Investment Banking Hours - What to Expect?
Updated:
December 9, 2020The 100-hour Work Week Fallacy
A typical investment banking analyst can expect an 80-hour week.
Yes, there will absolutely be weeks where you will work a hundred hours, but those weeks are outnumbered by 80-hour weeks. A user shared a wise comment below:
The amount of misinformation about the banking lifestyle is fairly absurd. And it stems largely from these nerdy kids who think it's a badge of honor to somehow work ridiculous hours.
Despite this, don’t expect a work-life balance during your first two years.
What are the Hours of an Investment Banking Analyst?
Our users shared that the hours that are usually stated are inflated.
People in Investment Banking tend to inflate their hours a bit, and no one is working 100+ hours a week consistently. A good portion of my analyst class averaged about 75 hours a week for people in coverage groups and Lev Fin and about 85 for people in M&A.
Hours vary by group. M&A groups have the most hours, and as you can see, 100 hour weeks, even for M&A groups, are the exception.
Investment Banking Associate Long Work Week
Generally, associates work less than analysts because they’ve already learned the ropes. WSO User "danske" mentioned:
- My life as an associate has been a lot easier than my life as an analyst - 65-75 hrs, depending on the week.
- You become much better at managing your time, less concerned about face time, and get more slack from your MDs/VPs who you've worked with for years. (I'm a direct promote.)
- Not great by any means but certainly more manageable.
Vice President (VP) Investment Banking Long Hours
VP hours vary a ton based on a few factors, but:
- The overarching theme is how much you care about your work and how efficient you are.
- VP hours vary depending on how active you are in bringing in deals, covering clients, and supporting MDs. The typical VP puts in 60-80 hours.
Managing Director Investment Bank Hours
MDs are the first to leave the office. WSO User "Sexy_Like_Enrique" noted:
- At MD level, you are mostly dealing with clients and relationship building.
- The nature of your work is far more enjoyable than doing a bunch of grunt Excel modeling work as an analyst.
- Expect lots of travel, lots of golf, and lots of dining out with clients.
What Do Investment Banking Analysts Do?
There are a million ways to answer this question. The simple truth is this: a lot of grunt work. A lot of financial modeling (with Excel, of course), developing pitchbooks on PowerPoint (the earlier you become familiar with PowerPoint and Excel the better), and just random things that come up throughout the day.
How to Handle the Long Hours?
Some will have it far worse than others in terms of hours/week. 100+ hour weeks are an unappealing but unavoidable reality of life as an Investment Banking analyst. While these weeks aren’t the norm for most, some analysts will deal with 100+ hour weeks on a consistent basis.
@square_miles", an investment banking associate, explains in eight steps how he survived the grueling hours of an Investment Banking analyst, summarized below.
- Adopt a survivor mentality: Maintain fortitude, avoid self-pity, and, most importantly, accept the hand that you’ve been dealt.
- Put it in perspective: Understand that there are a thousand people who would kill for your job and many, many people whose lives are infinitely worse than yours.
- Rationalize two years: Break down the time you are spending as an analyst into milestones: Thanksgiving, bonus seasons, etc. If you are really struggling with the hours, then reaching the milestones you set will make things more bearable.
- Be strong: Don’t complain and don’t make yourself a victim. These becomes a legacy and reputation that you don’t want to be attached to.
- Create options: Set yourself up for future job opportunities by networking proactively.
- Think creatively about your career: Carefully consider what you value in life and what you enjoy so you can find a career for you.
- Exotic jobs: Consider spending a year or two doing Peace Corps, MSF, Red Cross, War Child, LeapFrog Investments, etc. You can live a healthy lifestyle in that time, get irreplaceable experience in a foreign country, and your MBA applications become much more complete.
- Heroes and mentors: Look at individuals a bit further ahead in the same career as you, and ask yourself if that’s the life you want. As for mentors, find someone who you have commonalities with, build a genuine relationship with them, and they will hopefully help you get ahead in your career.
