Realistic IB hours in London?
I met a former bigshot banker at Merrill Lynch and DB. He's the type of no BS straight to the point kind of guy and was drilling me with the idea that as an IB analyst, I should be expecting 100+ hour weeks regularly. He was a banker back in the day, so I was wondering if this really is a realistic representation? Additionally, he came from a big corporate firm before joining ML and DB at a VP level. He hadn't actually toiled the analyst/associate grind himself. Would be great to hear from current analysts or associates based in London?
From what I've heard, regularly pulling 100+ hours in London is not really the norm. Have not worked there myself, but based on observations from friends and this forum, I would estimate it as follows for junior analysts:
Banks/groups with bad dealflow: 60-70 hours per week
Non-top groups at BBs/EBs: 75-85 hours per week
Top groups at BBs/EBs: 85-100 hours per week
From what I've understood, European BBs usually have a better WLB than American BBs. I think hours are slightly better at the moment due to bad deal flow for some groups. For example, I have a friend who is at a top group at GS/MS/JP as an analyst. He left the office at 7pm during this summer because deal flow was completely dead. Happy to see input from people who actually work/have worked in London.
Not far off. I wouldn't distinguish by type of bank i.e. MM or BB. I know people in BB groups with not much flow that genuinely do 50-60, i also know a couple of MM guys in good groups that work on the higher end of what you described. In my 4 years working for a BB with good flow i've worked from 60-100 but usually 70-80. Depending on time of year, deals on, the staffer etc it can increase or decrease. I've only done the 100 hour weeks a handful of times
Can you share in which bank/group you work in?
This is a very good breakdown - thank you! Are you based in NYC by any chance?
Not sure if asking me or other poster. I'm not in banking right now. Currently a PE intern in Northern Europe and did IB internships in Northern Europe before.
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Highly variable subject to your bank, group, how active your sector/products is. At some point I was working 110 hours for couple of weeks in a row but I was more averaging 80-90 hours during my time in banking.
Where are you now if I may ask? PE?
See the Q&A on my profile - but yes moved over to the buyside
I was a summer analyst this summer and worked on average 81h/week. Had a week of 112h. I literally wrote down my hours every day to have precise stats. Background: MM shop in their best sector team. Good deal flow but the group hired a lot so hours were quite fine atm according to FT analysts. Had some finance background so was also considered as a FT analyst and was given more work than other interns. Yet, I had protected weekends as an intern (except this one time when i worked 112h). Another thing to consider is that it was summer and things can slow down a bit in august. So in my team, I think analysts pull 85-90h/week on average.
80-90 hours per week on average; currently at MM bank.
Top MM groups with good deal flow Analysts will do > 85+ weeks.
European BB, top group, 80-90 hours in average
There are no European BBs
I'm not in IB but in PE and our Analysts do about 75-85 per week. When started out at a BB and it was closer to 90. London teams seem to work less hours than in NY but at my firm the difference is negligible maybe 7-10 hours.
I was in MM IB. I'd say 60-70 were average week occasionally going up to 80, only time I broke 100+ was when I was fresh on the desk, very inefficient, very tired, and working directly for a VP so no senior analyst / associate to show me the ropes. We were paid below market so people weren't willing to work crazy hours, and most MDs were fair in workload requested.
Only time where people worked 90+ hour weeks consistently were when we were working for UMM / MF sponsors, they were used to BB service so teams ended up getting killed given lean staffing model.
Europe banker here pulling 9:30 to 2:30/5am 4 days a week
Friday is 10-11h
Saturday is relatively quiet usually
Sunday varies but usually 4-12h
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