Advice - IB to Investing (Regret?)
Looking for some advice / perspective as I feel like I made the wrong move in my career by jumping to an investing role from IB. This is mainly a rant but if someone has experience to corroborate what I'm saying or counter it, would love to hear it
Background: Started out of school in IB in a more life-style oriented group (didn't model / wasn't in a team responsible for Company financials) and after a few years got a job offer for a credit investing role as an associate which was my dream job. The credit job is focused on higher yielding situations and is a mixture of public / private investing.
Been here for like ~5-6 months and I hate it. The style of working is very different from what I'm used to in banking. I'm not afraid of hard work and used to consistently work until 12am or later in banking and never felt like I do now. Likely because the work here is different, I basically do everything on my own from learning the business, running diligence calls, doing the model, putting together the memo (which are like 50+ pages) and this all needs to be done in a short time period and I am asked to work on multiple names at the same time. Also, there is no staffer here and nobody to turn to for guidance. Is this normal? In banking (I come from BB) there are like 8 jrs on the deal teams from coverage/debt team/commercial banking/credit team/M&A team, etc. In banking the seniors basically run the calls (granted jrs sit on the calls but dont need to speak/can turn mind off). In this investing role you start at 8am and work until 7-8pm and there are essentially zero breaks and the work is like 10x more difficult. I'm just curious how this trade off makes sense, perhaps I am just more suited towards work that is less stressful / there is a wider team. Perhaps it's different because I left a lifestyle IB group with 9/9:30 - 10/11pm hours vs. a grueling EB or coverage/M&A role where anything is better than working from 9/10am to 2/3am most days
I guess this is all to say that buyside didn't feel like I thought it would, it's way more stress for slightly more $ (unless you become a partner which is very unlikely). What am I missing? I know in banking you are essentially always on call and yes that is annoying but at least the work is achievable by a normal person and you don't need to run your mind at 115% all day long. Maybe it's just the particular seat that I'm in / the people I'm around
End of rant.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some insights and advice regarding your transition from Investment Banking (IB) to an investing role:
Key Points from Your Experience:
Insights from WSO Content:
Stress and Responsibility:
Work-Life Balance:
Support and Team Structure:
Career Satisfaction:
Advice:
Conclusion:
Your feelings of stress and dissatisfaction are valid and shared by many who transition from IB to investing roles. It might be worth considering whether this specific role or firm is the right fit for you, or if there are other opportunities that better align with your work style and career goals.
Sources: Work/Life Balance: Equity Research vs. Investment Banking - (A Definitive Guide, Part 1), Anyone else get overwhelmed by their career sometimes?, Q&A: Buy-Side Analyst, Work/Life Balance: Equity Research vs. Investment Banking - (A Definitive Guide, Part 1), Why work up to MD in Investment Banking?
From everything I have seen, this is completely normal, but I'd be interested to hear what others have to say. Buyside is typically learn through osmosis, "apprenticeship' (*when senior analysts have time for you*) type of environment (this is part of the reason your PM is so important). It's not structured like banking, and no one is going to hold your hand, and yes you need to be 'on' almost all the time. That's why you really need to be self-starter who is independent/actually passionate about the work to thrive. From what I've heard from other bankers, it seems like this can be a bit shocking for ppl at first. So for what it's worth, what you're experiencing seems completely normal.
Sorry to sound harsh but what exactly were you expecting going into a public market / investing role? Either the headhunter did a very poor job explaining to you what the job entails or you need a proper reality check.
You said this role was your dream job, so what was it that made it so and how is it different? The investment process should be interesting and stimulating (I certainly felt that even preparing for my case study during my interviews at the time was more stimulating than my IBD role), and the best part is you get to decide what names to look at and how you want to conduct the diligence and build your thesis. Of course the learning curve is steep, you’re fighting every day to generate P&L and there isn’t a team of people to pickup the slack if you’re not on it, but by the same token your time is yours and you get to decide how to carve it up.
It just sounds like you had no idea what you were getting yourself into and went into it blindly. No one is forcing you to stay in the buy side and I’m sure your prior group or another bank would be glad to have you back with the added buyside experience should you wish. I just think so many young folks come out of college with half an eye on buyside already that they never even know why. It is hard to orient yourself but it does get better, but you have to be honest with yourself what it is you want out of this seat as I’m sure there will be be plenty of others who would love to have it.
