GS Life

Hi everyone, new to WSO but would love to hear thoughts on GS IB. I am an incoming SA in a coverage group and would love to know more about IB life. Are protected Saturdays enforced? Is there a good culture? Have heard the people are fantastic but would love to hear outside thoughts. 

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Generally speaking has a “good” culture outside of specific groups (Industrials senior bankers seem particularly depressing)

But you will sweat across most groups - the difference in experience largely boils down to the respect (or lack thereof) you get from senior folks (e.g. treating you as an expendable Dobby-like servant to be juiced to the very last drop of labor vs. showing at least a semblance of appreciation (and ideally some mentorship) for the work, given you’re sacrificing your health/relationships/etc for the job)

As an intern you probably won’t work Saturdays but once you start full time, you’ll work all weekend if needed - it’s called an “exception” but happens fairly regularly, especially on live deals

 

Everything is highly group and staffing dependent. Intern experiences can vary significantly, even within groups.

Think folks are generally excited and happy to have the interns in the office. Interns can definitely be a source of help given the second year analysts leave in June and the floor lacks capacity.

Decent people will make an effort not to overwhelm interns, but a winning philosophy is if your teams are online and are working (Saturdays included), you should be too, even if that means you're sitting there twiddling your thumbs at 3am. You log off when your teams tell you to go home.

 

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