How to deal with Analyst years sustainably?
Incoming AN1 at a good but sweaty group in London. Have heard many stories over the years of how bad the job can be. I’m moving to the city and don’t have many existing friends there, so I guess I won’t have much else to distract me from work. I want to do well and learn a lot, but also want to come out of my 2-3 year stint not horrendously destroyed by the job.
I’ve been athletic and health conscious my whole life. Don’t want to get fat, lose my hair, or develop some kind of crazy health problem that is difficult to recover from. Ideally would also like to maintain my appearance to boost hopes of finding a serious girlfriend down the line.
Some ideas:
- living close to office (City of London) so I can minimize commute time and maximize sleep/workouts
- lift/run Saturday+Sunday (should always be possible) and at least once during the week at minimum
- getting some dumbbells at home to get a quick pump in while turning comments at night
- ordering only salad slop bowls at work and drinking only water and Diet Cokes (no coffee / alc / sugary drinks) to keep the pounds off
- skipping lunch and just doing one big meal on the bank’s dinner allowance to also control calories and save on personal food expenditure
- skincaremaxxing and having an extra set of everything at work so I can freshen up whenever
I’m also broke so coming out of these years with some safety capital is another priority for me - don’t wanna be inflating my lifestyle just yet so Im aiming to maximize my little $$$ by being a stingy miser.
Any further thoughts or advice would be welcome
Also interested - same perspective on all (except caffeine).
Re. commute, was actually thinking about trying to optimise more for some minimal amount of consistent exercise.
E.g. - 10-15min walk would be nice to have, 10-15min run/bike would be physiologically better but probably impractical (carrying bag/suit, need to shower on the other side).
Main concern though is that it would come back to bite me on days i'm particularly sleep deprived. Probably offset by public transport alternatives though.
Ignore title, but just about to make it through my analyst years. A number of items as you have listed above worked for me. Made some internal rules that I followed.
1) Always sleep 6 hours or more, if not don’t workout. Sometimes you go through those stretches where you just have to take it, but whenever I got more than 6 hours, preferably 7/8 then I always made sure I was in the gym. Working out in the morning really helps start the day off right. Try to avoid your phone and wake up properly (I need to work on this)
2) Attempt your first 6 months to put yourself in really tough situations where you don’t know what you’re doing, but you just figure it out. You will be glad you did. Embrace ‘drinking from the firehouse’
3) Block out a half / preferably full day on the weekend where you do your absolute best to unplug. I remember during my A1 days I had a stretch of working nonstop for 17 straight days. I worked multiple 100 hour weeks in a row. I was on the edge of breaking down, because in reality no one can take that. The work will not go anywhere, carve out time for yourself. If you take 20 minutes to respond it’s okay
4) Find mentors and senior bankers that your mindset, morals, etc align with and try to work with them. This likely won’t happen at the start, but over time you will have more sway and leverage than you think
5) Ask and your shall receive. Seriously don’t be afraid to speak up and voice your opinions, your career, your role. Obviously know your place and do everything you can to support the deal team. This is your career and you have to put yourself first
6) I have a long-term gf, don’t want to give you advice, but she is a great outlet and an amazing partner. You need to find someone who puts up with the work and lifestyle which it entails, but when you find one that does they are a diamond
7) Treat the job like a game, constantly trying to improve your output, optimize, etc
8) I come from a similar background and have saved a ton in my first few years, have started to dial things back slightly now, but would order double chicken Chipotle bowls and eat half that night and the rest for lunch tomorrow. You can get a lot of food for $35!
9) Live close to the office and walk if possible, great times to decompress and get some exercise
10) Always try to step out and get some sunlight if possible during the day. It won’t kill ya to take some time away from the desk.
Goodluck, hope this was helpful.
Great, how do you feel your health, fitness, and appearance have changed since you started the job?
Did you manage to maintain or even improve certain aspects? Or should I hope to just manage the decline at best
I lift 5x per week & run 3x or more. I’ve always carved out time no matter what, whether at midnights or in the middle of the day. I am in as good as if not better shape than when I played college athletics, but I had a really good base.
I did 2 years in a horrible sweatshop group in New York. Your mental and physical health will all get way worse regardless of what you do. it’s all about not digging the hole deeper and damage reduction. You should try to make gains but it’s hard to do. Also the big thing which you won’t want to do is don’t run or lift if you’re sleep deprived - it’s not worth it. Sleep over everything.
Let me rank your ideas below:
- living close to office - S tier, I lived 5 minutes walk from office
- lift/run Saturday+Sunday (should always be possible) and at least once during the week at minimum - A tier but there will be weeks where it’s literally impossible to get a workout in even on the weekend
- getting some dumbbells at home to get a quick pump in while turning comments at night - S tier and this is the hack. I bought an adjustable set of dumbbells and a bench press at home, this saved my gains
- ordering only salad slop bowls at work and drinking only water and Diet Cokes (no coffee / alc / sugary drinks) to keep the pounds off
S tier but this is the hardest part and easier said than done, if you’re sleep deprived you can’t control your hunger hormones.
