Anyone Deal w/ Extended Burn-Out?
Bit of background, I'm a 2nd year associate in my late 20s who went UG-->IB. Was top bucket each year during my analyst stint, was the first to raise my hand to take work most of the time, and really gave a fuck about my work quality being extremely high. After a series of nightmare staffings from COVID onset through 3Q21, I became incredibly burnt out and apathetic. I was able to take a 2-week sabbatical, felt no different when it was over. I wound up exiting to the buy-side before 2022 and hated it. Group was full of grade-A dickheads and they completely misrepresented the position during recruiting. I resigned without an offer in hand and didn't work for ~5 months - even start recruiting for 3 months.
I'm back in banking now and feel no different about it than I did right before I left the first time. Completely apathetic towards all aspects of the job...and every other aspect of life and have no ambition to accomplish anything. I know that I would hate it the second that the pay-cut became a reality, but I often think that I'd be a lot happier doing a blue-collar job in a LCOL middle-of-nowhere town.
Anyone else gotten burnt out to a similar point and found a way to get a second-wind during their post-analyst years? Have to figure out some way to reignite my spark because I know I'd regret the fuck out of walking away from the $ if I decided to radically change career scenery.
LSD.
Guaranteed to end w/ me hallucinating that I'm the guy on the table in The Judgement of Cambyses and the devil holding the scalpel.
You also don’t know how lsd works if you are just blindly recommending it lol
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I was in your exact position. Charged hard for years, always wanted more work, did a good job, got the promotions, etc. etc. etc. The nightmare staffings during COVID completely killed me. Ambition is a great thing but it completely obliterated any sense of balance I had in my life. Even when I wasn't working I was checking my phone, thinking about what I had to do next, and was hardly ever present.
Specific to my experience... I am fortunate to have a great group of friends and a supportive girlfriend, but started to feel the strain on those relationships. You can be the best guy in the world, but if your response to your friends wanting to hang out is always "sorry fellas, tied up with work", those texts eventually start coming with less frequency. You can have the most supportive partner in the world, but if you're unable to take even a long-weekend vacation without breaking out the laptop at some point, you'll start to alienate them.
Moreso than the job not allowing for much balance, the real issue was that I, personally, could not create any balance. That was an important realization because it forced me to take accountability and not strictly be resentful of the industry.
Ultimately, I took a 100k paycut at the age of 28, which I like to pretend was a tough pill to swallow, but if I'm honest with myself I truly could not have given less of a fuck. I was so cooked at that point + I never had money + didn't go crazy with my lifestyle, so it didn't make much of a day-to-day difference. I took a strategy role with a firm I'd known for a long time and have never felt better. My responsibilities are much greater, the work aligns much better with my interests, I still have great upside in opportunity, my relationships with friends and family have never been stronger, and I have balance.
I'm not telling anyone what they should do but, for me, getting away from the banking/PE culture was critical. My motivations in the first place were based on ego, prestige, cash, not sincere interest. That carried me for 6-7 years until I hit a wall and decided to reprioritize.