Burned out in Corporate
Wanted to share my experiences with switching from IB to a more corporate finance role and see if anyone has had a similar experience.
For background I graduated from a well known semi-target and spent two years in M&A at one of the EBs known to have a tough WLB. After finishing two years, I accepted a new corporate finance role for the improved WLB and loved it for the first few months.
However, have recently noticed that I’m still seeing signs of burnout even though my hours have drastically improved (9-6 on average). Perhaps it’s some insecurity about accepting a lower salary or exiting the high finance path, but it’s genuinely upsetting to still see some of the same issues that I had in my past role despite the drastically improved hours. The lower comp, working with not-as-impressive superiors, etc make it hard to feel comfortable with my situation day-to-day and I wake up dreading to go to work.
Curious to see if anyone has been in similar shoes and what approach they’ve taken to help combat this
Ah, the classic tale of the high-flying IB professional swooping down to the steadier currents of corporate finance, only to find the winds of burnout still gusting! It's not an uncommon story on the forums. Many have made the leap from the intense world of Investment Banking to a more balanced corporate finance role, seeking refuge from the relentless hours and stress.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, it seems that the symptoms of burnout can linger like a stubborn cold, even after you've left the environment that caused it. It's like muscle memory; your mind and body are so used to operating at a high level of stress that they haven't quite received the memo that things have slowed down.
Here are a few steps that others in your shoes have taken to combat these feelings:
Self-Reflection: Take some time to understand what's truly causing your dissatisfaction. Is it the work itself, the environment, or external factors like compensation or prestige?
Professional Help: Consider speaking with a therapist or coach who specializes in career-related issues. They can provide strategies to manage your feelings and expectations.
Networking: Connect with others who have made a similar transition. They might have insights or advice on how they navigated their own feelings of burnout.
Setting New Goals: Sometimes, setting new professional and personal goals can provide a renewed sense of purpose and direction.
Hobbies and Interests: Engage more actively in activities outside of work that you enjoy. This can help create a better work-life balance and reduce overall stress.
Re-evaluate Your Role: If after some time and effort to adjust, you're still feeling unfulfilled, it might be worth considering if the role or company is the right fit for you.
Remember, it's not just about the hours or the pay; it's about finding work that's meaningful to you. And sometimes, that takes a bit of trial and error. Keep swinging through the vines until you find that sweet spot!
Sources: Quitting IB in 2023 - Burnout, Midlevel Burnout, Anyone Deal w/ Extended Burn-Out?, Losing "The Edge" Post-IB, Life after Investment Banking
Did a similar same path as you (2 years at a terrible WLB EB and then moved to Corp Strat for better hours). I have come across some of the issues you describe, particularly with the not-so-impressive superiors part and the less exciting nature of the job. I will preface this with the fact that as an Associate 1-2 years in I make slightly more total than I did as an EB IB analyst so your feeling of leaving money on the table is not 1-1, but I will note that I could have stayed and made significantly more as a IB/PE associate and most of my peers in IB did go on to PE whereas I was the only one who left “high finance”. A few things I’ve learned:
1. Not so impressive superiors. It is better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond. IB folks are generally overachievers throughout their life (HS, college, etc) and working life in IB has allowed them to exuberantly portray this to others. Coming to Corporate, I immediately noticed that I was more technically (and sometimes intellectually) more adept than some of my peers who have been in Corporate their entire lives. This has allowed me to be on an “accelerated” path where I am assigned more strategic/interesting high visibility projects compared to peers who have been here for decades. This is also reflected in bonuses and the way that higher ups treat/see you. The importance of this of course depends on how long you see yourself at your current gig.
2. Burnout. Slightly contradictory, but know when to push back. I’ve noticed that Corporate folks do not reply with a “Sounds good/Will do” within 20s of seeing an email come through. In fact, in my experience, people from other teams in Corporate will not respond and only do things when reminded to do so. Where I’m going with this is that it is very likely that you are doing more work than expected due to your efficiency and background (versus others). E.g. it might take me 1hr to spread comps whereas it might take a day for others on your team — and because of that, you are doing “more” than others. The culture of the firm might have been like that for forever, but here you are as a pedigreed IB person coming in and wrecking it up for the folks who enjoy the slower WLB. Take a deep breath and slow it down.
