32 Comments
 

Is this for real? Pretty sure it's almost impossible to function consistently on 3.5-5

What kind of bank/group gets grinded like that?

 

Sadly, yes. It's a very small boutique RX shop. 

The junior talent really isn't there, so I'm doing all roles from analyst through director, and sometimes MD type shit. 

On top of that, I have a family and am on the board of a foundation, so there really just aren't enough hours in the day.

Your body gets used to it, you feel like shit most days and your health suffers, but gotta put food on the table until I can find something else.

 

Haven’t updated my profile here. I’m an associate on an M&A coverage team now. When I was in corp finance / strategy for a PE backed company, I could sleep as much as I wanted, wlb was amazing. Leave work at noon on Friday, hour long lunch. Leave work at 4-6. Occasionally a late night or Sunday work before a board meeting or before we would bid on a project

 

6-7 in this market and below 5 for 1.5 month straight when shit hit the fan, almost 2 years now  

 

I try to get 6.5 hours.  Not sure how you guys are doing it at 7+ because my juniors will often finish something at 11pm-midnight so I have to review and that takes half an hour+.  I get ready for bed around 12 30, am asleep by 1, awake by 7 30.  Doesn't feel like there's much room for that to come down even as i move up but as long as I average over 6 on the weekdays and over 7 on weekends, I'm good.

 
Most Helpful

Full 8 hours because wtf else is there to do but sleep when you work in ECM these days

Even during busy times I try to get a full 6 hours. My bosses are cool and don't get on my ass if I sleep in until 9:30 and show up at the office a little after 10:00AM, the morning after I'm up until 2:00-3:00AM. Sleepless nights are incredibly avoidable with very minimal effort. I'll just say to my boss, "hey, any chance we can schedule this meeting for 10 instead of 9 - I think it's going to be a late night". He says "Yes" the majority of the time and that's really all it takes.

Our team works together well too, so if someone has a late night then someone else will typically sub in for that person on any early-morning bring-down DD meetings the next AM. With any amount of consideration and forethought it's not that hard to schedule around a full nights worth of sleep. 

 

I didn’t appreciate just how unhealthy my sleeping habits were in banking during my junior years until I got into my 30s. The fall-off and Father Time are real. 
 

I went from sleeping maybe 5 hours a weekday and functioning rather well to being incredibly irritable and less productive if I get less than 7 

 

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