IB exit opportunities for women that want to have kids
Hi all, I am AN2 in a bulge bracket bank in London.
I have to say that I enjoy what I do, but I'm not too fond of the hours or lack of separation between my personal life and work.
I learnt a lot and am a strong performer, but I can't say I have a life outside my job.
This experience made me realise I value the time spent with my friends and family and my spare time for travelling and developing my hobbies and interests. I used to think I could have both, but now it looks impossible.
I used to dream about PE MF for a long time, but REALISTICALLY the work-life balance doesn't look MUCH better.
For example, maybe 60 hours a week would allow having more free time for friends and hobbies. However, I struggle to imagine how you then have a kid and do 60 hours. TBH I can't even imagine how you do 40 hours and have a child AS A WOMAN. I think it's fair to have a nanny to help, but I don't like the idea that a stranger raises my child; I still would like to be a very active parent. At the same time like intense finance, so if I slow down too much, I quickly get bored. I hardly see myself in a corporate role but maybe I am wrong.
I would like to know what exit opportunities would allow me to be in finance, have a family and time to enjoy it and optimise the compensation.
I want to start a family in a couple of years, so I don't have time to make it to the top of the corporate ladder. I don't mind intense hours when needed, but it can't happen most of the time.
I'm sure many of you have been in or with someone in the same situation. Aside from the exit opportunities or good companies to recommend, it would be much appreciated if you have any advice on how to deal with women in finance with kids situation.
Marriage
Marry rich
Very creative answers guys
I’ve seen very successful women M&A and client coverage bankers with several kids and a rich family life so it absolutely can be done. That said, these individuals are some of the most disciplined and organized people I know.
An obvious call if you enjoy finance, like banking but want to a more normalized lifestyle is capital markets. The nature of ECM and DCM work is jnherently more structured and once you get it jnto it, it’s a lot of fun and market interactive. I’d lean more towards syndicate myself but that’s a personal choice.
Other options that pay well but have a more structured lifestyle
- credit funds (both corporate and infrastructure)
- asset management (both hf and long only)
- investor relations
Investor relations 1000%. Occasional long hours, but you will know when they are - otherwise 40h or less and you're free to leave at 2 or 3pm if you need to grab kids
This post shows a lot of immaturity. Typical day of a 3 year old who's parents have busy lives in their mid-30s.
Goes to daycare/pre-school: 8am-4pm. Snack: 4-4:30pm, Swimming/Baseball/Soccer: 4:30-6pm, Dinner: 6pm-7pm. Night-time routine: 7-8:30pm and then sleep. Give or take an hour here or there. Maybe no snack and just dinner before evening activities. So the child is busy for 8-10 hours a day typically anyways. Replace “daycare” with a “daytime nanny” and then some form of morning routine.
The key for a senior finance professional to navigate the above schedule with 50-60 hour work weeks is a supportive spouse and switching shifts for routines each day. Hiring a part-time nanny to help at times is also far “someone else raising my child”.
If you want to have children before your 30s, very soon after meeting/marrying your spouse, being a stay at home parent and so on that is fine. But the belief that no one in an MD role has a happy family life is a bit laughable. Similar schedules go for doctors/dentists and heck even artists at times.
Your posts reads pretty defensive. OP never said "no one in an MD role has a happy family life". She said she would like to be an active parent, which presumably means wanting to take their kids to school, pick them up after school, go with them to swimming/baseball/soccer, etc. It's just a different personal preference. No doubt your scenario works for many people, but I think the OP is just looking for something different.
The key assumption here is that you have a supportive spouse. Often, the wife is expected to be that supportive spouse, i.e. works less than the husband and sacrifices her career for the benefit of her husband's career and the children's wellbeing.
I'm not trying to attack you, just pointing out some ingrained assumptions that our culture might hold.
