There's been a bunch of threads recently about first years struggling / WFH sucking and I feel the same way. I know IB isn't for me already and want to leave ASAP. Was hoping somebody here has experience with or knows somebody who left IB early. I know the advice is going to be to stay for a year, but really don't want to do that so wondering what options are available to me if I want to leave around the 6 month mark.
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I know someone who started in August (hit desk in September) and quit a Bb in January. Just know it gets better. He’s happy he did it but it does get easier. Also, if you have a stub bonus, wait.
Do you know what type of role they ended up in?
Corp dev. Absolutely loves it. Doesn’t get as much $ but still getting paid more than most at 40 hrs week
How do you guys happen to quit IB that early? Didn’t you all intern in some role there before and got to know the job?
Here is why that reasoning doesn't hold up.
- an internship is only a ~10 week snapshot into the life of an investment banker
- there are essentially almost zero expectations to perform as an intern; attitude and willingness to learn are far more important
- as an intern, you are not doing nearly as much work as an analyst nor do you have any of the ownership of the work that you provide
- there is a defined end date to look forward to as an intern
and internship in 2019 or earlier wasn't wfh
Plus internships look to sell the job, because at most BBs the offer is already in your bag. Just can't f(ck shit up by the end of summer.
I remember interns (even at EBs) being told they will be staffed on tech M&A, IPOs, HC, biotech...bla bla, summer goes by, job seemed better than it is. FT starts, after training they all ended up with #2 choice, most of whom were not happy with.
“There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don't like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn't that a little like saving up sex for your old age?”
Not in IB so I lack perspective. I need to ask can someone tell me what is attractive about this job? Do most who are eager to do it out of college soon realize it is miserable? Do you evr get vacation? See your family? Celebrate holidays/birthdays? And what is the ultimate payoff? The realistic payoff? Seems people who do this are extremely intelligent and could have done most anything they wanted in life. Why not tech or medicine for good money and good life?
Work hard for 2 years so you can get a great exit op so you can chill in your 40s. Wether that happens or not is not in question but that’s why
Will try to tackle these:
1) Do most who are eager to do it out of college soon realize it is miserable?
I don't think I've met an analyst who enjoys the job, have friends across EBs/BBs/MMs. As incomings, we all realized it was going to miserable, just didn't know the extent.
2) Do you ever get vacation? See your family? Celebrate holidays/birthdays?
Some protected weekends / long weekends allow this. Also have some weekends with minimal work. Think it would be generally frowned upon for a new first year to take any real vacation time.
3) And what is the ultimate payoff? The realistic payoff?
Good chunk of people do it to exit to PE / HF. Many leave for corporate gigs because they realize the hours blow. A few will stay and get promoted. The ultimate payoff is simply a high paying job for most.
4) Why not tech or medicine for good money and good life?
No interest in tech or medicine. Ended up in IB because I didn't know what I wanted to do and it keeps my options open in the future.
Medicine is also miserable with med school, residency, no promise of a high paying specialty, hundreds of ks in debt, etc.
Exit opps and a killer resume
Tbh, I think most people here overly exaggerate their hours. Average would be 70h (80 if bad luck) and if you’re working much more than that week over week then either you’re really inefficient or you don’t know how to push back. Then yeah sometimes you’re in a crush but normally this shouldn’t be 100% if the time.
idk about the US but in London you can easily take vacations, to be honest thinking it’s “frowned upon” is ridiculous, yes you don’t have priority for vacations but if you think you can’t rest after working past midnight most weekdays something is wrong
As to why, you’re making 6 figs and sit in meetings with F500 CEOs as a first time job, you learn massive amounts of knowledge about finance and modelling, your industry team, time management and corporate communication. Lastly, you create a great network and make friends.
yeah hours definitely suck but IB still teach you how to work
Current first year -- its not really about actual hours working (which is a lot lower than people say) and more about the time you need to be "present." I often have these odd schedules where I have very little to do for a decent stretch of the day, but the work I do have is spread out so that I am constantly around from 9am-2/3am or so (eg. yesterday had a call at 830am, had other calls and light work until around noon, had basically nothing to do besides a couple calls until 6, then a pile of work until 230am). Its hard to tell when work is coming a lot of the time so you need to be pretty diligent and ready to take on work, even when there is little to do (like my 6 hour stretch where I maybe did an hour and a half of work, but I was on my laptop monitoring email etc.). The unpredictability is more of a stressor -- yesterday I was hoping to log off early and then once a ton of work came at 10 I knew it would be a long night. I also work 7 days a week (although Saturdays are normally just 3-4 hours). I would say my "logged on" hours are around 90-100 hours a week, since work tends to be concentrated in the night and morning, and during the day I am often on calls / need to be near in case a senior needs something.
I think a lot of college students are love the IDEA of working in IB, and then once they start realizing what working 85-100 hour weeks is actually like, they get miserable. But if you are someone with a lot of ambition it can be worth it, although I would argue there are less time consuming ways to reach your goals
do NOT do this. NO NO NO
accepeted offer startring nnext year now am scared
I'd strongly recommend holding it out to the 16-18 month mark, and starting to talk to companies around the 10-12 month mark. If it's a good bank look for internal mobility to AM, research or trading too if that interests you, because the current job market is atrocious.
COVID-19 started in March, time flew by, and now we're in November. If you can hold out the same period once more, you'll be much better off in my opinion.
Sure, if someone's resume comes across my desk and I see a 3 month top IB stint, I will understand why they quit, but I will also have a feeling they weren't willing to put in 60+ hours every week at a junior age.
I know a guy who went to work as the director of finance at a marketing startup after 7 months in IB. Granted he only exited IB because his office moved to another city and he didn't feel like going through recruiting again, but he loves where he's at. Hopes to leverage his current experience to land a CFO role one day. This is just one anecdote and it's worth mentioning you'd have to have a pretty solid network to pull off a transition like this, but it's the best story I've heard of someone leaving IB early.
Had a friend go down this path and he basically became a corporate "superstar". He basically went to a cushy corporate 9-5 and absolutely crushed it compared to his peers, which got him quickly promoted. Just food for thought, basically the big fish / small pond impact.
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