Burnt out after 1 month

Hey everyone — ignored my title. Currently a first yr analyst at a BB. I completely hate my life even tho it’s only been 1month since I hit the desk. We ain’t even working that many hrs per “IB” standard, but I am still feel burned out as hell. At this point don’t even wanna look at the work phone… can’t believe how I grind so hard for this back in college. 
 

Wonder any tips to handle this? Tbh the group has been decently nice to me. Idk what’s wrong. I know people have been saying tough it out and exit/quit after a while — fyi my group barely models so don’t have much to exit into. Shall I just quit after 6month/1yr for a chiller 9-5 job? I just really really can’t picture myself doing the same boring shits for foreseeable future. 
 

Open to any comments, I know I am not doing well. Thx 

5 Comments
 

I’m in the same boat, like almost word for word. The only difference is that I’m at a regional boutique and one of my MDs is very unpleasant to work with. My health and sleep have been trash due to constant worries about missing details in work I submitted or about forgetting to complete things on time. Like you said, most of the work is completely meaningless and even unnecessary to begin with, so for any intellectually capable mind who graduated a decent college let alone a target school this job is demoralizing to say the least. Unfortunately I don’t think it gets better from here so it’s probably good we are realizing it now before it’s too late.

Hopefully you and I will get thru this with our body and mind more or less intact. It’d be a shame to sacrifice one’s health for such little satisfaction. My plan is to move on from IB altogether soon.

 

Tough it out at least 9 months. The options after 6 months will be very very slim. That second job is important for your long-term career goals - and even if that is in a 9-5, the legit jobs won't touch you until 9-12 months.

It's real though. The transition from college to working life, and a VERY intense job at that, is very difficult. Give yourself time and prioritize sleep and maintaining relationships with close friends... personally the going out until 2-3am was the first thing to go and I felt better. It really does get better. Things become easier, teams start to trust you and you get used to it. Figure out what your outlet is - working out, getting a bit of golfing in once a week, some hobby... find a stress reliever and lean into it

 
Most Helpful

Happens every cycle. People get in full of hope and optimism, only to be crushed beneath the boot of banking. The first 3-6 months are the hardest because, well, it's basically your first time ever being in an environment like this, so you aren't gonna be very well adapted to the hardcore nature of everything. You are also likely going to be way more of a perfectionist and pleaser in your first year, while in your second you'll probably be able to set stronger boundaries, and you'll actually have somewhat of an idea what you're doing, so you won't be a chicken without a head. Just tough things out, because they do get better. That's really all there is to this. 

 

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