Hey everyone,
Wanted to ask for any tips or things you do, that help you get through the day in IB. How do you survive the horrible work / life balance, sleep deprivation, stress, etc.
What do you regularly do, that helps you survive here
Thanks!
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Tip I was given before I started: Never ask for work. They'll already give you more than enough work you can handle. In the rare case you have "spare" time or a low load, don't ask for work. You will collapse, as coincidentally, that same day your new tasks will arrive and you won't be able to manage it. Use your few spare time wisely in the office.
PS: They won't be impressed by you asking for more work, they just care about the quality.
Your body gets used to it
Take long shits
Don’t get into banking
1. Don't ask for work, as mentioned above. Take any downtime you can get
2. Eat healthy whenever possible. I do my best to eat salads for lunches and dinners, with snacks as apples, carrots, etc. instead of chips
3. Try to cut back on drinking. When you're working long hours and get a Friday or Saturday night off with getting absolutely hammered, the weeks don't start off well (not as sharp). For the first 3 months of my An1 days I didn't drink at all, now I drink twice a month give or take, definitely not every Friday and Saturday, especially if I don't have anything going on
4. Set expectations with your work. I tell myself that I'm going to finish every day by midnight, so if I finish before then it's just gravy, if I finish after it's fine and doable. Just go in thinking you won't get much sleep for a few years
5. Like eating healthy whenever possible, try to get exercise in every day. This can take the form of doing a full hour long workout, or a quick 8 minute mile in your downtime
6. Be realistic with your friends / SOs. When they make plans, it's okay to accept on the weekends, but let them know if you have a deliverable coming up that you most likely have to cancel on. If you never tell anyone that you're probably going to cancel (hopefully can just stop by at the least) and instead ghost / always cancel, people will stop making plans with you
7. If you're absolutely drowning in work (3+ months of constant 2AM nights back-to-back), raise your hand to VPs / staffers. You probably won't get an immediate fix, but you could get a more near-term fix (1-2 months) on your workload. There's no shame in raising your hand. It's a marathon, not a sprint
8. I know I've previously posted about everything to do to be top bucket, and that is fine advice, but realize that top bucket isn't for everyone. To many in IB, all the extra effort it takes to be top bucket isn't worth the extra ~$5-$10k in bonus for a better lifestyle. Figure out if you want to be top bucket or not before following those steps, there's no shame at all in being mid bucket. After working very hard to be top bucket for a few years, I'm now "easing the throttle" (I still work very hard) and aiming for a middle bucket seat, all while getting my deliverables done and producing high quality work
9. Try meditating. In my first year when I was always getting crushed, I'd take 10-15 minutes to myself around 11 PM to just close my eyes and relax. There's many health benefits around this and I found it to be super helpful
10. Make sure to keep in touch with your support group (close friends, SOs, family). Positive reinforcement is key from those around you. Banking is a team sport, even for those outside of the industry
11. Don't calendar-watch if you have an upcoming PE offer that is months to years away. It makes time go slower and your analyst stint go longer
12. Embrace the culture and people around you. Coming to work with your friends rather than co-workers makes it easier and time go by faster. If you're in a toxic culture, try to fake it - chances are you're not going to lateral in the next few months (unless you've already done a year or two in the group), so being with people that you interact with makes it much less miserable. Bankers are people at the end of the day (some tend to be more robots, yes) and they like to talk to others, interact, share experiences, etc.
13. Find hobbies outside of work to help take your mind off things
14. Preface - I know everyone has a different take on money, so you do you, but here's my view: It's okay to treat yourself and not penny pinch in every aspect of your life. Don't get me wrong, I max my IRA, 401k, HSA, fund $10s of thousands to my brokerage and cash savings every year with saving the vast majority of my bonus, so I am a saver in nature. But doing things that make your life better every day that cost money that could be saved is 100% worth it in my eyes. For example, I go out to lunch every day to find a new salad / something healthy, which costs $12-$15. That's an extra ~$3,500 a year to give me something that excites me / gives me something to look forward to every day, rather than stressing about meal prepping in the little downtime I have or eating something bland/plain that I bring from home. This is just one example, and I think it truly helps the burnout factor less. We all make very good money in IB and it's okay to spend some. Of course, there's a fine line with everything, but if you spend in moderation coupled with aggressive savings habits you should be fine
That's all for now that comes to the tip of my tongue, best of luck!