How Do Investment Banking Analysts Deal with Long Work Weeks?
WSO Users "WSO062014" and "Kevin-Gnappor - Investment Banking Analyst" mentioned:
- Here is a summary of the sleep schedule as an analyst. 9am - 12am Monday - Friday gives you 7+ hours of sleep each night, a 75 hour work week and a free weekend. Sure, there will be a particularly bad week here and there, but that's a sustainable lifestyle for a couple of years without going crazy.
- To the question of whether it gets better or if the hours go by: when you are driven by a deal, the last thing on your mind is sleep. Adrenaline keeps you awake, and you manage to blow through whatever you need to get through.
One issue many Investment Banking analysts face is falling asleep after a long, adrenaline-filled day at work. Turning off electronics before bed is key as studies have shown that the blue light messes with your circadian rhythm, which is also a crucial when it comes to waking up on time.
80 Hour Weeks in Investment Banking
Investment banking analysts face long hours. While those hours vary, it typically comes out to about 80 hours a week. Even then, there are ways to cope. Below is an excellent post from @Marcus_Halberstram", an industry CEO, painting his thoughts on the investment banking lifestyle, and why you shouldn't believe everything you hear about it.
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Nice.
Do you find that this "schedule" is more or less the norm or do you think you get more weekday time and less weekend time or whatever else?
Generally, which groups are busier and which aren't, or does this deviate too much from company to company to predict? Also, does being in a busier group bode well for your reviews or doesn't it matter?
1 - Work seems heavily skewed towards weekdays. While it does happen, work never really needs to be done "first thing in the morning" on a Saturday or a Sunday morning. This means the big pushes to make sure absolutely everything is squared away tend to occur during the week. Weekends tend to be slower paced, with more breaks to go to the gym, take personal phone calls, etc. 2 - It really is firm dependent. From my experience, healthcare has miserable hours almost everywhere. The rest varies by firm. Others may be better suited to comment here.
I just got another job offer for a position in IBD and the interviewer asked me if I would be okay with 18-20 hour days. I said yes at the time, but then after reading this story, there is a point where it simply isn't worth it.
To answer both questions it dependent on a variety of factors.
First and foremost your firm culture. BBs are know to have more intense expectations in terms of how available you are. Some boutiques are the complete opposite and you're actually viewed unfavorably if you're routinely working late and in the office all the time.
Second is the group you're in, the type of work that group does and how much deal flow there is. Live deals are more pressing and are less flexible in terms of deliverables, so they usually result in a more intense schedule. Depending on the firm your in, specific industry or product groups have varying degrees of intensity.
Third is the role you play in the group. Are you at the lowest rung and get all the work no one else wants to do? This might be counter intuitive, but that usually involved less late nights if you play it right. Thats because the bitch work... profiles, comps, pet projects, administrative group work is typically less time sensitive and has more visibility. Are you the favorite analyst of a particular MD? That means you'll work (sometimes) exclusively with him/her depending on your group dynamic. Their expectations can make or break your lifestyle. Some Senior Bankers are ridiculous low maintenance, if you get in close with one of them you'll be set.
Generally execution groups are busier. Some firms run the lion's share of execution out of coverage groups. But typically M&A is generally fairly busy. As is LevFin in some instances (but is often more market hours)... and depending on the firm sponsors. I've noticed ECM groups are generally some of the more moderate groups in terms of lifestyle. But again, dependent on all of the above. And the level of supersedence really goes from the bottom of the my post upward.... your MD sets the tone, then your role in the group, then your group, then your firm culture.
I wouldn't call the 100 hour week the norm. Its less frequent than people on here lead you to believe.
Interesting. Are there any specific stereotypes, i.e. "These places are sweatshops" and "These places are the opposite."
What's a good way to get "in" with a senior banker, or does it generally depend on personality?
