How/ When do I get back into IBD?
I joined a BB as an analyst in IBD in Europe right after undergraduate two years ago. However the workload and sleep deprivation really got to my health, so I decided to quit last November.
I then had a really hard time just to get interviews even with the smaller shops this spring. After a frustrating job search I joined the Restructuring team of one of the Big4.
After a couple of weeks into the job, I already realize that working at a Big4 will just not do it for me. The learning curve is flat and the culture is outright painful just to name a few negatives.
As I see it, I have basically two options:
1) Stick it out a couple of years with the Big4, make the best of it, take the CFA exam and then get an MBA and hope it's a new ballgame for the IBs
2) Try to get another job soon with a boutique (who are looking again) which would probably make me happier but also mess up any consistency in my CV.
Your thoughts and especially other suggestions are much appreciated!
Thank you very much
If you couldn't cut it the first time around, why do you want to go back? and why do you think you can cut it the second time around?
Probably because there are few analysts in the Western world who are currently working more than 60 hour weeks. I can only imagine how slow deal flow is right now. In my field, CRE, it's painful.
I disagree - As an analyst in the western world, with many friends who are analysts in the western world, I can tell you that most analysts are still logging long hours. Everyone isn't working 100 hour weeks but it is still no 60 hour cakewalk. When there aren't life deals to close, it just means more pitching and more stupid work. Senior bankers will make use of the resources they have.
If you hated banking the first time, I don't understand why you would do it again. Unless your group was especially awful, banking has not gotten any better since you left.
Well, there ya go. I think Wall Street could make good use of the book "The 4-hour Work Week". But it's unlikely that things will change--my company is a giant bureaucracy that refuses new ideas, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me that analysts are still pulling 70-80 hours when there is very little deal flow.
It's actually not like I didn't like what I was doing from day to day, but I believe there is a threshold where the workload just becomes too ridicolous.
When I compare my hours back then with those of friends at other banks, there are definitely differences between the BB where I worked and mid market banks/ boutiques who actually get the weekends off most of the time and don't work until 3/4 a.m. everyday. Maybe this is different in Europe and the US but I know a lot of people who work at smaller places and still have a life which was just not possible at the group I was in.
I'm still very skeptical. I can't imagine your whole BB/division/group disbanded because they couldn't handle the hours. Just not plausible. No shame in it, its a hard lifestyle and its not for most people.
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