Investment Bankers Exit Opportunities For Better Hours
Hello. There are a few questions I would like to ask about the exit opportunities of investment banking after a few years in the industry. I know this topic has been discussed a lot but the information online is sometimes conflicted.
1. I know that the most common exit for ibankers is buy side. Can anyone share the level of difficulty of moving to buy side? Which sector of buy side (AM / PE/ VC / HF etc) is easier or harder to get into?
2. Can anyone working / worked in buy side share the working hours of normal days and peak season?
3. If I cannot put up with the hours of sell / buy side, is it possible to move to BO(eg. finance)? As I saw many BO job ads require relevant experience and CPA etc. Are there any other normal working hours( 9am - 6pm ) exit opportunities for ibankers?
I do not mind being a well-paid slave for a few years to earn some quick money, but I am worried that my future career path will stay in the long working hours area. Therefore, I would like to think it through before graduation. Thank you for your help.
1. You can't really compare difficulty because it's very interest driven. Generalizing here, but the cookie-cutter M&A=>PE kid is not going to find the stock-pitch intensive HF process easy, while the HF kid is gonna love stock pitches but may not love the heavy modeling nature of the PE process. Same idea for VC and AM, these fields all involve different investment methodologies and decisions on where to recruit are going to be driven by interest, not difficulty. I guess interviewing for PE may be the easiest given how transferrable the necessary skills are, but at the end of the day it's a matter of allocating your already scarce time, and that's (probably) gonna be for the job that you want, not what's easiest
2. Varies way too much. I work at a SM HF, I tend to do 60-70 (earnings get more hectic), but some of my peers may do 50-60 and some do 80s+. My buddies in MF/UMM PE are almost grinding just as hard, if not harder, than their banking period (80-100+). Especially at certain funds with sweatier reputations it's been worse than banking. I've read threads of people in LMM shops having better work life balance, but it seems to vary and I can't comment on it. Regardless, hours will vary vs. banking, but the hours are a lot more stressful and packed with actual work vs. sitting around or mindless slides in banking. If you want a career in the buyside and not churn after 2-5 years, you need to be genuinely interested, whether it's in the work or the money
3. I can't comment on BO exits, but I'd say you probably wouldn't be interested in the work if you come from banking. Going corporate, certain startups, PE shops, VC, IR, FoF (again with variation in all) may get you better hours but it's hard to get to 9-5 cookie cutter. One of my buddies who went to FP&A tends to do 10-5 but occaisionally gets blown up on 80 hour weeks and weekend work
How much is your friend in FP&A making?
Don’t have a specific number
Any tips on developing skills to be well set up for SM interviews?
Read a ton, write a ton.
Read = stay current on news and markets. read books / letters/ pitches from others, figure out what investment philosophies you agree with, disagree with, like, dislike, etc. see how others express their ideas, do research, etc. and incorporate into your own. learn new industries and their trends.
Write = build stock (or whatever security / strategy) pitches, models, and/or presentations. pick names of interest, research them, and write out your view. track how your ideas have done. this way, come time for interview, you know where you went wrong, where you went right, and hopefully have 2-3 current ideas and a wealth of other noncurrent ideas you can explain
Sound familiar? this is what you'll be doing on the job. Best way to demonstrate your interest and qualification to do the job is to literally do the job
Appreciate this a ton, thank you
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