Life after IB - PE lifestyle
Hey fellas - your life better or worse since jumping to PE? Life as a first year IB analyst be tough - but is the grass actually greener on the buyside?
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marginally better at times, but honestly no not really, at least the bullpen was pretty fun in IB, none of that on buyside.
You feel like hours are about the same?
For the most part Hours are better numbers-wise but it's still a pretty consistent 9-11pm workday and you are pretty much working that entire 14 hours. At least in my experience that 9-11pm is significantly more taxing than my standard 10-1am in banking (no throwing headphones in and cranking out easy slides and making random market charts). No random blow ups at 6pm on Friday and all that though, but deal sprints are the same as IB and all-nighter's will still happen. But like many have said, its so fund dependent, I've got buddies who work til 7 everyday, and buddies who have it worse than I do.
How long is a piece of rope? Your responses here will vary like crazy depending on people’s individual experiences in both IB and PE (sector, bank and PE league/size, comp, hours worked, geography and personal ties within, etc).
How long is a piece of rope?
twice as long as half a piece of rope
Agree with the above. Answers will all depend on everyone’s own experience. I have a friend working 35-40 hours a week in a LMM outside of nyc. Another friend doing same 80+ IB hours in a MM in nyc. Lots of factors will play a role on the lifestyle
Is there a way to gauge how good or bad hours could be at a specific firm when interviewing with the team? Would people typically mention if their group has good hours?
Hours are marginally better largely bc in PE your deadlines are deal driven whereas in IB your deadlines are driven by deals and pitch meetings that are continuously being scheduled.
as I've repeatedly said, don't conflate the potentially better (if at all) hours of PE to a better WLB. The work is high impact, high stress vs banking which you can do with half your brain, half the time, and spend ten minutes every hour reading the news on ESPN.com
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