How to get over fear of banking hours?
I used to be a super hardo that thought 80 hours would be a piece of cake. Now, I am starting FT in a few months at a top group at GS/MS/JPM that also has the reputation for being sweaty.
I worked really hard to get here and I know I should be grateful, but I've been really anxious about having to put up with banking hours and shitty culture. I don't really mind working long hours I'm more concerned with working with mean people on top of long hours. Is there a way to get over this? Honestly, I think perhaps I spend too much time on this site reading about how bad banking is lol.
Did anyone else experience this? How do you get over it?
in the same boat
Maybe take a couple dry runs of doing work from 9 am to 2-3 am.
You don’t. You’ll see how your group/firm culture and lifestyle is once you start working. Either you like it, or you hate it. If you hate it, you eventually get used to it/learn to live with it, or you dip out of banking. I wish there were a way to make it easier, but the reality is that for most people the job sucks and they don’t stay in the industry very long.
As for stressing/worrying about it before starting, then yes you’re spending too much time on WSO. Enjoy your life and form your own opinions and feelings about it. No point in stressing now
If you hate it, it’s only a one to two year period. Go to corp dev, VC, MM/LMM PE and get a better work life balance.
Dude grow a pair. It's just a job. If you hate it after starting then quit. If you don’t then don’t. Who knows until you’re there. At least let it play out
I had that same fear/anxiety going into banking so I understand. I got lucky because I am at a mid-tier BB known for having great culture, and purposely placed into a (good) group that I knew had good culture (used this as proxy to hope that the hours would be better). Overall my hours have been great, much better than expected, with limited weekend work and generally reasonable work during the week.
That being said, I compared with a friend at GS TMT and his hours are fucking brutal. Like seriously I would have quit if I had those hours. You either suck it up and get through it, or you quit/jump ship ASAP.
Also, saying “it’s just 1-2 years” is dumb. That is a LONG time and very hard to last if you are miserable/doing soul crushing work. I have had a *relatively phenomenal experience for banking, but have worked 80 hours so far this week and am the most miserable I have ever been (possibly even outside of banking).
People really don’t realize the breadth of hours required in the same industry, there are certain spots that are honestly like 50-60 hours and then there are truly sweaty groups where 80 hours is a light week. The expectations are truly cultural and you can be in for a really rough time if the senior bankers demand it
What group is this lol please PM
its got to be barclays, literally every group there except like 2 are lifestyle groups and even the sweaty ones (apparently) have a good culture
what have your friend's hours been in comparison?
85+ hours a week is normal for him.
In comparison I average probably 60-70, have protected Saturdays, don’t work most Sundays either which is a godsend. Have had some periods (like this week for example) where is has been definitely worse than that, but overall a very good experience relative to some other banks.
I’m obviously not getting paid a GS bonus, but after tax even a $60k difference as a first year analyst is very little, especially if you have to work 20 hours/week more. The brand name of my bank is also less recognizable, but I still landed a MF role so who cares.
The guy above is correct, it varies insanely across group/bank. I think I am very lucky but there are definitely good groups at banks that have way better WLB. That’s something I specifically looked for when I was doing my group placements (joining a good group, but not a sweaty one).
delete
Just wait until you're on the job and then worry
Again need to do dry runs of 9 am to 3 am for 4 days straight and see how you feel.
Did you not summer in that group? Or in an IB group in general?
I did a summer in a mm firm. Worked 70-75 hours average and it wasn't fun but not terrible. Was also WFH though which makes things easier. I'm expecting that this will be significantly worse than my summer lol
Yeah summer they take it easy on the interns. They let them go home around midnight when the analysts do the night shift until 3 am
Should be doing excel and PowerPoint work from 1-3 am to simulate it also. For multiple nights in a row.
I can't tell if these people are kidding about dry runs but don't do that... you will be sitting up for no reason and fucking up your sleep. When you actually have to do those hours during banking you are running on adrenaline and not much else, "practice" doesn't really help there
Sleep will be messed up regardless. If not willing to do dry run, just be ready for 9 am to 3 am Mon-Thurs, 9-7 Fri, then 10-10 Sunday and you’ll be fine. Saturday will be on call probably and may have to pop in for 6-7 hours but hopefully your bank has some kind of protected Saturdays.
Simulate the pressure in advance like this guy:
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/i-just-went-3-days-without-sleep…
Good idea….maybe play a yelling voice in the background from 12-2 am with the excel file open at the same time. It’s going to be fine and fun.
What also helps is to develop genuine friendships with your analyst (or associate) class. Although at the end of the day it’s still work, it helps when I’m working 100 hours a week to be surrounded by people who have quickly become my actual friends in the bullpen
Just go to your local top-tier fraternity and ask them if you can just go through pledgeship, but that it needs to be initiation week for all 15 weeks of the semester.
If you can do it, congrats you can be a Goldman banker!
It's a tough life. I doubt you will know if you can survive/ thrive without getting in the trenches. Dive in, and, if you cannot handle it, look for an exit.
I came out of arguably the sweatiest group on the street. In hindsight I didn't belong with those hardos - I was a "softie" liberal arts major who got an interview because my older brother was an analyst at the time. But if even I could do it then you can.
Sounds depressing but honestly what I did was just give up and give in - stop caring about everything else besides the job, stopped trying to see friends/family, stopped trying to exercise. Treated it like going to military boot camp for 2 years. A pretty apt analogy is getting raped: I realized I'd probably just suffer less if I stopped struggling.
I'm very glad to be done with my analyst years and frankly don't envy your position. If you are set on the decision, just stay strong...if your experience was like mine you won't even have time for therapy if you need it.
Wow
Sounds like prep for 3-4 am log offs
Surprised nobody has given advice in the other direction on this. A really helpful comment I saw on here was that you need to learn to live in the present rather than worrying about everything coming up or could potentially come up. In banking there will always be more work to do, whether a deal is about to go into a really busy period or a random tight deadline pops up. When you have free time, you need to learn to enjoy it for what it is, rather than being nervous in anticipation of what (could potentially) come up later. If you spend the next few months of genuine free time just worrying about whats to come, you'll have wasted so much time that could've been doing literally anything else. So instead of freaking out about what's to come in a few months, think about how you have literally months of time to do whatever else you want, which you'll realize how valuable that period is after you start working.
Hide all the clocks. Cant worry about time if you dont see it!
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