Feel Like I'm Not Working Enough - Oh the Irony...

There's obviously no shortage of posts related to how bad banking hours are, which makes the concern I'd like to discuss rather ironic: am I working enough?

I work as an analyst in a MM, industry-specific bank, prior to which I had no banking/finance experience whatsoever. During my first few weeks I averaged your typical 90-hour work week, but since then the time has decreased dramatically. Some weeks have been as low as 60 hours, but even more concerning: during these hours I feel like I have barely anything to do. It's worrisome because I specifically sought out the analyst position to gain the best exposure to the world of finance and catch up to speed with my contemporaries who had finance internships, majored in business, etc.

I understand that there is an ebb and flow of workload in IB, but stretches of 1-2 weeks with relatively nothing to do seems problematic. Your comments and advice would be greatly appreciated.

10 Comments
 

You're not getting staffed enough, or your MDs are not making enough rain. Either way it's not good. See if other analysts are having this problem. If so, it may be the latter. If not, make sure your work product is good enough because if it isn't you will have some problems at your year end.

 
ihavetoomuchmoneyu should be happy dude

Not necessarily. If he is the only one in his group having this problem it could be indicative of larger issues.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
Best Response

My group is relatively small, ~10 people with just one other analyst who really isn't getting staffed on too much more than I am. I'm confident that the work I've produced so far is quality, as I get positive feedback from our MDs and VPs - so I don't think that is an issue. I often find myself asking our associates if there is anything I can help them out with, but I almost always get the same response of, "Oh, no worries I can take care of it." (although I haven't approached mds or vps with this question, but not sure if that's recommended)

It's confusing because when the firm was hiring for my position just a couple of months ago, there was definitely a sense of urgency that they needed a person staffed right away to take on a heavy workload. Our firm is doing well and I've already been involved with a few deals so far, but not nearly at the intensity I expected (i.e. doing at least 15 hours of solid work each day).

Should I consider a lateral move? Too soon to tell? Is there anyone at my firm that this concern would be appropriate to bring up?

 

From what I've heard it's not TERRIBLY unusual to go a couple weeks or even a month without getting destroyed. You may want to talk to an Associate or VP that you have good rapport with, and just ask them straight up if you fucked up.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Ride this cash cow as long as you can, then bail to a better firm when this one goes under. Catch up on that sweet sweet sleep now though. You'd have to be fool not to take advantage of this. Trust me, one day you'll look back and hate yourself forever for wanting to work more now.

 

Working a solid 15 hours is not "normal" in even alot of BB cases. You have to realize that analysts do have down time. If your bank is doing work for companies that are out of time zone can cause you to have little work during the actual day and more at odd hours.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

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