I'm a second year analyst at top 3 BB, feeling incredibly burned out. The workload isn't even bad at the moment, I'm pushing back on everything and have generally stopped caring, but I am really hating the job and can never switch off even when it's quiet. I'm finding it difficult to motivate myself to do anything and have lost all interest in any of the projects that would have excited me 18 months ago. My personal life is suffering after completely neglecting friends & family because of the demands of the job and my mental health has taken a big hit.
I know that IB isn't for me and that I also don't want to go down the PE route. Other than that, I don't know where I see myself - maybe growth equity, corp dev or even joining a start up, but at the moment nothing is really exciting me.
I've seriously been considering quitting after bonuses this summer with nothing else lined up and taking a few months off. I don't feel like I'm at breaking point so I think I could stay in the job until August. The idea was that I could then use this time to get my life back together a bit, figure out what truly interests me and what I want my next career move to be, and also just take some time to finally relax, travel etc. I have savings I could live off for this time.
Is this a terrible idea? I feel like I should be able to use the next few months until bonuses to prep & apply for jobs, like every other AN2 is/has been doing, then quit with an offer in hand. I technically have the time to do this but honestly I feel way too burned out and mentally exhausted to even think about it. I'm quite worried that prep will be a lot harder without access to deal folders, template models, Bloomberg and so on, so I'll be putting myself at a big disadvantage when I do start recruiting. And given the current environment, I'm wondering whether a stable, well-paying job isn't such a bad thing at the moment, and maybe I should keep the job but try to coast as much as possible while figuring things out.
This is partly me rambling to get things off my chest but also would hugely appreciate any advice. All opinions are more than welcome as I'm feeling quite lost at the moment.
Never the best idea to quit with nothing lined up, unless absolutely essential for mental health.
Why don't you evaluate what job/industry you might actually be passionate about, then reach out via Linkedin to people who already hold these jobs to ask them about their jobs, so you can assess whether they'd be right for you? This way, there's no real "preparing," as they'll just be informational meetings, and they might put you in a better mood because they'll give you hope that your misery might soon be over.
Sounds like a fairly steep burnout - might be even hard to think about other jobs until you’ve somewhat recovered. Are you able to take a short personal leave, say a month or two? If that’s an option, you could take the first half of it to just relax/recover, then last half to start looking for something new. Once burned out in a job it’s very hard to stick to to the same one.
I've been beating myself up for being lazy over recruiting but I am really starting to believe it's a deeper burnout issue as you mentioned. I still feel a bit pathetic saying it given that everyone else manages to balance work and prepping for interviews but that truly feels overwhelming at the moment.
I think personal leave could be an option - I know someone else in the team took about six weeks (I believe for mental health reasons) so the precedent is there. My only concern is that I could be burning bridges if I push for personal leave, end up using the time off to find something else and then quit shortly after.
Stay strong man. There is no shame in going through a burnout. I also don’t think you’d burn bridges if you take a break and look for another role - people leave for all sorts of reasons so I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s much better than continuing on a path where you go deeper in a downward spiral where the burnout starts to affect your day to day performance. Get some good rest and plenty of time to think of what to do (including continuing in the current role) with life once you’re in a better state of mind.
Sounds like a good time to go to business school to me. Haha.
I'd look to lateral into something, which PE you mentioned is not on your roster. Having a top 3 BB, you should be having tons of looks...
PE/HF is quite intense to recruit for, but outside of that, should be fairly easier (of course exceptions). It's doubtful the Series C start up is going to go ask you some technical LBO question on the model you built vs a private equity firm.
Stay strong. Do what you think is necessary for your well being right now. Who cares what others think!
To be candid, I'm reaching the same point. Every couple days I'm fantasizing about resigning and taking a few months off just to figure out my next step and do a refresh after a grueling decade.
Would definitely wait until bonus hits though.
Sorry to hear you're also going through a similar thing. I'm completely burned out after two years so can't imagine how intense the feeling is after a decade. Hope things work out well for you, never worth destroying your mental health for the sake of a job.
Several buddies and analysts I’ve networked with have said same. Not alone for sure. The hours are killing their soul in many cases.
I know that this is a tough time for everyone and I'm not a trained expert so I will not comment on mental health.
But I will advise that when you are not working your savings will spend a lot faster than you think they will. When you start out, the money sure sounds like enough and you think your expenses will be low, but those savings will be gone much faster than anticipated.
So please take care of yourself do what you need to do, just be aware that the finances are a big part of it and you'll need to be careful and plan accordingly.
