Burnt out first year IB - trying to switch to MBB
First year analyst in IB here. Getting to the point where I’m just getting burned out. Haven’t had a weekend off in months, and tbh I don’t mind grinding during the week but I need some sort of reset on the weekends. Group isn’t super support of vacations either even tho we get 3 weeks a year lol.
Not feeling like I have much to learn from Banking anymore and tbh I want to deal with strategy more than PF Adj EBITDA. Anyone have insight on if switch is possible in my second year? What level would I start at and how would I go about this? Am I also just being foolish and having a grass is greener mentality?
Anyone have insight on if switch is possible in my second year? --->> Yes quite possible, I've seen it happen several times. However lateral hiring is going to be a challenge given pandemic + economic conditions.
What level would I start at --->> Entry level - Business Analyst / Associate / Associate Consultant respectively. I don't believe you'll get any tenure for a year at analyst level in IB.
how would I go about this? --->> Referral. If you went to a good school and have friends at MBB, ask for one. Or network your way to one.
Am I also just being foolish and having a grass is greener mentality? --->> Grass is always greener is a risk in any situation like this. All depends on your expectations and inclinations. I personally am incredibly glad I chose consulting over IB and have no idea how you guys do it - much less why. But that's how it is for me. Educate yourself, meet some people.
To provide corollaries to some of your specific IB gripes...
Haven't had a weekend off in months, --->> weekends almost always 100% protected in my experience + other times you make clear to your team (e.g., Thursday night with the family is a common one). Sometimes it happens, but whenever work encroaches, my managers had always been both very apologetic and did their best to make it up to me. Tradeoff is the travel for some (though I liked it) and the fact that it's still difficult, hour-intensive work.
Group isn't super support of vacations either even tho we get 3 weeks a year lol. --->> In my experience... It is difficult to make time off work during a case if it comes up during the case. Not that you couldn't, but the logistics to make it happen (e.g., backfill your role for a week) make you feel bad. However nice thing about consulting is you have very structured breaks in case work which make for optimal vacation time which no one will ever give you a hard time for. Likewise, you can negotiate / clarify vacation time up front before you start a case and your team will make it work (so long as it's not like 2 weeks off on a 4 week case kind of thing.) If your team can't make it work, you'll just get staffed on something else.
Not feeling like I have much to learn from Banking anymore --->> I think there's a lot, LOT more to learn in consulting. But you can still pigeon hole yourself. And naturally that depends on the person and the interest.
tbh I want to deal with strategy more than PF Adj EBITDA -->> I feel you, that's why I didn't recruit for PE despite the hype. These are very different fields, that teach you very different things, and which set you up on very different career paths.
Incredibly thoughtful answers here. Thank you very much.
If I finished two years of banking, would I be able to join at a post-MBA level? Concern here is backtracking two years of hard work and taking significant pay cut, vs post-MBA compensation is actually pretty good at the associate level.
Unfortunately went to a non-target but had really high GPA in a STEM major and good SAT scores.
Overall the life style you just described sounds a lot better. Having down time in between projects honestly sounds amazing and like a vacation in itself.
What is the actual day to day work like? Have heard just a lot of building pretty PPT slides which honestly drive me a bit crazy in banking, but hoping I’ll handle it better if I get weekends off and it’s not as crazy
> If I finished two years of banking, would I be able to join at a post-MBA level?
Unfortunately not likely - you're not more desirable than an MBA candidate which is who you'll be competing against
> What is the actual day to day work like? Have heard just a lot of building pretty PPT slides
I hate this answer but it depends. On the aggregate, you can expect to spend a lot of time cleaning + analyzing data (less so as you gain seniority), building slides, running meetings, conducting interviews, or managing projects (i.e. PMO - lots of emails & calendar invites). Different projects will have wildly different mixes between those things
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