Easy IB working hour solution?
So I’m a second year in college and am trying to break into IB. After obviously knowing the intense hours Wall Street bakers go through in their early years, I wonder why banks just don’t staff more analysts/associates to make working hours manageable as compared to 80 hr work weeks? I feel like there is more explanation as to why banks don’t just hire more people to keep all their employees from working intense weeks. To all of those bankers out there if you can share the reason as to why banks don’t do this that would be great since I’m just curious.
Thanks!
its simple hiring more people cuts into the P&L.
Nah, MDs will send comments in the morning and 6-midnight so if you have more analysts, yes they’ll be more downtime and less stress but hours wouldn’t change all that much (maybe 10 a week)
sarcastic answer: it's an investment bank designed to maximize profit with the fewest amount of heads possible, not a counseling business.
real answer: yes banks should do this by hiring more people but it doesn't happen because, well, money. Another thing too is the nature of the business. If you give more junior resources to MDs they will simply go after the infinite number of mandates/pitches increasing the amount of work to do and the cycle continues. The only possible way to fix banking hours at the junior level is to expense hours from employees that directly affects MD's comp.
They’d rather you have 2x the experience and availability at 1.5x the pay.
Also, some projects are such that the analyst, etc. can’t just trade off halfway through an 80 hour week — need full ownership of certain analyses, etc.
Deal teams are small for efficiency, i.e. easier to loop 3 people in than 6
Additionally, the industry tends to attract many of the best from top universities. the only way they can do this is though high pay, which must be profitable with a limited number of heads.
It's already done. It's called Big4. In TAS you can work ~50h/week.
By the way, what's the best bakery on Wall Street?
Interested in this as well. They work crazy hours it seems!
Investment banking is an artificially made "prestige" industry. The prestige dilutes if you add more people.
Also, most of the works are so mind numbing and most of us don't want to do it until it is being urgent. Staff more people and we will still chill till last minute then pulling all nighters.
Really? You think management's concern about hiring more people is diluting the prestige? How do you think that personnel discussion goes?
People act like there's some evil cabal conspiring against juniors but its just a question of whether the cost of hiring someone is outweighed by the marginal benefit of another body. So yes, its impacted by money, the availability of talent, and whether they think they can deploy the talent. Management would love it if juniors were happy. The question is always at what price.
Seconding this, I am absolutely certain upper level guys aren't making hiring decisions based on whether it might dilute prestige lmao
Not the type of prestige we discuss on WSO (i.e. exits or whatever bs). But more like making the industry looks selective/competitive hence you can convince the clients you are a capable and trusted advisor.
Imagine how convincing you are when you say you hired the 100 brightest kids a year vs you hired 1000 brightest kids (with like 10k fresh analysts joining every year across the US). Just look at the Big 4s, once you get an inflated headcount, you lose the "prestigious" advisor position and gonna collect 500k fees each time.
Also, what type of talent do you need when most juniors are just doing stupid DD / drawing time table / setting up VDR / doing company profiles and industry landscaping plus some models which can be taught after watching BIWS/WSO for a few weeks?
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