Most people I know work between 80-100 hours a week and exaggerate a couple hours here and there. But I'm not sure what you mean by "patently false". The guy didn't claim to make a statement about the whole industry - he merely told an anecdote of a group that's managed particularly poorly.
I'm not going to comment on the veracity of the statement, but only that it does not surprise me. There are groups that honestly have horrendous working conditions and every hour after 120 starts becoming pretty terrible.
It happens more often in some groups than others (healthcare, TMT) due to the nature of of those industries, but it's rare that you will work 100 hours a week for six months. It's most likely 2-3 weeks up to a month or two at most, but as with anything there are exceptions.
Whenever I've had a 100 hour week though, it tends to be heavier during the week (i.e. leaving between 2am - 4am). As a third year now, I've only stayed until 3am a handful of nights in the last six months. Most nights I'm out by midnight or earlier.
Sav, I would call the claim that a group works so much that they can't go home and shower and need to keep several days worth of clothes at work patently false.
Enlighten me otherwise.
And CRE, getting in with a Senior is a combination of chemistry, luck (getting staffed repeatedly with him/her early on so you can develop a good working relationship) etc...
Cool. That's what I expected, but you never know when something is going to come up that isn't intuitive.
Just curious. If the "norm" is 100hrs, how come that those people have the time to be on WSO? I really hope that they at least earn enough to hire someone to clean their apartment, cook for them, wash their clothes. Or in case they have a wife (to do all this) and kids, do they have enough time to enjoy their wife and kids?
They are not usually working that entire time. A lot of my friends in IBD tell me about how they don't usually get any work until mid-late afternoon but they have to go in during the day to be "available" in case there is work to do.
Glad to hear that. It can't be healthy to work that many hours and that late. I do think that there is a difference if a boss expect you to work that many hours and working many hours because you really enjoy your work. It also would help if you could do some work from home. Although I still think that 100hrs are to many hours. There will be a time that your body will tell you too much is too much.
"Pulling 100 hour weeks is fairly intense. But even still its working from 9AM to 1AM during the week. And working from 10AM to 8PM on Saturday and Sunday. Its not really that bad."
Wow, just wow. Banking has melted your brain to the point that you are 100% out of touch.
Agreed. What a loser
I totally agree. And the big problem is that if there are enough people who do this, the companies will expect these ridiculous hours from other employees as well. I don't want to offend MH but he also seems to be one of those nerdy ones who seems to think it is a badge of honor to work that many hours.
Agree.
I thought I was the only one who cringed a little reading that.
There was a thread earlier where one guy recorded either his intern or analyst hours and said the average came out between 75-80 hrs a week. Has anyone done anything similar?
My point was that it is by no means un-doable or lethal.
While it may be emotionally taxing, its physiologically not exactly Navy SEALs training camp as some moron was implying.
ok marcus is not out of touch; you just havent lived in new york.
80+ hour weeks are common in all industries.. i've had a group of friends where the half of us in s&t/banking/corp fin left earlier than than few of the 1-2 in non finance people for months in a row. for example, one friend had to get a draft? memo? for her client in advertising.
and dont get me started on those small consulting companies you've never heard of -- the kids there easily work 100+ hours.. their equivalent of "MD's" are similarly cranky and high maintenance.
mind you all industries above are pulling comparable hours on half the pay. but AGAIN, it doesnt mean they have these weeks all the time -- or as often as bankers. it just DOES HAPPEN to everybody in new york.
in startups, creative, or anything project based in NY - working into the wee hours is just super common. for them getting out before 7 is super rare. they look at me like i have three heads when I try to schedule dinner for 7. even I am surprised by this -- as we are conditioned to think only finance works these crazy hours on this board. this may/may not link to why night life goes until 4am here in NY.
