1st year analyst and want to quit
Have worked 90+ hour weeks since my first week on the desk and worked every single weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) all day and night.
Have not had any time to myself to decompress.
There is no mentorship or training so I’m stuck feeling stupid and am super slow with no one to reach out to. We are incredibly over staffed on deals and under staffed on headcount.
I am depressed, my body feels weak, and I don’t think I can take this much longer. I want to quit.
However if I quit I need to pay back sign on bonus, and then there’s health insurance, rent, groceries, and other things I need to take care of. I don’t know what to do. I hate myself and I’m depressed but don’t see a way out.
how would you have to payback your 15k sign on bonus to a multibillion dollar company who make you work 100hs weekly
let me know where you work and i’ll apply for your spot thx
quiet quit
How do I quiet quit ?
Soft
I know where ur coming from, feel the same right now only a month into the job. Corp dev is looking so sweet rn. I honestly have realized that I don’t actually care about money and prestige as much my college self did. We only have one life…
Your preference for money/prestige will likely increase as you get older, though.
When you have kids, buy a house, and your outgoings multiply you appreciate it more.
I disagree, as you get older spending time with your family becomes a large priority. Sure wanting to be able to take care of the bills it’s important, but you don’t need IB to do that
is this bb or mm?
BB
is it because deal flow is picking up? or alot of pitches
Same, also at a BB. MBB is looking pretty good too right now
is it because deal flow is picking up? or alot of pitches
Deal flow is indeed picking up + multiple senior analysts have quit. But i think its primarily related to the fact that I hit the desk just a month ago so will take some time to ramp-up
yeah the first year or two is just getting rocked but it gets better as you get quicker on the job
Damn…
Hang in there, job’s tough but some very dumb people have made it through before.
Don't worry, it'll get better (It will never get better)
In all seriousness, eventually you adapt. Getting kicked in the balls hurts, but if you get kicked in the balls enough times eventually you become numb to it. Plus, everything you do after banking will feel incredibly easy in comparison
Same situation sort of
Only you know what your true limits are but it’s better to be bottom bucket then mid bucket to finish the analyst program and get access to the best exits (if you don’t go to PE you can literally lie your ass off and say you were great as long as you can get 1-2 seniors in your corner) than to just quit and have to start behind your peers in other fields. Part of why ex IBers are so highly regarded in the job market is because world knows it’s tough, so you get respect. Tough it out at least 1, start to slowly search and leave by 1.5 (which by then you could literally coast to 2…)
Talk to your staffer
Come to the middle market, lateral out of that place
Middle market is more work with less resources so it won’t be better. He’s likely at a MM based on what he’s describing.
How long have you worked at your bank?
How long have you worked at your bank?
How long have you worked at your bank?
How long have you worked at your bank?
How long have you worked at your bank?
Recognize that the immediate grind of banking is a passing phase, and the next two years will not look like this. Your first couple months will suck ass, but trust that things get better in cominbation with you starting to get better and the market tends slowing down a bit heading into the holiday season. Even if you're staffed on something live, if you have half decent seniors you should be able to carve out time for a small break around christmas / thanksgiving, as they'll try to push back on the client a bit (investors / strategics aren't in a rush to work over the holidays) and otherwise should advocate for you to get a break after things cool down.
Once you get into the new year you'll hopefully be refreshed and ready to grind through a couple more months, this is probably the busiest you'll be (2nd years leaving / dgaf) but you'll hopefully be experienced enough such that it balances out. Try to schedule a vacation in April or May to give yourself something to look forward to during this period / setup another break for yourself. After that, again things tend to slow a bit in the summer, and you'll have interns who tend to makle the office a little more fun. After the summer you'll get a bit of a break from new staffings as they ramp up the first years, at which point your job should get progressively easier as you get ready for your next role.
the real reason things slow down is because MD revenue is calculated at the end of november and just omits december, and that’s what their bonus is based off of, so they push to january. they dgaf about your holiday plans haha
Agreed, but also sitting on the other side of the table as a strategic now, unless there is an imminent need to get a deal done over the holidays (change in tax law, nearing bankruptcy, etc.), any banker who purposely runs a process over the holidays is sabotaging their client. It's hard enough to get business unit sponsors excited enough about an opportunity to want to take on the extra work of helping assess an acquisition during normal periods, over the holidays they're almost completely unwilling. Maybe it's different in certain industries outside of tech (more rollup focused), where CD can just run a process with minimal business input, but at least for us, there's no pressure to do deals, so if the business sponsor doesn't care enough to ruin their holidays no one on our team is pushing for a deal during that period.
I was in the same boat, and I recommend trying to tough it out for at least 1 year. It’s very rare that people get cut in IB on the analyst level as long as you complete your work on time and somewhat accurately. Just keep in mind that PE can be even more stressful, so if that is your end goal, you might want to take a step back and look at other options, since it’s near impossible to climb to the top of the ladder in PE unless you’re 100% invested in the job/lifestyle
I’m also in the same boat and trying to tough it out at least one year… are corp strat/dev opportunities after 1 year easy to come by? If so how do I find them?
Would love any insight into your path given I see you’re a manager in corp strat. Honestly just feeling really lost right now…
I run my own business now but I pivoted to another firm due to terrible culture/turnover at my first firm and got headhunted for F100 corp dev at my second role.
Exit ops are essentially none after only 2 months on the desk. You just have to tough it out to at least 8-10 months. Even if that means being the worst ranked analyst
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