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My schedule for the first 1.5 as an associate (A2A, Tier 1 BB, M&A Group with 7 deals announced in 18 months) was 10am to 9-10pm on average with 8 hours per weekend. That said, I had 3 months that was 10am-1am flat with all weekends in the office. Didn’t do a single all nighter (old school definition, not 18 hours block definition which I did 4-5 in 18 months). I had 2 weeks vacation in the summer, 1 week vacation for Christmas and other 5 days here and there.

If you like the job (I didn’t after 4+ of banking, plus 2 before of corporate finance at Big 4), and you can cope with working every weekend (excl. protected weekend), it is a pretty okish lifestyle and good comp. You probably need to pull more face time than me (i.e. going home at 9pm didn’t look good, being not in the office but working from home during the weekend neither) to be top ranked and get a ridiculously high comp. Generally, I saw MBA associates working much longer hours and I am still unsure today if it was because they were volunteering analysts’ work or because they were just slow (probably a mix of both).

I'm grateful that I have two middle fingers, I only wish I had more.

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