Has your personality changed since starting IB?

Back when I was a banker a decade ago, I noticed I would become short with people, cab drivers, etc. The stress/lack of sleep at times causes you to be more of an asshole and less empathetic.

Was only temporary. After being on the buyside for a while now with less volatile hours, you get back to normal. Although still depends on the job - stress causes you to act differently outside of work. Some people are better able to separate their work stress from their personal lives, but I couldn't.

I was a cocky dick in college and have been really working to change that. Biggest thing is realizing that there’s no such thing as prestige, there’s just hard work and helping people.

Meditation plays a big part in this as the ego begins to dissipate and as you learn to control your thinking.

Virtually all of your job related stress/anxiety/tiredness come from being lost in thought.

Strive to not let your personality shift for the worse based on your job. Obviously being in banking lends itself to making you more irritable or impatient etc but rein it in the best you can and remember, that's not really a personality shift, it's just a shift in your mannerisms. Doesn't need to affect who you actually are. But certainly let the job help change your personality for the better to the extent you can by becoming more personable or outgoing, given those are traits needed to succeed in banking. At the end of the day, the job shouldn't really mold your personality at all but don't be afraid of letting in the good things.

I’ve always held the mentality that IB is just a job and if you ascribe your personality to the job title, what would happen to your sense of self once you get laid off? I reckon it’d lead a massive identity crisis. Sometimes I have a short fuse, and certainly the stress and the hours can trigger that. I find that practicing self-awareness and staying in touch with your friends (primarily those you made before IB) and family keeps you grounded.

I haven’t been an analyst in a long time but I was way more impatient and snappy with people during that time.

I was pretty moody and I took out on people who didn’t always deserve it.

Lack of sleep and constant stress will do that to you. Glad that’s no longer the case. 

Started to be more fatigued mentally. Also become more insecure in my first year from feeling like I wasn’t good enough. This got better slowly, but sometimes still feel this way when receiving comments from my vp.

The stress from work or intensive timelines can be infuriating, but make sure to not let that change who you are or make you less pleasant over time. 

Otherwise, you’d gradually turn into those irritable assos or vps who you wanted to stay away from when you were a new analyst or intern and never really understood what they were so bothered about.