Good thread, guys. Just as an additional data point - I tracked my hours over the summer, and ended up with an average of 106 hours a week. Granted, I summered at a particularly intense/busy group, so that must've inflated hours somewhat. But it wasn't uncommon for analysts in my group to go through multiple weeks of 100-120 hours, and it wasn't as if the senior people were creating tons of unecessary work - there was honestly just that much work to be done. To be frank, it scared me a bit, and I'm considering not going back. I think that there's something to be said for giving up when the hours just get to be unsustainable, but obviously, each person has a different threshold for what that entails.
Marcus is out of touch with reality, not "banker reality".
If you looked at my profile, you'd see that I do live in NY.
People tend to inflate the actual amount of hours they work. An occasional 80+ hour week happens in other industries, but is quite uncommon. Banking, corporate law, and medical residency are the only places where people work that much on a regular basis. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY in S&T puts in 4000+ hours in a year. The trading floor is 99% empty by 7pm. Most consultants don't even work on Fridays. People working at startups get into the office at 10 or 11am; even if they stay till midnight-1am M-F (lol they don't) that's 55-65 hours working through lunch and dinner.
This is spot on. It is also why I left new york secretaries in the city can work 70 hours a week for 80k/yr. not unheard of
I am a frequent poster under another user name that has been on this site for several years. I am going to weigh in on this from an anonym. account as I do not want to reveal too much about who I am. If you want to discount what I say, feel free, but what I am listing is the 100% truth. Most of it backs up MH's comments....
I spent a year and a half in a group in our firm's NYC office that has a reputation across the Street for being a sweatshop and then changed groups (and offices) to our firm's Houston O&G group, where I have been for about the same amount of time. I am an associate from a top 5 B-School who came from a non-finance background.
I cannot tell you how many times someone would love to comment on how they were working on something till the wee hours and it was like they wanted me to get down on my knees and blow them for it. Who really cares?
For the last year and a half, I have worked in a BB group in Houston. Not only do I find O&G to be a fascinating industry to cover, but the culture here is outstanding. Once, I had to come in and flip books on a Sunday and the MD actually showed up to help because he felt so bad about it. In my office, the MDs are almost never here. They are either at meetings/pitches or at home or playing golf. I have never seen a VP or Director here past 8 PM unless their was a huge pitch the next day and even that was not always the case. Overall, my hours are much less than NYC. I would say I am between 60-75 hours a week 95% of the time. I am never at the office past 5 on Fridays and while 10 PM on M-Th is very common, midnight or later is rare. If 6 PM rolls around and I have nothing to do, I leave. It is not looked down upon. It is expected. We have good deal flow and bring in a lot of fees. The reason we do not get crushed is due entirely to group culture and the total absense of the kind of folks MH and I mentioned. We ACTIVELY do not recruit people who will do what is mentioned above. My experience is proof that IB at the associate level truly can consistently be a 75 hour per week job.
I have been at the top end of the bonus ladder each of the years I have been with the firm. At the end of the year, senior bankers (minus the ones metioned in 2.) only care about the quality of work you put out.
Also a frequent poster on this site, and also posting under a new account in order to protect identity. For the most part, I agree with everything you have to say. I am writing this to echo your sentiments in part, and in part to further highlight that the discrepancies between different groups' hours are purely a result of culture.
I also work in a oil & gas group in Houston; we are considered one of the top coverage groups both in o&g and at our bank. I am a first year analyst and have not ever worked in NY, but my experience (as well as my associates') is slightly different than yours. The average for analysts in my group is probably around 85-90; but we hardly ever pull long hours on weekends. Usually Sat/Sun work is about 7 hours, maybe. Some people do all of their weekend work on Saturday, some do it all on Sunday. But we rarely ever have a deliverable on a Saturday morning or on a Sunday morning. Our senior guys respect our weekends, and this is only because my group's culture demands that. What the don't respect, however, is Mon-Thurs. Fridays are generally pretty good too, so this means past 3 or 4 am M-Th is not an oddity. on average its not that bad, but I have had 2 month streaks where I never went home earlier than 3 am M-Th, and I was always expected to be there by 9:30 the next morning. This all depends on what you are staffed on, but most importantly who you are staffed with. I have found that my long hours/weeks/month are a result of the VP I was working with. The assoc (depending on how good he is) will usually stick around to help at least until midnight, and most are fairly understanding/don't give out ridiculous work. There are a few VPs in my group though that have no regard or respect for our hours, act like going home every day at 3 or 4 am is no big deal, and in my opinion are straight up insane. These are the guys that will stay until 4 am themselves, therefore forcing everyone below them to hang around as well. As a summer, there were many nights where I had to hang around "in case someone needed me". That's an example of culture going wrong.
