36 Comments
 

seek out increased responsibility. it is a great way to differentiate yourself from others, especially if your compensation is based on your ranking among peers.

 

Could not agree more, attitude is everything. If you dwell on how much your life sucks you won't do a good job and your life will suck even more

 

understand what you're getting into. If you expect to work on the weekends it isn't nearly as painful if you are hoping to get out or hoping to get some sleep.

don't get your hopes up and always be prepared for more than you thought you could handle.

in short: understand what you're getting into and set your expectations appropriately and you'll be in a much better mood.

 

Are 100 hour weeks common? I can see doing 80 hours most of the time, but doing 100 hours means you have no time to do anything but sleep and travel to and from the office.

 

From my experience, while 100 hour work weeks do happen, I would say that 80 to 90 is probably more par for the course. You can count on at least 70 in the slowest of weeks.

 

well.. some of us look for something with a little more kick....thats right, Jolt Cola. Either that, or get used to the taste of espresso

 

The hours are terrible, but you tend to get accustomed to the routine. You'll find that you basically work from 9am to 12am, with somedays leaving at 10pm and some at 2am. But when the work week is light, you'll find that the hours between 7pm and 12am most guys are just BS-ing with each other.

 

I am assuming that most or all of you work at BB banks. I am sure it depends on how busy a particular group is and the structure of the group, but how many live deals (M&A or equity) on an average do first year analysts get staffed on? What are the most prestigious MM as far as the Street is concerned?

 
Best Response

You're right, it does depend on the group. I remember in my BB i-banking years the consumer group was actually much more relaxed than, say, M&A or FIG. Same goes for Sponsors and LevFin groups sometimes. Not a huge difference though. Also, it depends on the BB. UBS and Lehman used to have the worse hours, but I hear Lehman has become much better, looks after its analysts and actually has the highest retention on the Street.

First years will probably see a couple of live M&A deals and 4-5 offerings. In terms of your hours, though, it doesn't mean that they will vary by much, because pitching and live deals don't make a heck of a difference at the first-year level, i.e., the associate will want his stuff as if it was related to a live deal.

It's just that the type of work changes. Instead of formatting excel spreadsheets with comps, you move to formatting working group lists and management presentations for the roadshow.

 

Just wondering, usually what is the average age of first year starting analyst? Also, how long does the transition take suauly from an analyst to an associate and then to VP?

 

u definitely learn to live on less sleep. it just happens. always naturally occurs with aging. you will never realize how under-rated sleep is until you get into banking. try not to over sleep on the weekends when you can afford to, it just throws you off when monday comes...

 

first year is the most fun... sleep SUCKS anyways why would you want to do it? and you can still find time to do what you want... just have to allocated it correctly

 

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