End of rant.
To add to what the other poster said - not sure what you were expecting. Investing can be a relatively isolated career; there isn't someone steering you on each deliverable and it is not process oriented, so the outcomes aren't necessarily based on your effort and handing over tangible deliverables. The problem might be that you just don't enjoy this line of work... which is totally fine btw! Do you genuinely enjoy having the opportunity to explore new ideas, learn new businesses, leverage (some) creativity in thinking, ask questions, and solve unsolvable puzzles? For those that do, working all day doesn't feel like a chore - it is still exhausting to expense that focus non-stop all day, but it is also super rewarding for those that enjoy it. I have moments where I go down a rabbit hole and look up 5 hours later and need to gasp for air and chug water, and its exhausting, but I also love piecing together more and more parts.
My sense is a lot of people are more accustomed to grinding out tasks, and feeling satisfaction from wrapping up a bunch of things, or being able to see more tangible outcomes from their labor - or just the "feeling" of progress and moving up ladders. Investing is the opposite - because you can spin your wheels on endless tasks, with no definable outcome until the investment works out or doesn't. You have to live with a certain level of unknowables, with work that can never be 100p finished (sort of), but the joy comes from 1) picking out pieces from the noise in a way that maybe others haven't and 2) seeing that analysis play out in real time, sometime with great rewards.
What you and Monkey.D (poster above) said are completely valid. To answer the question on why I thought this was a dream job, I thought that simply because I found reading about complicated / tricky situations interesting, that I would naturally like doing the analysis to come up with solutions that make the headlines. What I didn't realize was that two things can be true at the same time: (i) I find the work interesting and (ii) I dislike the process of doing it. I should have done more diligence on that process which is totally my fault and I am living the consequences of that lack of diligence. I thought these environments would be more collaborative and there would be more instruction like I was accustomed to in banking. I didn't realize I valued collaborative work so much as that was all I had been used to since coming out of school and starting career in banking. Unfortunately, I couldn't "trial run" the experience of having a totally isolated work environment and didn't have enough introspection to realize it wasn't for me without even attempting. Either way I have nobody to blame but myself
To the point in your post, I think I am someone who feels satisfaction from knowing that I have completely wrapped something up and it is over until the next project comes up. I'm someone who has a curious mind and will never stop thinking about an issue until it is solved and in my current role means that I am keeping myself up researching on-end until I feel like I have solved the issue (but of course it's never truly solved!). So while I do value thinking creatively and problem-solving, with my personality I feel like my work has consumed me. I probably would be better off in a more defined work environment where I can get to the end of the day and say "I have accomplished X, Y, Z and crossed those off of my list".
If anyone has ideas of interesting jobs given the above stated personality profile/experience that I can look into I would love to hear them. I am considering going back into banking given I know it but just curious what else is out there for people who exit banking/investing. Luckily over these past 6 months I have definitely sharpened my skillset which I know is useful (financial analysis/complex modeling, synthesizing complex ideas into slides & presenting to seniors, etc.)
Strategy consulting at MBB? Can be fast paced and it's fairly defined. Obviously you'll take a pay cut and there is less "finance" involved but I've seen people transition from IB (and LO Equity) to MBB as they found it much more stimulating + fixed (vs uncertainty of IB hours).
how big is your firm and how big is the headcount? i work for a large-ish credit group ($30B of aum) and my work is very manageable with larger deal teams, analysts to do grunt work, largely understanding seniors, memos that are 20 pages PPT, etc. so that's to say not all buyside roles are created equal. worst case, try to lateral to another group.
The credit portion is probably like $10bn (but its distressed/stressed) there are like 4-5 associates, 3-4 principals/VPs, 3-4 MDs.
The associates get cranked hard and there are no junior resources besides them, they do everything from research, modeling, putting together memos and even run most of the presentations when it comes to business diligence. The seniors typically just opine high level and give comments on work product. At a bank there would be like 6-8 jrs working on projects like this and seniors present.
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