Now, I think my group has a great culture and I agree that Houston overall has better work/life balance (from what I have heard), but this does not mean there are not insane people above you that ruin it for everyone. I am surprised that banks work there interns so hard though (London guy?). We would never (and same with most groups in Houston) expect a summer to pull more than 1 all nighter their entire 10 weeks - and that's also rare.
Hours at different groups is dependent on how much pitching/live deal exposure you have, your group's deal flow, but most of all your group's culture. For those going through recruiting, I urge you to reach out to juniors and get candid opinions. Talk to every bank and see what the general consensus is. There are definitely worse groups in Houston that I could have worked with, but I'm certain there are definitely groups that have a less skewed perception of "good hours" too.
Interesting post. Would like to get in touch with you offline with few questions. Can you please PM your contact email/availability. Thanks in advance!
There are absolutely some groups that require analysts to pull regular all nighters. When I was an analyst at a BB in M&A I usually pulled 1 all nighter per month (if I had to guess an average). However, I once was forced to pull 2 all nighters in a row by a horrible, dumb associate.
I did work for a Financial but not in investment banking, but can someone explain to me if that many people in investment banking work that many hours, why aren't more people hired to reduce the workload? Is it just money (i.e. the bonus someone gets that they are willing to accept those ridiculous hours)?
Are hours at Barclays a lot different? A friend of mine is a 3rd year analyst there (not entirely sure what group) and she says she works 9 to 5 some days even and at most 12 hour days. She also can't just be a slacker or something since she's a 3rd year and she survived all of the recent layoffs and I know she recently took a vacation on top of that.
In Houston?
Nah, NYC.
Edit: Since I called her to "talk to her about the industry" there is a chance, I suppose, that she is completely bullshitting me to not "scare me off" but I don't think she would necessarily do that
3rd year analysts both have a lot of leeway and are usually pretty good at their jobs. The extra efficiency of two years banking experience can make a big difference.
Woah, woah, woah. Thanks for selectively quoting from one of my posts to make it seem like I'm one of those "college kids that so frequently troll WSO and are for whatever reason turned on by the idea of working ridiculous (beyond the pale of reality) hours in banking."
The unfortunate culture of the team I was citing is not representative of banking as a whole, and I did not claim it to be such. My group is nothing like that (hallelujah, hallelujah) and the rest of the floor regards the working hours of that particular group with a mix of of incomprehension, horror and pity. I put that particular team forward as a singular example to counter someone's blanket statement that back to back all nighters "never" happen. My point was that work benders can and do happen, but the main reason for such aberrations is not because "OMG BANKING IS SOOOOO HARDCORE" but for the much less glamorous reason that some teams are just badly managed. Boring, but true.
If you had read the rest of my post (it's long, so I don't blame you if you skipped), you'd have gone on to see that I absolutely do not encourage pulling all nighters, and instead stress the importance of knowing when to say no and learning to communicate with your staffer to manage your workload.
As an analyst, I've pulled a few all nighters when absolutely necessary, but never because I want to. Yeah, about that--thanks for assuming that I enjoy spending more time at the office than I have to. I'm okay with pulling an all-nighter if I know it's for urgent/unavoidable reasons, and it's the only way that something will get done. I'm not okay with it when an associate/VP is power tripping and demanding that something is done by the next morning for unreasonable/illogical reasons. That has happened to me once and only once. I genuinely thought that I had accidentally offended this guy and that he was paying me back for something, until I found out the next morning that he was widely regarded as an asshole for his random acts of irrational staffing. Again, this only happened once. Again, the importance of communication--if I'd told someone else what was going on, I would have understood what was happening and I wouldn't have had to pull that stupid all-nighter.
