Hi All,
I was wondering if high stress and burnout are common in investment banking. I've seen others tired from working 80-100 hours a week and are exhausted mentally and physically.
If you've experienced this before I'd love to hear about what you went through and where you're at now.
Thanks a ton!
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Burnt out + Exhausted to the point you don't give a shit anymore. 2 am nights? Bring it on
Oh man. Sounds rough. How long have you in IB?
almost 2 years in, but instead of doing exit recruiting, I lateraled instead, I am fucking stupid arent I?
I wish my days ended at 2am..
there are a ton of more specific threads on this, especially from early 2021 when things were bad across the street. but yes, IB is an extremely stressful job and people burnout/quit at a nearly constant clip
Thanks a ton for the reply. I am looking to speak to better understand what they went through. Would you or anyone you know be willing to chat?
This may be an odd answer, but I have seen a direct relationship between how quickly people burn out and how much of their income they spend. For me it was a lot easier to keep going when I had a decent chunk of money set aside pretty early on, was watching it grow (via returns, 401k contributions, and keeping my expenses as closely in line with my base as possible), and without any crazy assumptions could project how much it would turn into in 10 or so years, without, but especially with, another 10 years worth of bonuses added on.
If you're working 100 hours a week and after a couple years have nothing to show for it but a collection of 4-figure bottle service receipts, you're pretty likely to start wondering what you're doing with your life...
That definitely makes sense. Appreciate your answer! What do you think is the no.1 reason that people burnout?
Working absurd hours and always having to be available for a decade at the hopes of the big "pay day" that always seems to be "next year" but never comes so you wonder why you are doing this and it gets to the point where you only perseverate on your bonus because that's all that matters.
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