Banking as an Outdoorsman?

Question

I’m hitting the desk full time in a few months as an analyst after my summer internship and was wondering if there’s any other avid outdoorsman here that have gone into banking and how they attempt to balance those two parts of life.

Everyone says having hobbies is the way to get some semblance of a WLB, however, nearly all of my biggest sources of pleasure come from hiking, surfing, skiing, camping, etc.

Anonymous Monkey · Accepted Answer

Depending on what you like to do outdoors, you can certainly get your fix in NYC/Greater NYC.

My experience has been:

For easy access - Lean into parks.  I moved near Central Park for many reasons, but mostly for easy access for walks, bike rides, and finding a secluded bench to smoke a spliff and stare into space.  Prospect Park is also great, Riverside Park is lovely, Carl Schurz park is crowded but a place to go.  Also most of the perimeter of Manhattan (starting ~34th on the east side, around the tip, up to the GWB) is park-esque and a good spot to be. 
    If yo

NudnikShpilkes · Answer

Mountains are my heroin. Earlier in my career I would typically do 1 week long backpacking trip each year, just disappear into the mountains completely off grid and unreachable. Also, do a couple 3-4 day weekend trips a year as well for weekends that would but up against a holiday, usually memorial and labor day. Less exposure to the things that I enjoy than I would have liked but I made due with what I could get. Now that I have a place in Montana I split my time between my primary residence and my vacation home in Montana, usually spend at least a week up there each month working remote.

zxcvjkl · Answer

I lived in Hawaii during COVID based out of NYC. I would get to go out for a quick sunset surf at Bowls or Kaisers ~2x a week on the weekdays and usually a solid session and hike on Saturdays. But with return to office I had to come back to NYC. I would go dawn patrol sunrise at Rockaways. I would go to sleep around 1-2am then wake up at 4am to go surf shitty closeout waves and be logged on at home by 9am. Pretty brutal, but if you're desperate for waves, you'll suck it up. I took my first vacation of the year to PR to surf and ended up working most of it.

ZetaMale · Answer

A lot of good commentaries here. My 2 cents (realize that some of this may echo earlier points);

- Surfing: Rockaway Beach (city's only legal surfing beach). Are the waves huge and would it rival the best areas in terms of surfing? No. Is it good enough? Yes. Is it easily accessible from Manhattan?

+277	Female bankers doing brand deals on TikTok (@emlywang)	75	1h
+134	Hot take: I’d rather be at Desjardins than UBS for investment banking in 2026	20	2d
+127	UBS rolling out Enhanced Clean Desk Policy, bans deal toys	14	2d
+63	Starting FT in a city 3 hours away, dad has progressing Parkinson's. Looking for advice.	5	10h
+54	JULY 2026 CHICAGO BANK RANKINGS	16	2h
+36	Restructuring is paradise (a completely unbiased account)	6	5h
+31	Handling frustration	5	10h
+26	People who work/worked in FIG IB at a BB: does FIG really pigeonhole you as bad as people say?	5	4d
+26	Thoughts on Intrepid - Houlihan Merger	9	1d
+25	How casual to be with first year analysts?	11	5d

1	redever	99.2
2	Secyh62	99.0
3	BankonBanking	99.0
4	kanon	99.0
5	DrApeman	98.9
6	GameTheory	98.9
7	dosk17	98.9
8	CompBanker	98.9
9	Betsy Massar	98.9
10	Mimbs	98.8

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Banking as an Outdoorsman?

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Banking as an Outdoorsman?

Trending Content - Investment Banking Forum