Stay or Go?
I work at a MM bank in an extremely culture-friendly group with decent WLB for an analyst. I probably average like 70 hours per week, and have saturdays protected / most sundays are chill.. I get paid a little bit below market but nothing crazy [150k = first year salary + bonus]. I am starting to entertain the thought of jumping ship to buyside but am worried about losing the little WLB I have and more that I would gain by going A2A. Our associates have it pretty nice.. obviously there is always crunch times but I would think they average 60 hours and regularly do personal weekday dinners or other things like that. However, I’m also worried that staying too long at a lower brand bank can hurt my career progression in the long run.
curious as well
Personally. I’d jump. Depends how ambitious you are. If you want to keep working on bad deals w boring companies then stay
Tbh I don’t we do some interesting and sizeable M&A deals, they’re just fewer and farther between than you’d see at some other shops.. I think I have the “ambition” to jump but just worried that the grass isn’t actually greener (worse WLB, worse short term comp).
Did you just assume he solely works on bad deals with boring companies simply because he's at a MM bank? Lol.
Am I trippin or is that still kinda ass WLB
Ass compared to any other industry but I think for IB it's pretty decent. I get my Friday nights and Saturdays protected which is massive for reducing my burnout (always a light at the end of the tunnel essentially). I usually do like 9-12 on M-Th then like 9 - 7 on Fr. Sundays I usually only do a few hours.
What is the range of firms? I'm dealing with this too, although the answer has always been jump for me just based on career preferences
I'd ask... where you are in your personal life? Would your lateral opp move you away from your friends and family? I'm in a similar camp for working as an A3 at a boutique, but our pay is at street because we have a strong niche, and average 65 hours a week, with the occassional 80-90 here and there. I always wanted to move upstream in college and in my first year, but in my second year I found my serious gf and she's from the area so now I'm most likely going to stay long term. I'm on the brink of making ASO, and from there pay gets much better and hours will be roughly the same or 5-10 hours less, which is very manageable to me.
Also- are you actually interested in buy-side opps or are you just considering them because the majority of analysts try to go buy-side? Again, my first year I was toying the idea and had a few interviews, but I realized I actually liked the work of M&A and selling companies, liked the larger team-based nature of the job, and liked working in an industry-agnostic shop. PE gigs were going to be different on my day-to-day, so I didn't want to change that up. I'd really think about your personal situation and where you want your career to be in 5+, 10+, and 20+ years
I also entered a serious relationship about a year ago at this point (which also compounds my worries of jumping ship to a worse WLB, and losing time with her or her altogether). I don’t see myself leaving my current area but think that is a non-factor as there are tons of opportunities in the surrounding area for buyside and IB. Honestly, I enjoy the work I do now as well and think I am pretty damn good at it / efficient. My main concern with long term IB is in the director or MD future. I hate the idea of having a family / kids and still having to take Friday or Saturday night call because of some bake-off the following Monday. Or travel / spend a substantial amount of time away from family trying to meet clients. I think I’d be a good “salesman” per se, but not a fan of the idea of working on someone else’s timeline.. maybe that’s inevitable across high finance though.
I 100% agree with that and something I struggle with. My goal is to work to the VP level at my bank at the least and reassess from there
Leave but on the absolute best terms. If you do a year or two at buyside and hate it, you can always go back to IB, and specifically your group. Even if you do decide to do IB long term, spending sime time in PE will likely make you better (outside perspective on how to do things, knowing how an investor thinks, etc).
If you diligence WLB very carefully as a top priority you should be able to land at a buyside shop that will respect you.
If you move to a higher tier IB shop your hours will almost definitely get worse though
Is it crazy to stay on as an associate for a year before jumping (it's 2-year A2A so equivalent of 3rd year analyst)? Pretty massive pay bump and promo bonus with 1-year clawback I don't really want to give up.. but don’t want to kill my chances of landing buyside.
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