It you're really burnt out I would just try to cruise until bonus time and then quit. If you have enough energy to interview then do it, otherwise quit and then set a specific amount of time (e.g. 1 month) to just fully take off before you start preping/interviewing. Definitely some risk but if you're at a top 3 bank you'll be able to land something - would also think about what you want to do and how much work it will require (i.e. landing a corpdev job is probably much less work than recruiting for growth equity).
I envy your position as I am extremely burnt out myself - past few months have been brutal, with nonstop work on shitty projects while most of my group is chilling. My anxiety has gotten so much worse and I feel like I can never relax, and get really irritated when some director wants me to do some bullshit internal project (literally transcribing phone calls) or a new MD asks for a million changes on an extremely unrealistic pitch, while I'm also getting crushed on my live deals. I've grown so spiteful of these people who expect you to do any little bullshit thing they ask like it's the most important thing in the world, when in reality it doesn't matter at all and won't turn into anything. Anyways, point being is that I have a PE job lined up for next summer but my mental health has been so bad recently that I'm also seriously contemplating saying fuck it all and quitting.
Sorry if that was ranty but I relate to how you feel and wish you the best in figuring it out.
"I've grown so spiteful of these people who expect you to do any little bullshit thing they ask like it's the most important thing in the world, when in reality it doesn't matter at all and won't turn into anything." THIS
I find utterly tragic that a) people on this forum believe there are only 5 career paths and b) that they dont realise IB/PE/HF/CorpDev/StartUp are all the same shitty paper pushing nonsense.
Totally agree
I hate to hijack this post but I really figured that I should comment on this, since I have seen this elsewhere.
Where I went to university, it was the same thing with 5 career paths being what everyone did (except the 5 career paths were medicine, law, investment banking, startup, and management consulting, and 4 out of 5 of those jobs definitely involved some pencil pushing).
I personally have a hunch that this is what people think the successful people around them, possibly a mentor or trusted friend, have done and been successful, therefore this is what they should do. Plus they feel good about the fact that in time all of the above jobs are fairly well compensating.
Plus, so so so many people from my undergrad just did banking since they literally didn't know what else to do. This was especially common among women focusing in business. I think people took the job out of indecision just as much as the prestige.
Haha, this forum has a selection bias tho - They are not here to learn about art design or novel writing. Your statement is true nevertheless.
Made the decision to quit after my 2nd year with nothing lined up, absolute best decision of my life!
Feel free to DM me, happy to tell you more about it
I know two people who quit without jobs lined up who felt similar levels of burnout. One of them managed to take a couple of months off and then find a similar paying gig for a startup (fully remote) in bizops. The other one just quit very recently but I'm sure she'll be fine too.
Generally speaking I recommend quitting with offer in hand, however, in cases of extreme burnout I can understand wanting to take a longer break in between jobs, in which case quitting first may make more sense (as if you job searching while having a job, its going to be difficult to significantly delay your start date; generally if a business is hiring, they need that spot filled yesterday vs. in a couple of months).
Would recommend you spend some time off (vacation time) and ask yourself some questions such as: Do you still want to stay in finance? What do you see yourself doing in 5-10years? What kind of work life balance/ pay do you want and what kind of jobs realistically offer that?
I think one thing is if you get desperate for being unemployed for 3+ months and can only land a financial analyst work say. Would it still be possible to get back into banking?
I couldn't say for sure, I suspect yes, especially in the current environment of shortage of ppl with work exp. But I also think if someone is quitting due to burnout, they likely don't want to go back into banking (or PE for that matter).
I would just quit asap, live off your savings until they run dry and then move back in with your folks while you find yourself and find what you are passionate about.
Depends how bad your mental health is, which is hard to tell.
If it's as bad as it sounds like (and believe me I've been there) then I completely get how it will be difficult to muster up the motivation to line something up before quitting.
If so: quit, give yourself under a month of me-time, and then bounce back ASAP.
In the exact same position. Don't think I would be able to carry on much longer though - might end up leaving and taking a break before figuring out what to do.
Literally tons of options for you so don’t be too discouraged. I can say you might consider corporate finance (dev/FP&A) if you want to stay in finance. Less prone to burnout, and if you move out of the major hubs (NY/LA/Chi) you will have a good QOL with time/money for vacation and breaks. Won’t make millions a year but six figures with WLB and vacation is a nice way of life. I will say it’s best to not make major decisions while burnt out. Try and get some time off and truly get away. Travel somewhere lazy and low effort that you know you will enjoy.
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