Current senior in undergrad who just landed FT IBD NYC for next year. Hours are not an issue at all, the amount of work is not an issue. I want to ask who else was a full-blown stoner in college and is now doing banking, and how did your body/schedule change? For example, I cannot eat a meal without smoking. I am very pissed off and irritated easily if I don't smoke. I understand these habits are so bad and I am trying to adjust my lifestyle accordingly before I hit the desk.
Some people like to get off work and then crack a cold beer or pour up a nice mixey, but I honestly want to just get back to my apartment at like midnight or 1 am and just get faded. That is still definitely possible right? :D
Stoner in college here and now working full time in IB. Long story short: you simply won’t be able to be a stoner and an effective full time analyst. From your description it sounds like you smoked more than I did, but hopefully I can still offer some helpful perspective.
Something that helped me transition into the work-life was taking a massive t-break in the couple of months leading up to my start date. I did this largely due to the fact that I thought I was going to get drug tested (I didn’t, and I think most NYC firms are moving away from this), but in retrospect, I’m really happy I did this for a number of reasons.
First, it made preparing for work and studying for my regulatory exams a lot easier — after smoking for a while you’d be shocked to see how much more mental clarity you gain when you stop. Second, deep-down I knew that I was leaning on weed as a bit of crutch. I never really confronted it until I stumbled across a Reddit thread called r/leaves. I would highly recommend checking it out if you are considering cutting down your weed usage.
As an analyst, you have be sharp, organized, and constantly on call. On top of that, once you get acclimated with your team, you’ll want to be as helpful as possible and not be the backlog slowing things down. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t enjoy weed recreationally — for a lot of people, including myself, it’s a nice way to wind down and take your mind off work. However, you have to draw a line and find a balance such that it’s not getting in the way of your ability to perform. I’ve personally found that smoking less has allowed me to enjoy weed more (this would be true for anyone — it’s all rooted in dopamine optimization).
^This. You're always on call. Can't go home, have a burn and call it a day.
I fully disagree with this - I get high at night when remote and turn comments all the time
Wholeheartedly disagree with the comments above. ~4 years in IB (top bucket / #1 ANL/ASO at my BB every year) and still blaze on the daily - closing in on smoking everyday for the last ~10 years now. I'm fairly active on the boards so would like to stay anon, but you don't have to kick the habit just because you work in banking. As long as it doesn't interfere with work i.e. you only smoke up after you sign off for the night / you have sufficient self-control to skip out if you have a super late night, all should be fine.
This whole idea of being "on call 24/7" even into the wee hours in the morning is completely ridiculous - either 1) have more self respect for yourself and refuse to be a doormat for those above you, or 2) find a shop with a better culture. Stuff will get done when it needs to, but you'd be surprised that seniors seem to respect you more if you show you have a backbone and know when to draw the line in the sand.
Before anyone jumps the gun, I'm not suggesting that anyone is better off smoking pot than not. Would I be 5-10% sharper if I stopped? I don't doubt it. However, it hasn't impacted my work performance over the last few years and enjoy it as a pasttime to unwind after a long day, so don't see an immediate need to quit now. YMMV.
I made a thread on this a while ago:
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/anyone-else-a-high-functioning-s…
Echoing the above as top bucket analyst after my first year. Smoked almost every night after I signed off for the night, just need to have some control and always get your work done before blazing and don’t go crazy so clear headed in the morning after a coffee
I have no comment on the weed either way…but absolutely echo what this guy said about not being your boss’ doormat. If someone email you for shit at 1am don’t do it. Do it in the morning. People will respect you more and you’ll be able to have an actual life. You will not see detrimental impacts to your career.
