People here conflate "bad hours" with "bad culture" too often

Bad hours can just mean the group is super busy and cranking on live deals, which translates to more experience and at least the opportunity for better exits. I would only consider hours alone to be "bad culture" if they're driven by unreasonable internal deadlines or unnecessarily comprehensive pitch books etc. There are a ton of groups that are sweaty but with broadly pleasant personalities, good comaraderie among juniors, reasonable mid level people etc. 

Toxicity is a whole different animal and can make the day to day legitimately miserable. And people that are assholes are very rarely respectful of your time ("yeah he seems bipolar but at least he respects saturday moratorium" isn't a thing), so you end up with bad hours AND bad culture. 

Anyone who has dealt with people who constantly belittle, yell, bully etc. knows there is a huge difference, and this is unfortunately a field where these psychos can skate by for too long.

1 Comments
 

Reprehenderit voluptate blanditiis consequatur et in atque nobis odio. Eos non et enim quia aut magnam quae.

Omnis molestiae vitae maiores officia. Beatae assumenda soluta enim facere illo modi. Dolorem rerum aut officiis voluptas rerum qui esse. Doloribus aut sit et iure.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (46) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (23) $182
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (82) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”