Doctor VS. Banker
Hey guys,
I'm seriously considering entering medical school vs continuing with my MBA at H/S/W. Can someone in the field give me some real information and not you college kids. I just can't seem to get the Banker lifestyle of 80+ hour work weeks. My cousin is an EM Doc and pulls nearly 500k a year working 4 - 10 hours shifts, he gets every Friday off. Don't talk to me about the cost differential during med school that's a non issue for me. I refuse to spend the rest of my life working 80 hours a week without spending quality time with my family. I guess my question is if there's any field within finance where I could be getting 400-500k a year for 40-60 hour work weeks max? How long would it take to get there? It's just becoming hard af to justify going into banking with the atrocious hours you guys have. It looks like the buyside at PE firms isn't much different. Realistically it will take over a decade of climbing the corporate ladder at F500 to get that salary if I'm not mistaken? Asset management on the other hand seems to be an ever shrinking field. Is there any real light at the end of the tunnel? I'm starting to think I'd rather work my ass off for 10 years in med school and residency and make 500k with a 40 hour work week for the rest of my life vs. getting burnt out in my first few years at a PE firm. Looks like the hours in finance never get much better. Someone please give me some hope, Is there any job in finance which you can pull 500k with under 60 hour work weeks?
Update: Just wanted to apologize for how I responded to some of you. It was unbecoming of an officer in the Marine Corp. I think I'm having somewhat of an identity crisis and am upset more at myself then any of you. I won't delete my comments as a reminder to myself of how much of an arrogant ass I can become when I get angry. I think I need to start looking deep into what really makes me happy above all else. When I did that my life was going well and I was happy. Now I feel stuck and confused. Thank you all for your patience and advice
Quite frankly you sound extremely arrogant. Go be a doctor if you want to be a doctor.
No, most F500 finance professionals (FP&A/treasury/controllers) have a ceiling around $120k/yr after 10 years unless they become a C suite executive. Utilize google further if you don’t believe me - it doesn’t take 20 years in the banking industry to use google. You hear higher salaries because guys like Zuck and Bezos are always in the news, but *most* CEOs won’t even make 500k/year. Also at that level they most definitely DO NOT work 40-50h/week. Most of them work 70 hour weeks - I’ve met plenty of CFOs/CEOs/COOs who ALL work 70+ hour weeks.
Most doctors don’t make that kind of money either - you slave away to have $300k in debt and make ~200k/year if you’re in the typical family practice in a high COL city. If you’re willing to work 80 hours/week and be on CONSTANT call then you can be a cardiothoracic surgeon making that kind of money (500-700k) but keep in mind that you can have a 16 hour surgery where you literally have someone’s heart in your hand for most of it. What happens when you have someone die on your table because you hate your job and you get a malpractice lawsuit? You lose your job and can’t practice ever again.
No, it’s not the easiest path to do banking or investing, but if you have this lazy mindset then you’re likely going to wash out of the industry in 2 years and have no job despite your pedigree. Pick whatever you like, focus on being the absolute best at it, and you’ll enjoy whatever you end up in. If that’s AM then you can make 500k/yr working slightly more than market hours, but if you hate it then you’ll likely suck at it and never get close to that salary anyways. If you like banking then you’ll work 70 hour weeks and you can make over a million a year, but if you hate it then you’ll burn out and leave.
TLDR: do something you like instead of whatever makes the most money, because if you hate whatever you do then you’ll likely not make that much anyways.
Hey devil dog you need to check your attitude. For someone coming from your background, you’d expect to see a little more humility. While I have no reason to doubt your stats and what you’ve done for our country, any officer who boasts about what they’ve done and who they are, are usually the ones who lack the most respect from those they command. Based on the way you talk, I wouldn’t want you to lead any Marines in combat, let alone be my physician when it’s obvious that you care more about the quality of your life than the responsibilities entrusted upon you if you ever do decide on becoming a physician. Or if you do decide to go the banking route, it’ll be clear whether your head was in the project you were assigned or if you were bobbing for cock all day, day dreaming about libo. I don’t know how you were as a platoon commander, but I pray to Chesty you were a whole lot better than what you just showed us now. Just like when you were a Marine, don’t expect responsibilities in these career fields to be limited to 9-5.
Just my .02 from a fellow Combat Vet
Hmm. Not a single Marine I know, and my brother and several of my friends are/were USMC Officers, would ever type "Marine Corp" and you've done that many times already in this thread, so you didn't make a typo. It's Marine Corps. You would have had that beaten out of you as a poolee. Come on, bro. Is it stolen valor or... ? I can't actually tell because your story is so detailed.
Even if I assume you actually are any of the things you have claimed to be, I can tell already you wouldn't make it in banking if you keep the attitude you've espoused thus far in the thread. I also know many former Marines who are in investment banking, from Associates up to the MD level in banking, and former USMC Intelligence as well as 0311. They are all humble, hard working, and attentive to detail.
You may want to reconsider going into banking given the fact pattern in this thread. Let's take spelling -- not only "Marine Corp" but also "there" instead of "their," "lieing" instead of "lying," "you're" instead of "your," random capitalizations that are wrong, etc. You went to an Ivy League school and either (1) can't type correctly, (2) don't know the right words to use, or (3) can't be bothered to try typing correctly when asking for professional help. Buddy, I don't like any of those three possibilities.
Here's the truth: you will be treated like shit in banking and will have to follow a lot of dumb orders while working ungodly hours, not having the proper tools or clear instructions, all while being expected to do everything perfectly and have a big-ass smile on your face all the time. Actually, a lot of that sounds like the Marines, right? But only you know whether you want more of the same or can handle a civvie who is 22 years old ordering you around and dressing you down for not putting the right border thickness on these boxes in PowerPoint. From your temper in this thread dealing with people who are giving you the free benefit of their time and honest feedback, you may not deal with that well, emotionally. Doctors can be more arrogant and lone wolf. Go at it. Banking is very much a team sport.
P.S. If you can prove to me you were actually a USMC officer and were honorably discharged, I will make a warm contact introduction to a Marine in investment banking. But man, you have to adjust your attitude. And if anything I typed above pissed you off while you were reading it, just wait until you actually join this job, nobody will be so nice.