Taking the Plunge Back into IB?

A little background on me. Went to a target but did not have a junior year IB summer internship. Landed at a boutique IB firm out of school which frankly was a crippling sweatshop. I burnt out pretty quickly and exited after ~1 year to a BB BO position in NYC making $120K.

Now, my current position offers great WLB (40-50 hours) and no work on weekends. I feel incredibly bored however and feel like my skillset is slowly declining. There is a nagging feeling (probably amplified by FOMO as well) that I should give banking another try at a bigger firm, especially since being back at the office might provide me a more fulsome banking experience with all the camaraderie aspects. I know that I can push myself to land a decent role, but should I take the leap again?

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Forrealtho

A little background on me. Went to a target but did not have a junior year IB summer internship. Landed at a boutique IB firm out of school which frankly was a crippling sweatshop. I burnt out pretty quickly and exited after ~1 year to a BB BO position in NYC making $120K.

Now, my current position offers great WLB (40-50 hours) and no work on weekends. I feel incredibly bored however and feel like my skillset is slowly declining. There is a nagging feeling (probably amplified by FOMO as well) that I should give banking another try at a bigger firm, especially since being back at the office might provide me a more fulsome banking experience with all the camaraderie aspects. I know that I can push myself to land a decent role, but should I take the leap again?

No. If you didn't like the boutique, then you wont like other banks. It is often more work, not less.

 

What are you smoking? Generally, boutiques are known to have worse hours than BB but it's really team-driven. Because boutiques don't have the resources banks do, analysts at boutiques perform tasks that are worked on by other teams within a BB. Additionally, there are certain boutiques that are known to be sweat-shops because of how much work they assign to you (Evercore, Moelis, Lazard), etc. 

 

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