How do you keep focused for such long hours?

It is well-known that you IB folks work extremely long hours everyday. What tips do you have for maintaining high concentration day in and day out? Especially you guys are doing such important work under huge pressure?

A PhD student here and I am working 10-10, 6-7 days a week and very often my concentration drops significantly after 4pm. Coffee does not help much. It keeps me awake but my brain does not function and struggle to generate ideas for my experiments etc. The bois in the same research group as me plan to work even longer hours as we all struggle to get good results. Appreciate any tips here.

 

Tried to give myself pressure by setting tight deadlines with collaborators. Yet I cannot force my brain to generate nice ideas.

 
Funniest

I do not want to spend my already limited time in the lab to make that.

 
Most Helpful

There is a very big difference between learning/studying vs. execution work. Learning/studying you can only stuff your brain for so many hours before your brain shuts down.

But for execution work (PPT work, excel modelling, etc) - many of these do not require tremendous brain power consistently compared to learning. Of course there are analysis that require a lot of thought and care, and you aim to make 0 mistakes in the job, but I feel like I was less tired in IB compared to studying for intense STEM classes (multivariable calc, advanced game theory, etc)

 

I would not really say it is really as demanding as learning new stuff/studying. It is often looking at experimental data and make decisions/generating new research idea. 

 

From what I can tell it's all about organizing your work schedule. Maybe do the harder, more creative tasks in the morning and then leave the end of the day for the more menial data entry type tasks. Personally, the caffeine just messes me up and I've found that going off caffeine or using alternatives to coffee such as matcha or other teas can be really useful. I do know that most of the people I've seen in the industry do drink a few coffees a day. Much of banking is work that doesn't need serious concentration, such as formatting a powerpoint. If you need to be functioning at a very high level for 12 hours a day then that's very different.

 

I think people are forgetting that no IB analyst is truly "on" in intense focus mode for the entire 16 hour day. Those bends when you are in a crunch and getting wrecked (I.e butt in chair from 8:30Am - midnight w/ only enough time for bathroom breaks over 2-3 days) you are significantly less effective each day you are in that state.

Typically you are "on-call" from 9AM-2Am. But not all tasks require the same amount of mental energy and you do take breaks for lunch, coffee, waiting for comments to come back, dinner, working out. I would say it's 2-3 6 hour bends of pure focus which is more manageable than you think.

 

Agree with the comments here, you are not in the same brain state as school. Learning new information or studying is exhausting. Changing all of the blue text to a slightly darker blue throughout a 60 page deck, or doing easy model stuff (once you know how to do it) is totally mindless. As much as IB is "important work" it also isn't. The work we produce is basically seeking the goalposts the MD and client already have, it's not as groundbreaking as it seems and every deck that goes out has a mistake (or 3) somewhere in it

I would get outside for at least 20 minutes twice a day, without your phone/earbuds/etc. Even if it's cold, go walk a lap around the building for 5-10 min. Grab a snack and a water and come back refreshed. Don't eat lunch at your desk and don't stare at your phone while you do. Try to keep your steps up too, I become super unproductive if I'm not getting steps in. 

Look into the Pomodoro method. Not really practical for banking, hard to be taking a break every 20 min, I'd imagine it would work in PhD land though

Also unless you are grinding towards some immediate deadline, I wouldn't lengthen your hours if you're already struggling to think. If anything, go down to 8 hours and see if you produce better work. 

 

Try yoga nidra / nsdr for half an hour when you run out of steam. Lots of free guided meditations on YouTube and anecdotally it gives you 2x the mental rest compared to equivalent sleep

 

Molestiae rerum in illum hic laborum. Exercitationem ut sed deleniti sapiente.

Vel unde optio reiciendis nostrum expedita. Quo voluptas ut et qui sit assumenda. Accusamus ab consectetur sit voluptatem. Qui voluptatem qui pariatur ea distinctio veritatis.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”