(NB: It is totally acceptable, with my group at least, to go home in the afternoon/early evening once you've finished whatever unholy task required you to pull that all-nighter. It's understood that you're not going to be effective anymore, anyway, so finish what kept you there, then get the hell home and get some sleep.)
Anyway, the point of my post was the opposite of what you assume. I wasn't trying to glorify working hours in IBD. Why would I do that? Nobody enjoys living at their desk. I just was trying to explain why prolonged shitty hours can sometimes happen, and give some tips to anyone in the unfortunate position of having to deal with the prospect of being overstaffed. Take a deep breath, relax. I was trying to be helpful, and I think you are as well. There's no need to bite the head off someone bearing another perspective.
You should probably take a look at the old DLJ memo (linked below) that was circulated there and then recirculated at UBS LA if you have doubts that some groups absolutely do have horrendous cultures and the hours can be as ungodly as you have heard. It is by no means an industry norm, but to make the blanket statement that it is "patently false" is also inaccurate. I know of a few friends who have been in such groups and the egregiousness of hours got so out of control that very senior leadership at the respective firms had to step in to mitigate the issues because burnout, turnover, and potential liability risks were so high that the perpetuation of the status quo was no longer viable.
//www.wallstreetoasis.com/files/DLJ%20Too%20Busy.pdf
I think you're putting words in people's mouths here. My point was that I know both through firsthand experience (in isolated stretches) and through a couple of friends (who encountered it on a recurring basis which translated closer to a state of normalcy than to random outliers) that certain deal teams and groups can reflect a lifestyle that is absolutely antithetical to the one you are describing, and these scenarios are not in fact "patently false" but are simply the way it is. In reference to the specific poster's comments you are referencing (regarding being unable to return home to shower anymore / keeping lots of clothes at the desk) I believe that the statement viewed in isolation and taken out of context is reflective of slight hyperbole / focus being placed on the absolute worst stretches. But the overall sentiment does not strike me as unfeasible. Back-to-back all-nighters can happen "regularly" in certain deal teams within sweat shop groups. I guess the term "regularly" would likely need to be refined, but I know friends who were pulling 24-30 hour stretches a minimum of 5 times per month when involved with particularly taxing deals and it certainly starts to feel like a regular occurrence when the nights that aren't all-nighters are still midnight plus.
I think the gist of what he was getting at was that he had witnessed a stretch where kids in another group at his firm were not rarely sleeping and full all-nighters, in which the kids were unable to leave the office to go home and change or grab a quick hour long nap were prevalent.
I just think it's inaccurate to make the blanket statement that such circumstances do not exist anywhere in the industry. I certainly agree with you that they are nowhere near the norm and that exaggeration is rampant, but I also know there are certain places where such cultures are alive and well.
Relevant question, adjusting for all other factors, is lifestyle better in Houston IB than in NYC IB?
I think it depends. If you look at the top 3 groups in houston, I would say 90 is probably average but some groups have later weekdays and some do more weekend work. The biggest dicks from my office all came from NY or a diff office though, Texas guys are generally more chill. With that said though, it is most definitely still IBD and people will still be complete assholes for no reason.
I wonder if you and your associates would mind not killing the children. It really isn't the way forward.
Agree with everyone on the culture aspect - I worked in a MM firm with a very good office culture and never pulled an "all-nighter" (i.e. staying at work until the start of next day's work, I've had many 3-4 AM nights). It was also an environment where if you worked until 3-4AM, you can roll in relatively late. To echo what everyone has said, it is pretty easy to tell during the interview process which firm has a good culture - people seem happier, seem to get along with their colleagues and consistently mention office culture & camaraderie as the drawing point of the group/office. If you went through 5 rounds of interviews and all they asked you were how to calculate WACC and nothing about who you are, well, that shows what their culture is like... I had this exp with Moelis couple years back, for instance.
