow (macro changing daily) is likely making hours worse in last 1.5 years across the industry. Pre-Covid it was probably more comparable.
Don't be fooled, hours can be 12-14hrs+ based on group. Don't just join this space thinking your life will be cushty.
At least in my case, definitely yes. I work for a LO doing quantitative investment analysis, and work maximum 50hrs/week. That said, it's pretty hard to get promoted internally, and my company could pay me a bit better. But work-life balance is definitely there.
That said, that is not everyone's experience. I know people who pretty hard at some west coast shops, comparable to banking hours, but they make way more than me as well. I think it is sort of down to how much you are willing to trade off comp with WLB. At most shops, bonus is based on fund performance (as well as overall firm performance), so if your firm or fund does really well, you'll make money. It just doesn't seem like too many of the top performers have any better hours than banking.
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Never worked on the sellside, but LOs can be a huge hit / miss in terms of lifestyle. It's essentially unpredictable unless you have a good grip on what coverage, set of PMs you'd be working with and overall fund culture is like. You can luck out, but on average it's maybe only marginally better in terms of hours and culture than PE. There's also somewhat of an adverse selection, whereby the cushy spots have little to no turnover, whereas the more demanding coverage seats and/or funds have more turnover so you're essentially likely to end up in one of those less desired spots. The benefit however is that you'll have a bit more control over your time (take breaks/exercise when you want) as it's a lonely job, but the hours and travel schedule (pre-pandemic) can be absolutely brutal.
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