Are some of us very insecure?
We sacrifice everything in IB (dating, friends, family, time, health, learning), all to work in IB to do it all over again in PE.
But why?
Are we so insecure in our own skin that we are willing to sacrifice our best years of our lives away?
I get it, it’s worth it because you can make VP in PE and with all that money, your problems are gone.
life is going to pass you hard and you will grow old one day. And you will realize money can’t buy missed birthdays, dates, weddings, and the important things in life. You’ll have amassed millions of dollars but have missed children events, your wife will think your beta, you’ll likely be extremely out of shape; etc
It really feels like exit opps and money are the argument everyone does to do this career, but 99.99% of the population aren’t in IB and seem to be doing just fine
Other than money and exit opps does anyone have any other reasons to be here ? If money and exit opps aren’t an issue, what is your then true passion in life ? Why not pursue that ?
I got in this industry so that 1) my mom could quit her job and I can make sure that she's taken care of for the rest of her life and 2) I can make sure my two sisters are covered for college and can pursue their dreams of medicine without crushing debt. I'm staying because I don't know what my passion is -- not all of us had the luxury of discovering ourselves, what the hell would I even quit to do?
I know the life I'm signing myself up for, I know it doesn't include much happiness, but I think I'm fine with the trade-off that I'm not currently living for myself but for the people important to me.
Noble but also very fucking miserable.
You are a beast of burden my friend. Might sound selfish but learn to live for yourself a little more. Nothing wrong with helping out but your family shouldn't rely solely on you grinding your soul away to be debt-free and comfortable.
Hey man, I respect the hustle and willingness to sacrifice for your family… I would just like to say be very careful. Your story eerily parallels my father, who busted his ass doing miserable yet high paying jobs so his parents could retire and he could send his siblings to med school.
Unfortunately, he never was able to “escape” the trap of taking care of his family, who leeched on him for decades after. He developed some pretty bad habits and passed at a relatively young age due to stress and never taking care of himself
You sacrifice for this career, true, but I've worked and seen the regular 9-5 grind and it can be equally soul-crushing to working in IB in spite of the "work-life balance". In fact, I hear my swe friends complain about their jobs' hours and pay much the same way people on this forum do. The truth is there's no perfect career and people are always unsatisfied with some aspect of their lives, it's just a part of the hedonic treadmill. Life isn't about minimizing suffering, it's about choosing a meaningful way to suffer.
TLDW Summary: Life's a bitch and then you die
Hedonic treadmill is so real. 2 years ago I was miserable, making $60k a year and hating my coworkers, thinking if my WLB improved and I made $80k I’d be so happy.
I make just shy of $170k now, work 55 hours a week (which isn’t terrible), and I’m still looking to the next thing. Happiness is internal. Seeking external things for happiness means that happiness is the moment before you need more happiness.
"you have to make incredible sacrifices"
dawg what? what are you sacrificing?
>muh friendships
you mean no normie friendships right? cause my coworkers and I are tight and it's pretty cool and we hang out while we work and make jokes, I think you really mean the normie definition of friendships:
NOOO NOOOO NOT THE SOCIAL MEDIA NONONONONO NOW HOW WILL I MAKE EVAN SPIEGEL RICHER?????? NONONONO I NEED TO CONSOOM MORE REDDIT AND FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM
>dating
lmfao what? over 20% of long term relationships and marriages are begun at the workplace, otherwise just go to a bar in your free time if you want to get lay
>family
I call my mother and father every single day??? they fly out everyone once in a while, not that bad and I don't see them as much as I used to but like ??? I'm an adult?
>time
fair enough
>health
kinda, depends on how you eat and stuff, but this could be severely worse
>learning
I learn every day, yeah the learning curve plateaus but imagine if you worked at a blue collar job or McDonald's or something else (I'm sure you probably wouldn't but whatever), it'd be way flatter.
I honestly think you guys bitch way too much on this website and have no idea how blessed we are to be pursuing these careers full time. I'm very grateful and OP, stop being a pussy for like 5 minutes, things could be wayyy worse. Trust me, I've been there.
Before I get hit with the "hur dur muh intern" I haven't changed my thing, just remembered to do that
You clearly haven’t sacrificed the amount of time you spend on 4chan
Same Energy
Insecurity and ambition are related and hard to disentangle. Ambitious people are often insecure and anxious about whether they'll succeed or live up to their potential. It's what motivates them and makes them work so hard. It can be a good or bad thing to have.
Some people have been programmed to derive their sense of confidence & self-worth from their careers or financial profiles. It's been hardwired by their environment & upbringing. On its own, it doesn't make them better or worse people than those who aren't that way.
But these same people would often view "settling" for a $150-200k, 9-5pm, lower-stress corporate job as failure. They'd feel like they're not pushing themselves hard enough and realizing their potential. They'd look at some of their peers making >2x what they make and think, "I'm just as smart and hardworking as he is. Why can't I do that?"
So you end up with the reality in which people do things that make them miserable, because to not do those things is perceived as an even worse outcome. It is the plight of the ambitious & insecure.
$200k 9-5pm low-stress corporate job sounds awesome. where do i find those?
>Are some of us very insecure?
Gee Billy, I don´t know, could the self-denying, perma-buttclenching overachievers working themselves into an early grave for "financial security" and some arbitrary notion of preftige be actually not secure and content in their self-image? Hold the fucking presses, everyone!