How do I survive while being average?
I work as an analyst at an investment bank but not in an investment banking role. I got placed on a team that works a lot harder relative to other teams, even though we are not considered the best team around. My higher ups have no lives outside of work and visibly do not maintain themselves physically which is very important to me. I slipped up and asked them earlier on when I joined when the best time to go to the gym was in the day (since I’m expected to be around all day) and they brought it up later, implying that I need to be working instead of going to the gym (I have gone to the gym 3 times in the past two weeks). The last junior on my team was extremely burnt out after a year and very miserable and tired in the job — I really don’t want to turn out like that. I’m really not trying to be the top bucket analyst at my firm, I just don’t want to get fired or have a bad rep. I also plan to leave in a year and a half. Right now the standard they are holding me up to is extremely high, but I’m wondering, for analysts who didn’t mind being “average,” how did you handle being on a hard team? At what points did you push yourself to the max and what points did you scale back?
It it’s not IB, what is it?
There’s lots of other ancillary services that work IB hours (albeit without the pay) Such as Transaction opinions, valuations, etc..
I don't particularly think this is the best time to try to push back given the market. I would just accept it for what it is and do a very good job while recruiting for other roles. I took the approach of trying to be an average analyst on purpose and pushing back, which majorly backfired. It’s your career, these are the times where you should be grinded to get off to a good start/learn (will position you well for your next role) I wish I had followed that advice when I first started.
I appreciate the advice. How did it backfire?? Were you fired or did you just not ramp up quickly enough?
Lower bonus and I didn’t ramp up fast enough which made banking even more miserable. Ultimately, I realized that my peers were better prepared than me because they actually cared to learn in the beginning.
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