Trying to get a feel of the BB IB associate (post-MBA) hours. I realized my American alumni generally tend to overstate the working hours of around 90-120 (*this is just my observation from >10 alumni I spoke to, and is not representative of everyone). Asia alumni I connected with who are are working in the US say the hours are more of (A0: 80-100, A1/A2/A3: 70-85). They typically come in at 10 on weekdays and leave office before 12 and will work for around 2-3 hours on Sat/Sun - sometimes they also find time to squeeze in 1-hour workout during mid-day/lunch. I understand those hours are volatility and depend largely on groups and whether there are live deals, but those are the hours they work 80% of the time. (They probably are all understating the hours).
So what are the hours you guys actually put in?
"Typical" hours I actually put in, 3rd year Associate at regional BB IBD office:
Typical hours * Monday - Thursday 9:00 AM - 10:00 PM * Friday 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM * Saturday 2-3 hours of remote work * Sunday 2-3 hours of remote work
Busy hours * Monday - Thursday 9:00 AM - 12:00+ AM (may have early west coast calls) * Friday 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM, plus 2-3 hours remote work at home after dinner * Saturday 4 hours of remote work / come into office in evening * Sunday 4-6 hours of office work
[Of course the above does not represent the "busiest" hours but that's beyond the point I think]
Light hours * Monday - Thursday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM (may have early west coast calls, may go home earlier) * Friday 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM * Saturday 0-2 hours of remote work or just checking emails on phone * Sunday 1-2 hours of remote work
Maybe add an hour / day roughly for each year going backwards, at worst case. So A1 weekdays staying to midnight are not uncommon. Depends on group you're in, group culture, staffing / projects, your own performance level, etc.
Synergy's post is pretty accurate. I would add the busiest of times are horrible. Have never left the office at 4pm either (not even on Friday) and for some reason projects always have early calls.
What I would add as well for anyone considering banking post-MBA is how much living literally glued to a screen does to you and your life (with or withouth Significant Other). Having to always be on call and answering emails -- even on Christmas, social events, weddings, etc is not fun...
At a BB based out of HK. I was a post MBA-grad hire with no prior IB experience hired into a coverage group.
First twelve months Typical: M-F 10:00am 1:00am Sa & Su 12:00pm - 7:00pm This is was because 1) I had no clue what I was doing and the analysts ran ciricles around me and so I spent so much time playing catch up, and 2) my HK team had serious face time issues
Busy: add antother 10-15 hours on top
No such thing as light hour a the time.
A2 and A3 got signifcantly better because I actually started to figure out what the hell I was doing and also proved myself to the team. Those long hours although were absolutely draining, there is something to be said of your dedication and character to be in the trenches with your team pushing a deal over the line. For example, there was a time a VP and I had to run over to counsel's office at 2am to help make commerical sense of a termsheet counsel drafted up and it needed to be done then and there.
Typical hours A2 and A3: M-F 10:00am - 10:00pm Sa & Su 12:00pm -6:00pm
Busy times add another 20-25 hours to that.
I'm a VP now and I've moved to a more specialized product team and so my hours are infinitely better. Typically I work:
M-F 9:00am to 6:00pm Log in from home after dinner to check emails and have calls with NY Sa-Su I check emails and jump on calls during live deals but most of the heavy lifting is done by my associate and 2 analysts.
Associates might nominally be at the office for fewer hours, but I actually think they work harder. Analysts where I've worked take a lot of coffee breaks, eat dinner as a group in the conference room and get pretty entitled about their precious gym routine. Associate life definitely harder when you account for the stress of owning the deliverable and building a reputation to support a long-term banking career.
I did 80-100 as a first year post MBA. Got a little better after that, but not much better TBH.
The workflow deck is stacked against associates. You're junior enough to be expected to work almost as hard as analysts, but you don't have all the protections analysts have. Some banks might give associates protected weekends, but analysts have a lot more than just that. Above all else, analysts have the fact that they're mostly not there to get promoted, and they have a lot less ownership over the final product. For the most part, the analysts work at the office all night but also seem to fuck around a lot compared to the associates who leave almost as late and spend the day relatively stressed and busy.
Good news is, banks generally need associates these days so the ability to push back when needed is somewhat there now.
Also, for the post MBA level, I've usually seen industry-group guys enjoy their careers more than product group guys. The technical skills you pick up in a product group are IMHO less useful to building a long-term banking career, and also less useful for exit opps. Industry guys get better at the client-facing skills early on, and are also slightly better equipped to navigate the corp dev world.
Biggest question you should ask yourself is what will this given set up (this group, this particular MD(s) you'll be working with, etc.) do you help you develop. Because no matter what you do after 3-4 years in banking, you'll want to be as knowledgeable and polished as you can be. If you want to stay in banking, you'll be judged on how well you can interact with clients (i.e. being knowledgeable and polished). If you want to go do something else, still the same criteria more or less.
Background: BB NYC group, traditional IB (non ECM/DCM)
From what I've seen -
1st year MBA associates: Monday - Thursday: 9:00am - 9:00pm / 10:00pm Friday: 9:00am - 6:30pm Saturday/Sunday: As-needed, typically ~10 hours between the two days and sometimes remote
2nd+ year associates: Monday - Thursday: 9:00am - 7:30pm Friday: 9:00am - 5:30pm Saturday/Sunday: As-needed, typically ~5 hours between the two days and almost always remote
So roughly 60-65 hours on average for experienced associates and 70-80 hours as a 1st year MBA associate. Flex that to about 80-85 ish when very busy.
They live a pretty good life honestly, to the point I've given it some thought of going A2A (whereas going in I was PE or bust). But, also keep in mind other groups in our bank have it much rougher, so I would say this is the exception rather than the norm.