3. Less interesting work. It is very hard to find a job that has interesting work, pays well, and has a good WLB. I remember reading on here that out of the 3, you can only choose 2. And if it was a hard choice, then you have all 3. We escaped IB —> PE —> MBA —> ??? hell and we should be celebrating. No more 100h work weeks, 4AM Friday nights, psychotic MDs & VPs, useless post-MBA associates, checking your work phone every 2 minutes, having to worry about your next big move, feeling like a free captive during your walk in the park, etc. Think about all that you gave up during the two years and think about everything you have been able to do now — that impromptu ski trip you were able to go on, that festival you missed last year, etc.
4. It could have been Banking 2.0. You could have gone to do PE and it would have been way worse according to many of the posts on this website. When I was in IB, I envied the folks who did more regular Corporate jobs — and I know for a fact that my PE friends are getting pushed out and now are planning to do the exact same thing we have done. And if they do go do an MBA, what’s next? Many times they just go back to PE… and who says we can’t go to business school as well?
Think less about what’s next — enjoy the moment and live the life you envisioned while you were pulling that all-nighter in IB.
OP here - just wanted to say thank you for posting this. Really put things in perspective when you lay it out the way you did. This is certainly the lifestyle that I would’ve killed for a year ago, so maybe just need to work on not thinking the grass is always greener…
appreciate your thoughts!
Are you sure about number 3? Have met some people who seem to be equally or possibly more miserable after moving out of ib to corporate roles as they’ve had to deal with more politics and psychotic things than before
Yeah agree with guy above, not too confident in that part
Having worked across two firms doing IB and now in Corporate, I can personally say its been night and day for me. MDs and VPs are, at the end of the day, salespeople — they need to meet their target PnL for the year and thus are generally more stressed. This turns into countless pitchbooks with the MD spending hours deciding what the correct FN/multiple should be in Appendix C of the deck, etc. just to make sure that the Head of Corp Dev at Shitco X sees that they put effort into the materials. You’re in banking right now so I assume you have wondered why there is a need for perfection and multiple turns of bullshit pitching that are so obviously going to end up in the trash. IB folks are generally more psychotic than people in Corporate (just think about your own MDs’ personal lives), and don’t think that is a very controversial view.
In Corporate, everything is internal so there is less pressure to have everything looking good. The number of pages our team has been sent from other Corporate functions where its just a wall of text on a page with no formatting is pretty hilarious. You are right that there tends to be more politics in Corporate than in IB, but you mainly see that at the Director level where you are less of an executor and more of a company-wide direction setter. That being said, there is also politics in IB as well, you just rarely see it at the Analyst/Associate level. How MDs split fees (inside and between groups), which VP/MDs get promotions and client outreach across the bank are just some things that I have witnessed at the EB I worked for, which was helpful as it was smaller and I could see pretty much all the behind the scenes drama.
Do you mind sharing your comp in corp strat and how you expect it to grow? What industry are you in?
I am in a higher paying industry (Tech/Energy/FIG) in NYC. TC my first year as an Associate was $200-250k. Goes up ~10% each year for 3-4 years until you become a VP/Senior Manager equivalent role). I assume they are around 300-350k TC as a year 1 “VP”. No set year-based progression after that to become a Director. Spitballing here (truly have no idea) hence the massive range, I could see around ~$500-700k as a Director — mine works “9-6” but has to deal with a hefty amount of politics, which I assume everyone does at that level.
Having spoken to multiple companies after I left IB, the more “interesting” the industry (eg Media/Sports/Retail), the less you will get paid. The above recruit for ~$150k TC for a Corp Strat/Dev Associate. Every other industry tends to fall in between that and the range I describe above.
Great post above. My one add here is that I’ve faced similar frustrations as you and gone back to IB/PE only to find those frustrations aren’t absolved even if the work is slightly more interesting. My conclusion is that my boredom and frustration at the more relaxed job wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting enough, it’s that I myself wasn’t interesting enough and didn’t have enough hobbies or a large enough social circle to make the free time something to look forward to regularly and actually value.
100% agree, thanks for pointing out
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