Senior at college hear, going for a master degre. I'm have already interned in IB, but honestly the workload was low during those 3 months so I didn't get the taste of how hard I see my fellows monkeys saying. Can you give me a practical example in life, or something I can try to do to see if it's a sustainable lifestyle?
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its not really a sustainble lifestyle for anyone tbh
Yea go to a group with better dealflow
Pretty bad. Would think 9AM-12AM on weekdays is the norm + ~10 hours on weekend. Doesn’t leave much time for anything, especially taking care of yourself.
Something that goes overlooked is the amount of stress as well. It would be one thing if you were just working a lot but a lot of these people are psychotic.
How hard can the hours be?
- 8 am to 5 am or even later multiple days, even weeks wasn't uncommon
- my personal experience: my eyes felt like they were burning, multiple occasions where i had 2 minute nap in the bathroom
maybe it's changed now, but i had colleagues who physically got sick because of how little they slept
Pulled so many back to back late nights once I started hearing things that weren’t there. Sometimes music, sometimes children laughing, ya know - the usual stuff
I see interns that aren’t there
When I was an analyst I worked in one of the well known sweatshop groups frequently mentioned still on this site. The best way I can put it is that for me it was like going to prison and then coming out, in a mental sense. By the time I was done with my stint, it was weird going back to the world. I had missed out on world events, personal events, etc. in my two years because I was constantly working and barely sleeping. It is an exaggeration but I hope you get my point. Oh yeah, my hair started to fall out and I started getting heart palpitations too.
As many pointed out, hours are not even the worst. Some people can make your life hell. You get crushed with constant anxiety.
Is because of people or the deal flow?
I see many people stating that's a people problem with high ego, but I don't understand how people like that get hired
You should expect it to be easy when you spell "here" "hear" lol. Definitely would not expect an associate or VP to catch that and make your life miserable. I had to chain smoke cigs at one point to stay awake. Zyn wasn't doing it anymore. Also was ripping OD coffee and energy drinks. That's the life.
Happened to me as well during my internship, when I misspelled types of wood pasta
I don't understand how they make suck a small thing a big deal
I don't think hearing someone else say 80/100 hours fully captures what it really entails. It's not just working through it. It's working with intensity through the period, maintaining productivity when every day your cognitive ability declines due to lack of sleep, stress, caffeine/stimulants, and poor diet. Your head pounding, your brain screaming to switch off and your body demanding sleep.
That's not even touching on all the social and life events you'll see your friends / family at on social media, the number of "can't I'm working" messages you'll have to send and things of that sort.
The feeling of looking at your to do list and knowing you're going to be working through the night and still not going to be done with everything. Looking at your calendar for the next day and realizing its not going to let up. Watching your inbox fill up with "Status?" "Update?" "Where are we on this?" "Need you to help with this" as the hours tick by. To younger me at the time, that was a feeling of deep deep despair.
Yeah the hours are beyond brutal but the worst part is the anxiety. There is nothing worse than never being able to plan something. Your entire night can be (and will be) blown up by one email.
I left banking last year but the job seriously ruined my physical and mental health. At least I learned how to use excel and ppt though.
What was your exit?
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