What a post!! Echo all of this
The one biggest thing that helps your career longevity in this field is being able to compartmentalize work and leisure. What this means is that is you need to get rid of the notion of holidays, weekends, and workdays. Any moment can be 'work' and any moment can be 'leisure'. The job will take away from time with family and friends and eat away at your personal life so when you get the rare downtime- go home early, take a walk around the park and don't feel guilty about it.
Bottom line is you need to get rid of your expectations for when is a normal time to work and when is a normal time for leisure. It's kind of a mindfuck to explain but expectations are the source of disappointment is where I'll leave it.
Good comment, I second the "dont' feel guilty" point - that's huge. Work will always come, enjoy downtime while you can
Agree with the above.
1. Never ask for work. Inflate your workload as much as possible and minimise your capacity. People will try and overload you but it’s much better to be excellent at 2-3 projects than terrible at 7. You may not be top bucket if you play it like this (although you definitely can if no one notices your game), but you’ll gain hours of sleep and everyone will be happier.
2. Eat healthy and exercise. Sounds dumb but a lot of first years gain 10kg and moon like shit after a year. No surprise if you eat burgers all the time and stop exercise altogether. Don’t Kidd yourself, everyone has time to exercise 2-3x per week.
3. Prioritize sleep. This one is hard, but ensure you sleep as much as possible on weekdays (ie if you had a tough week, don’t go all out on Thursday drinks), and don’t go too crazy on weekends.
4. Take it easy on the booze. Alcohol ruins your brain and your sleep. Every piece of research on the subject comes to the same conclusion. I’m all for partying but do you really need to end shit faced every Friday and Saturday ? Not really. Avoid drinking on Sundays
5. Play politics. It’s stupid but this will determine half of your ranking within the firm. At the end of the day, your annual reviews are set by 5-8 people who’ll spend less than 5mn writing on your perf. If they like you and think your good, you’re all set (this does NOT have to be true by the way, I know a guy who was top bucket and never worked a single weekend)
6. Over-communicate. Underpromise, over deliver. One thing that I hate is when my analysts don’t say anything and I realize at night that they haven’t started in my project. I would 100% attribute the fault to them. If you don’t have capacity or have conflicting deadlines, communicate. Let your managers sort out priorities.
7. Come to the office. This is stupid and I didn’t do it myself when I was an analyst but I’m coming now as an associate and everything gets done better and faster in the office (because you can train analysts better and see faster when you need to course correct). Not saying everyday, but most days. Besides, you’ll make friends with your class which won’t happen if you WFH
8. Keep seeing your friends and dating - make time for it. If you have planned a brunch at 1pm on Saturday, stick to it. Nothing is that urgent on a Saturday afternoon, independently of what your associate tells you. Same for holidays, don’t work over Christmas and thanksgiving.
About your 8th point, is it a bad look as an analyst to go against work? I’m afraid of the color it’ll paint
What do you mean go against work? It's bad to flat out not do something / miss a deliverable, but think it's completely fair game to ask if something can be done the next day if its not a fire drill and on a holday / outside of normal ours on a weekend (~10am-6pm). I say "I'm happy to do it now / tonight (assuming this is ~8pm on a Saturday for example), but is there any way we can kick it to the morning?
So the way I would phrase it, if an MD sends a surprise request on Saturday lunch and my analyst isn’t available in the next couple of hours, it’s totally fine, but if we knew 2 weeks in advance that we’re gonna get killed this particular weekend ahead of a deadline and he says “I’m unavailable this afternoon”, then it wouldn’t fly well
getting lubed up
a shit ton of coffee fr. catch me at starbucks on 52nd and 6th getting a quad espresso everyday
How many mg of caffeine are you running in a day?
Develop the "survivalist mentality"
Delay sending out your work. You can get an extra hour of downtime and the optics are that you’re working hard. Sometimes it’s smart to send stuff out around 1am knowing your assoc. won’t review it that night. Can get 7/8 hours of sleep after without worrying.
Very true, especially on the weekends
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