You animal I fully agree literally work high every night it’s not an issue unless I need to talk live with someone senior
finally someone brings this up
DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE DUDE DUDE DUDE DUDE DUDE DUDE DUDE FUCKING WEEEEEEEEED AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA DUDE!!!!!!!!!! WEED!!!!!!!!!!!! hits bong FUCKING DUUUUUUDE that WEEED like just...................DUDE LMFFFFFAAAAAAOOOO i am so fucking HIGH on WEED right now XD WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED holla my DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!JUST.........ROLL................MY.......................JOINT......................UP........................................AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY DANK DANK DANK WEED LEGALIZE IT! LEGALIZE IT! LEGALIZE IT! ROLL EM SMOKE EM PUT EM IN A BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCKING WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am just FUCKING BAKED right now my DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMAOOOOOOOOOOO RAISE YO HAND IF U TURNT AF RIGHT NOW raises both hands AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY WEED DUDE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I SMOKE 2 JOINTS IN DA MORNIN MON...........DUDE! WEED! HAAAAAAAAAAAA IM LIKE A FUCKIN KITE RIGHT NOW MY DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! S O F U C K I N G H I G H O N W E E D I CANT EVEN FOCUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SMOKING ONLY THE DANKEST OF HERB MY DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOME OF THAT TRIPLE BANANA WINSTON CHURCHILL MEGA DANK GAZA GRASS YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUCKIN SO FUCKIN BLAZED RIGHT NOW DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDDE AHAHAHAHHAA BAZINGA inhales YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cough THIS cough SHIT cough IS cough SO cough FUCKIN cough DANK my DUDE HAAHHAAAHAHAHAHAH WHY AM I EVEN LAUGHING ROTFLMAOO THIS SHIT IS NARSH BRO FUCKIN HELLA SMOKE WEED ERR DAY YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
this gotta be the nerdiest mfer irl. Prob didn't have a beer until he was 21 and spit It out because he didn't like the taste. Seriously, imagine typing that whole thing out.
>commercial real estate
try again
mans so mad he wasnt unable to break in and every pot head on this post did successfully haahaha
I know exactly what this is. You were a sore jabroni in highschool + college and then broke into banking. So now you think you are on this pedestal and are a God compared to everyone else to compensate for your sorry social skills. You are obviously pissed this guy tended to have fun and relax and still managed to get your job.
hit the nail on the head. Dude thinks making a lot of money is gonna make up for being a total fucking weirdo, and he's pissed some people figured out how to do it better.
I'd cut back heavy before starting. If you can't eat without it, you will struggle on the desk the first few weeks/months.. by all means still burn here at there.. but would try to get normal day to day things down with ease while being sober. Or.. if you must... find a really weak dab pen you can occasionally get out to take a light puff or two here and there, don't want temper flaring when tensions are high, no pun intended.
There is no shame in using weed to wind down after a long workday. Most people I know in banking/law high-stress jobs are frequent pot smokers. Likely more productive the next day if you smoke instead of heavy drinking anyways. The stigma of using pot is falling away (long overdue). Get long the U.S. pot operators
You’ve come to the right industry bro.
It's no problem, before and after work
I made the best page of my career while I was really high…that being said I spent probably 3 hours adjusting color gradients for arrows. Not sure how scalable this would be for me personally.
It's entirely sustainable. Just don't actually smoke at work (duh) and try to hold off until a reasonable hour at home, unless you know there's something coming up that's important potentially. It's just like drinking alcohol.
Feel like you should pull it back because it’s unhealthy and clearly getting in the way of normal things (NEED to before eating). When I first got to my job I had a pretty bad dependence because I was hanging out with my friends drinking and smoking all day doing all sorts of things for a few months but I was able to cold Turkey for a few weeks during series exams and now go ham on weekends as much as I want really (usually drink and don’t cross tho).
Other than that I smoke whenever I want, usually on weekends because I like to gym on free time in the weekdays and by the time I get back I’m sleepy enough to fall asleep anyway.
I get some WFH days and blaze up when free too on walks to Central Park lighting up a J. And since I was a new analyst / could do that / had any WFH since life’s ultimately about us not some stupid corporate slave job that eats up 80% of our time we should own what time we do have. Not the other way around.
But especially since things are WFH it’s up to you to draw the line, all I’m saying is you should start from 0 and work up and not wherever you are now and move down. You want to do all the annoying stuff before you get to the desk.
Godspeed, I’d definitely fix the ‘physical’ dependency aspect of what you’re situation is for sure.
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