Is IB really as bad as it sounds?
I landed a summer internship doing IB at a london BB. Hooray, right?
Looking more into the career, I've found nothing but negative perspectives; mainly the unsurvivable hours, but also the toxic culture. Plus you have no time for hobbies or friends. And apparently any romantic relationship you have going into IB will inevitably crumble because you just never see them. And so it's turned something I should be excited about into an existential nightmare.
Truth be told, I study a humanities degree and needed a job for once I graduate. I wanted to go into something corporate so my friend sent me his internship tracker and I applied at random, and this was the only internship I got, which is apparently shocking. The point is, I just needed an internship and I'm only learning about what it actually entails right now.
What I ultimately want in a career is a social office with a party culture and a good "we're in this together" mindset. Prestige does play into my decision-making, which I appreciate is rather shallow. I don't mind working longer hours than a 9-5 if it means my co-workers are my close friends.
I'm just a bit torn regarding whether or not I should be celebrating or sounding an SOS.
Bump - incoming bb intern in nyc, also concerned about what I’ve seen here
Yes
I think there are a few things to keep in mind when coming into IB/a Career in general.
The first is that everyone is going to have different experiences. You may work for a Senior that you just struggle to communicate with, and just ruins your life. It happens all the time, does it mean you are a bad analyst, not necessarily, but you have to find people you work well with. Maybe you find someone who wants to back you through the first 4 years of your career and you have a golden ticket. It is really more of a crap shoot then I think people want to admit on this site.
Another thing that I think young professional struggle with is time management. This might be the first time where you really have to make tough choices. Sure in college you might have had to juggle classes, homework, social events, but the real world is on another level. How do you balance a career, with Life, with dating. You will have to make those decisions. This probably leads to more stress for a lot of people.
I think you need to give up on your want of a "social office with a party culture and a good "we're in this together" mindset". This is not a fraternity, and no business is. You will be expected to deliver results no mater what field you go into. Sure, can it be fun yes, but don't conflate a party with work.
Thank you this is very insightful! One point I'm not familiar with though, is "back you through the first 4 years of your career and you have a golden ticket". What does backing a single employee mean? And what is the incentive for them to do that? Like what am I providing them that the other cog in the machine sat next to me can't provide?
Thank you again!
Its a relationship thing. Our firm usually identifies individuals that are either high performers, or someone is willing to go to bat for them. Once they are identified, it is usually hard for them to ever fall out of the good standing, thus the Analyst and Associate years get easier for them.
Depends on bank/group/culture
Lifestyle is tough I won't lie to you, but you got to have to love it. The deals, the culture, how cut through it is. Have to think if you want to be surrounded by this for the rest of your life (it doesn't change in PE)
When it’s bad, it’s real bad.
Can be utterly demoralizing and make you question everything. It’s exhausting. Paycheck is fat though and if your group is alright, ~50-70% of the time it can be reasonable.
Is it worth it long term? I have the option to move to VC / GE where the lifestyle seems so much better, but the risk also seems quite a bit higher
How can anyone answer this question for you?
The risk is higher, if you enjoy it, make the move and take the risk.
yes - if you're not mentally ill
Yes, it's as awful as advertised. Your body is not meant to work ~100 hours a week.
Only caveat is the junior culture, which in banking makes the hard nights as bearable as possible.
Not in the worst group for culture so YMMV but i thought it was actually pretty exciting for the first year or so until the learning curve plateaued hard then i started to really feel all the bad things about this job
Yes banking sucks. But it’s really valuable if you’re using it as a stepping stone to other careers (PE, HF, startups, top MBA then pivot, etc.). The brand name on your resume helps a lot with getting much higher paying finance jobs. I went from making $160k a year as a banking analyst to $400k a year in PE at 25 years old.
I think it’s worth it only if you have a set plan to leave. I think the people who stay on as associates are psycho (and most of them simply are not smart enough to get the other good jobs - I saw this with all the kids in my IB class who are still in banking). You just kind of suck it up and push through 2 years. It also helps knowing you’re going to leave because that gives you more freedom to push back on BS, especially once you’re a 2nd year analyst and have your next gig lined up.
The camaraderie is nice - some of my closest friends are from my banking class. It’s a very unique position to be surrounded 20 other kids your age with similar ambitions and personalities who are also working insane hours (you really don’t get exposure to this many peers in any other job). The trauma bonding is very real. And yea working in IB can be a nice ego boost coming out of college when you look around and see what your peers ended up doing, even if you’re working 90+ hour weeks (you’ll end up realizing after 2 years of working these hours what actually matters to you and then go pursue that after).
Based on your post, I would strongly reconsider a long term career in IB.
No one is forced to work in the industry, and the nature of the work is very reactive - to the point where you have no control over your own calendar or availability. Most people accept this as a short term sacrifice (2 yrs and out) in order to trade for something (hopefully) better on the back end.
If money is not a concern and you value other aspects of personal life, would think strongly about your future. Having worked in IB and in industry, I would personally say that there are not many careers or jobs that offer you the ability to consistently make more money every year (e.g., my raises in industry were 2-6% annually in non-promote years off a low base value, vs 15%+ in IB off much higher base value) - if that doesn't matter, I would not recommend this lifestyle or career to anyone
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