So I guess we can add BAML London to the next WSO thread asking for well-known sweatshops.
Average hours come out ~80-85 even in a busy group over a long period. The issue is that those hours consist of getting crushed for 3 months and then the relative calm of august or december, where, depending on culture, you may still need to put in facetime.
+1 to this.
These stupid squables aside, the reason there is so much misinformation is because someone hears of a particularly brutal 2 or 3 day stretch someone had to pull and then they represent that to be a regular course of business type of lifestyle.
The other misconception is that an all-nighter = working until 730 in the morning. If you're in the office past 430, for all intents and purposes thats an all-nighter... even though you may go home and get 3 or 4 hours of sleep before heading back in. Again people turning a 430 AM night with 4 hours of sleep into leaving the office at 730, and going home just to shower. There is a mountain of a difference between those two scenarios, and those of you that have worked each of those will attest to that.
The main point of this post is to present what banking hours are generally like. And the fact that DLJ and UBS LA are known -- even now -- 10+ years after they've been history to have had the most brutal hours Wall Street has seen... and the MD is saying that when you're working 100 hours, thats when you're fully tapped, should inform you guys as to the validity of the monkeys on here claiming that anything more than that is fairly common. Not to mention that by virtue of him having to send that e-mail suggests that his analysts aren't working at that pace, despite his expectations.
Okay Marcus. You win. Despite the fact that the point of my post was the opposite of what you choose to believe, and that I have replied to this thread clarifying that the team in question is not the norm, and that I certainly do not work those hours, I am totally guilty of spreading misinformation. By virtue of the fact that you have more internet points than me, and your apparent ability to ignore responses that don't suit you, you must be correct when you speculate that I am a university student with "wet dreams" about working long hours. Yep. Those are some super sexy dreams. I can't wait till I'm livin' those dreams for real. What was I thinking, trying to contribute in some kind of helpful manner to a discussion? Did I really expect reasonable exchange...on an internet forum? I'm so ashamed. I'm going to go take a time out in my dorm room (while jacking off to American Psycho, obviously, because I have a fictional and glamourised version of IB in my head). It's only 59 minutes past midnight right now--I'm going to stay up for fun while staring at Excel so I can pretend to be one of those super cool bankers who work craaaaaaaaazy hours because they work hard and play hard, amirite?
Aaaaand that'll teach me to try and participate in this forum, instead of lurking on it for downtime entertainment.
Most of the elite boutiques other than LAZ have pretty reasonable hours compared to BBs.
what counts as an elite boutique? Moelis?
...
Great insight, thanks guys
I think the the biggest and most common misconception is one that has been stated a ton on this website: Investment Banking is not just M&A. I dont know of anyone in S&T that works back to back all nighters. At most, international equity guys work 12 hours and can be called on mobiles when they leave buy 12 hour days never come on a consistent basis. As for M&A, I dont think you should be or would be looked down on for stopping when you reach your limit. I'm sure my bank isn't the only one where MDs would rather have employees with energy able to focus than walking zombies.
Marcus raining knowledge. Good for you. You are easily one of this site's best users.
Marcus, good to see you on the site again!
I've been in a stretch of time where it was 100 hour weeks every single week (7+ weeks). However, I hardly ever stayed past 4 AM. Really a case by case thing, and I think that was a very uncommon scenario.
At a few of the known sweatshops (I can speak to Moelis and Rothschild specifically) 100 hrs is a pretty normal week. Now it definitely comes in waves, and even at these places I'm sure you have weeks where you are working pretty light (70-80 hr) weeks, but I have a number of friends at these places that work very consistently until 2 or 3am and then put in 20+ hrs on weekends. Didn't really read through this entire thread, so apologies if I am just beating a dead horse.