OP’s post shows immaturity? She also never said anyone in an MD role doesn’t have a happy family life. Everyone is different, and if you find that the schedule you laid out above works for you, great. But pretty crazy how feminism today doesn’t support a women who wants to be involved in their childrens’ lives considerably more then the schedule you outlined above. Especially on WSO, where odds are a couple together have plenty of skills/opportunities to either both take less demanding jobs or one be the main breadwinner.
These hours are completely ridiculous. Seems like a sweatshop pre-school. Even in high school I only had to put in 7 hour days. When the child is younger there’s often early dismissal / short days which brings weekly commitment down to low 30s. I did do some ECs but these were at most 1-2 days a week for an hour. Expecting a 3 year old to be productive for 50 hours a week is insane.
As someone who had a nanny while growing up. They did not “raise me” they were just there. I am much happier that I now go about life with the expectation that women are super driven and successful (like my mum) than expecting them to just look after the every whim of a child. I have three siblings and they are all great in large part because they expect women to be equal to them in their intellectual pursuits.
I summered at citi and one of the female MDs during summer orientation was bragging about how she gave birth and was back in the office the same day
the worst part is she genuinely thought we’d be impressed by her commitment…
obv culture has (thankfully) changed, but just know it takes a certain type of psycho to be in this industry long term
Hello! We have a baby at home and I work in PE, my partner is a software engineer, so this my real life experience. I think people above have provided very good advice, but let me summarize my own perspectives here.
#1 advice: the partner
Sheryl Sandberg was insanely right when she said the biggest decision regarding your career is who you choose to partner up with. My partner has been pestering me for kids since 2016 and is the happiest in years as a parent. The software engineering gig is a more relaxed job and allows for more flexibility, so I do less of the childcare with the slack taken up by my partner (who regularly works max 40h a week).
I am not sure how to advise you if both of you have high flying jobs with 24/7 availability needs - I've seen it done (e.g. Catherine Petty at CVC is a great role model), but this usually means 1x person from the couple takes the foot off the pedal at least temporarily (3-5 years usually) or you rely on staff 24/7 (live in nanny / au pair).
#2 is to get a nanny
We were deciding between daycare and nanny for a while but we're happy to have found an awesome one. Daycares have 2 major downsides / 1 of those debatable. The biggest issue is that they won't accept the kid if they're ill, which is a problem as for the past 2 months our baby has been ill 2-3x, each time 2-3 days. Someone needs to be home with the kid while they're ill, so that's a big problem.
The second issue is more of a debatable point, but just as I was preparing to sign the docs for daycare, I read research stating that these environments are loud/end up being stressful for very young children towards the end of the day, which has the potential to lead to behavioural issues later in life. To be honest this isn't something I'd swear by, but it scared me enough not to send the kid to daycare quite yet (he'll be in a few hours a day pretty soon for socialization though).
Our schedule is basically:
The obvious downside of having a nanny is the cost, but hopefully with the right job, you don't need to worry too much about that.
It sounds like you are worried about spending quality time with your future kid and not having it raised by a non-parent. I spend time with my kid every day 7 am to 8:30 am per the schedule above, and we also do as much as we can together over the weekends. Kid prefers us vs. nanny way more, even 6+ months in. We cuddle him more, do as much as we can of his favorite stuff when we're together while trying to not spoil him too much. It's just a different type of relationship that is way, way closer.
All up to you
Let me tell you, before I had my kid, everyone was like: "Oh you'll see, you'll want to quit - you'll want to spend all your time with the kid." I always thought this was silly and 200% did not sound like me. And I was right! I am still driven, this is still the career I enjoy as much as possible. If you know yourself and what you want, you'll make the right decisions that fit the lifestyle you want.
In terms of jobs that are still in finance but a bit easier hours, I'll echo what others have said: investor relations (with the caveat of travel on occasion; but will be less of an issue for larger funds where you can have roles where you travel less), fund of funds (avoid co-invest / secondaries teams and focus on fund investments; former 2 are deal-driven so can spike, for the latter the workload is well-telegraphed) either as part of a pension fund (e.g. CPPIB is very prestigious), regular FOF or SWFs. Good luck!