Leaving analyst program early?
Is it common to leave a 2-year analyst program early (for example, 1 year)? Are there significant downsides to this?
For background, I want to minimize my time in IB because I really don't enjoy the lifestyle. My ideal is to work in long only equities or a MM/LMM PE firm with good WLB. I am interviewing at a few shops in these two areas for full time, but I'm interested in at least trying out IB for the following reasons: think I could exit slightly better (especially to LO due to structure of recruiting processes), want to develop stronger modeling skills, want to build a broader network (the firms I'm interviewing with have very smaller analyst classes), want to have BB IB on my resume for the clout. Also, it sounds stupid but I enjoy the social environment of IB.
Would it be that bad to exit after a year? Am I thinking about this the right way?
There is nothing wrong in leaving an analyst program early to the buyside as long as you leave after you've secured another job and you know that is was your goal anyway, although you might burn a few bridges.
There is a major flaw in your reasoning though and that is that you don't like the IB lifestyle and are looking to exit to a MM/LMM PE with "good WLB", I know enough kids who have made that jump and 99.5% of the time it is simply banking 2.0. Meaning similar lifestyles, similar people, similar workload, simialr everything except maybe a slightly higher comp.
There is a myth which idk where it came from that the buyside is paradise but it isn't no front office role in that field has hours that are only 8am-8pm all year round. In fact I know people in HR at Hedge Funds and PE funds that work 8-8, I can't imagine an associate will do even less than that with no weekend work.
Might seem harsh but perhaps you should consider a career outside of IB, PE or HF's, perhaps in corp dev, treasury, fp&a or something similar. Because if you hate banking that much I almost guarantee whatever LMM/MM PE fund you go to will likely be the same or even more likely worse.
Thanks for the response. I don't think that working in front office high finance means working 80 hour weeks. I am interviewing for jobs in long only equities, and the standard in that industry even at the junior level is more like 40-60hrs. One shop I am very familiar with works 8:30-5pm, no weekend work. Another shop I know works about 1 more hour per day.
It's not because it's a lazy or unproductive industry, it's structural. There's no client service aspect, so you don't have to make everything cosmetically perfect like you do in IB. There aren't that many decks to be made, it's mainly just research and analysis. Unlike PE, there's no deal aspect, which decreases overall workload and means there are essentially no urgent deadlines. Especially if you're targeting a >3 year holding period, it really doesn't matter whether you buy a stock today, tomorrow, or next month.
Just my $.02.
Do you know what comp is like for these roles at the junior levels and how it scales throughout they years?
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