How to know if you’re “cut-out”
Freshman in college and just spent 12hrs straight (with a handful of 10-15min breaks) pumping out an essay that was due today. It’s 1AM, and I’ve spent the last 1hr eating junk food, jacking off, and mindlessly scrolling after finishing the essay. Granted, I’d like to think that my personal interest in the field of finance and investment banking would make the work less tiresome (as opposed to writing 5pg single space essay on some economic ideology), but I’m starting to reconsider if I can do these types of hours (even longer) for the rest of my career.
How do you incorporate and stay disciplined to positive coping mechanisms? I don’t want to resort to short-term pleasures to fuel my motivation, as it’s not sustainable and will leave me more unfulfilled.
When did you know if you were “cut-out”?
That 1AM slice of life isn't enough for anyone to determine if you have what it takes. Now a days, an interest in finance isn't really enough, lets face it any current account holder is interested in finance and should be. I think going into a competitive environment means having the willingness to look at challenges and take them on as best you can, producing the best work for seniors, working with the best teams, and willing to learn even the most useless information to get things done. IMO, alot of people feel miserable in this job because: it's what their friends actually wanted not what you wanted, you hate your boss/colleague, you feel like you aren't making an impact. If you can find several more reasons/rebuttals to be in IB given these 3 reasons, you can do it.
Cash used to be king. People paid for everyday purchases with cash or with checks (which are functionally equivalent to cash), and they saved credit cards for big, infrequent purchases — If they had credit cards at all But do not forget to open best cards
Basically the same as the answer above: do you actually enjoy finance? You don't have to love it, but if you can't stand valuing companies and thinking about their business model, etc. then you will burn out regardless how much grit you have. Again, no need to love the industry but enjoy enough that you are interested in it.
Don't worry, there's a BIG difference between having to use your brain to write things that make sense and aligning logos on PowerPoint
Thnx. This is the response I was hoping for. I never feel THAT burned out when I’m doing more mindless shit. The same holds true for financial modeling as well? Last Q: how often do analysts typically take breaks per hour? Like is a 5min scroll on Instagram or casual convo with coworker common?
That last question varies but people will literally spend 10 minutes per hour cumulatively just looking at memes or something and I've seen groups literally spend an entire hour just talking
dude you do understand that like 80% of this job is reading reports, aligning the logos and photos (unironically), making books, etc. it's not deeply complex stuff, the reason why it pays so much is because of work VOLUME not work COMPLEXITY. You won't be modeling anywhere near as much as you think and when you do, it's really simple stuff, no one out here is building 50 tab models as a first year nor are those models as useful as you think. DCFs are empirically mid and comps/PPR models are usually better, which are simpler. I've spent entire days just reading credit reports looking for profile info, it's tiring but it's not complicated.
interest in finance wont be the difference maker u think it will, becos this job involves so much numbing work 80% of the time
In terms of the hours, I took on more than I could handle my junior year with multiple jobs, multiple leaderships positions, and max credits. There was a like a two week span were I had 7am to 12am with maybe an hour break for dinner. It got better after that as I reorganized my schedule, but it made me finally realize what I was getting myself into.
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