- skipping lunch and just doing one big meal on the bank’s dinner allowance to also control calories and save on personal food expenditure
D tier - to each their own but if you’re hungry all day you won’t get good work done, would not recommend skipping lunch to save a few bucks
- skincaremaxxing and having an extra set of everything at work so I can freshen up whenever
B tier - office air is usually dry as fuck and will fuck your appearance up regardless.
Not listed here but S tier is getting your screen time down to as low as possible - you need to stop scrolling and using social media during the week, you can’t be staying up watching Instagram reels at 3 am after work.
Thanks for the candid info, how do you feel your health/fitness/appearance changed for the worse after your AN stint? Any noticeable differences and did you manage to recover them afterwards?
Agree on all but tbh your last point is more an argument for doomscrolling/using social media during the week at the desk, so that your limited free time is used on higher value add tasks for wellbeing
In 2 years, gained like 20 pounds of fat and lost ~10% of my muscle (would’ve been worse had I not bought adjustable dumbbell set for home). My blood pressure got borderline pre-hypertensive, around 130/80, my resting heart rate went up probably 35 bpm, and my VO2 max dropped from around 50 to 38. My skin looked terrible, I had way worse eye bags, and mentally I was in a really bad place with extreme anxiety and depression.
I quit to something where I sleep 8 hours basically every day and basically undid all the damage. After only 3 months post banking, Anxiety/depression basically gone, blood pressure, RHR, VO2 max, fat, are almost back to exact same levels prior to banking. The only thing that feels like permanent damage is under eye bags - think the stress did some structural damage/pre mature aging there.
What did you quit to do if I may ask?
What's wrong with coffee?
Any stimulant relied on too much to get you fired up is something you’ll eventually become dependent on to function at your baseline - without it you’ll crash. I’d rather rawdog life and just do press ups, it’s been ok so far
I hope you do get fat.
Nah I’ll just water fast if
It comes to that. If I lose the 6 pack I’ve had since freshman year I’m getting only chuzz and tortas
??????
I think it makes sense to treat your analyst years as a physically challenging period and treat yourself accordingly. Spending extra on food & housing to be a little healthier makes a lot of sense.
One other thing is that the banking environment / culture can be pretty corrosive to your personality. You're going to be under a lot of pressure and people are going to have extremely high expectations of your performance. You can't have those expectations of pretty much anyone else, certainly not of people who don't work with you. IT people, your significant other, random service staff, are all going to seem slow and annoying and sloppy to you. It's not fair to treat them the way you're treated at work, they didn't sign up for that, and you'll alienate them.
I think you're going in with the right mindset. It's a great learning opportunity but it's weird and hard and you gotta be deliberate about taking care of yourself while it lasts.
Great post here. Constantly have to remind myself not to do this.
overlooked skill is being able to turn it on and off
Awesome point.
Yah I totally noticed this after my first summer internship at a BB. I was speaking rudely to a Tesco (think Walmart in UK) worker for ID'ing me for a Redbull. I thought I was a Master of the Universe after 10 weeks LOL.
Very important to stay humble and not turn into a douchebag. Your non-IB friends will notice. Not attractive at all
It’s a simple thing but what has really worked for me during all-nighters when you feel like you’re about to fall asleep on your desk is to do some quick push-ups / burpees. It boosts your adrenaline naturally and does not come with the negative consequences of drinking caffeine late at night.
Hahah just what I used to do in military service before college to avoid getting screwed for falling asleep. some things never change huh
me too
Just goon in the work toilets to align dopamine release with work product
Honestly, you just gotta deal with the fact that you are going to feel very shitty like 90% of time your an analyst. Just get through it and get out. Trying to balance everything is pretty exhausting, one of the pain points of this job is uncertainty in your hours, you're always going to be "on" and when you have time to yourself, the last thing you'll want to do is go and crush a workout.
things get slightly better as you get more proficient in your role but unless you commit to being a monk that just works and goes to the gym, other parts of your life will suffer. As others, have mentioned, its more about damage control. sleep and diet are your biggest drivers, working out is a luxury
A2A who never left the game
The best way to make your analyst years sustainable is to bluntly to get to a place where you are getting to a strong level output while sweating less.
The ways to do this involve:
1. Understanding the inherent subject matter fast so you can figure out where you can take shortcuts without compromising the output / getting caught
2. Understanding deal processes well enough to take control of timing of deliverables so you can mange your life
3. Taking off enough from your associate and VPs plates that you’re in control, not them
4. Similar to 2, knowing all the shortcuts and tricks and when it won’t hurt you. What your bosses don’t know can’t hurt them
5. Having good relationships with your seniors / being perceived as strong early. I am far less likely to hand someone I value a s@it sandwich vs the rando who I’m indifferent to
All good advice however good work and taking stuff off people’s plate usually just yields more work because people know you can get stuff done well..
unfortunately all of this works if you’re at a group with a healthy amount of dealflow / marketing where you go through cycles of busyness. For me, it was just an eternal 2-3am. Team culture makes all the difference
How did this change for those of you going A2A or joining as an MBA Asso?
Any improvement in lifestyle at all or will this take until the VP level?
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