Feeling like wasting time working in IB
I know I sound like a fucking pussy, but I feel like I'm wasting my life away working this "prestigious" corporate job.
Long thought IBD is the ultimate dream, only to find out that I don't really learn the ins and outs of companies, don't put that much time "understanding strategic rationale" or "developing high-level strategies" for clients. I'm doing a lot of bitch PPT work, crunch some super random numbers in Excel, and managing processes that often seem to be rather tedious.
The word I'm looking for is soul-sucking. I now know why fellow monkeys refer to this job as soul sucking.
Why do I bear with all that corporate bullshit, let incapable brainless shitheads give me instructions on what I need to do with my life?
Why do you?
for the money
Exit opps. Also, no job is going to be that intellectually stimulating - can't think of a single finance job that doesn't involve tedious crap and random number crunching
"Change the squares with rounded edges instead of square edges"
Can't think about any other job more intellectually stimulating
Wtf were you expecting? Your fault for chasing this “prestige” and thinking banking would be different than any other office job
OP, I hear your concern and it's not uncommon. Personally, I remember coming out of undergrad and going to IB with tons of excitement only to learn that I was basically admin on deals and started getting jaded to the whole process. Also--and you probably gathered this--most jobs are like this. There's never a greener side just different shades of brown.
A couple of personal 'whys'
- Knowing my first job was a potential means to my desired ends
- Finding opportunities to learn valuable things
- Network
- Treating 'corporate speak' and 'corporate BS' as a game where I was just a professional player and not a personal one
- Sifting out the bad employees from the good ones and aligning with them
- Getting surgical on my exit ops
Some people may say 'just keep your head down' and/or 'do it for the money' and--frankly--those are pretty valid pieces of advice for someone early in his or her career. Just don't let it overtake--or worse become--your personality.
Not sure if that helps you at all, but my 2 cents.