Help me I'm (mentally) dying
Hi All,
I am an analyst with a top 3 BB in CEE in the back office (finance) since February, and I dread every day coming to work. The work is extremely mundane and boring and I am not learning anything as most of the work is running macros here and there. I feel like every day my will to live/work/do anything that brings me joy is slowly deteriorating due to my severe unhappiness with my work and the fact I moved here from my (even shittier) country for this job. To add insult to injury, my last job was a year long internship at a Big 4 in M&A and I declined a full time offer from there just to get out of that country. I am applying for interesting positions left and right and of course I get dinged without even so much as a phone call, which only contributes to my mental crumbling.
Since I have a lot of free time at work (when I'm not running fucking macros) I took it on myself to learn the logic behind them and grasp the theory of my work, however, I have a feeling it's not gonna help me with what I want to do in the future (investment banking) and that it's just a waste of time, so I replaced that with studying for the CFA in order to expand my knowledge and increase my chances for a top MBA (planning to take the GMAT after the CFA in Dec). I read a lot about people getting out of situations like mine through networking, but I am not even able to do this as I am nowhere near the front office guys since they are all in hubs like London and Frankfurt.
Given the pace of my mental decline, after only 6 months in this job and I'm already so unhappy I don't know how I will be able to stay here for another year, or however long it takes, until I am able to apply for a good MBA that can land me in investment banking or by some mad luck end up in a place where I can actually network with front office people. What should I do? How do I keep going?
In addition, even in my current mental state, according to my managers, I am doing a splendid job and have been promised a fast track promotion to associate next promo cycle in February, which is kind of making me think I need to tough the mind-numbing work out in order to get the promotion and therefore have higher chances for an MBA. I am mentally dying and have nobody to talk to as I have left everything and everyone behind to get trapped in this borderline degrading job. Please offer me your advice WSO. Thank you kindly in advance.
