The COVID Effect - Positive or Negative Banking Experience?
For those of you who have just started banking or planned to just do 2-3 years and exit, how do you feel about COVID and its effect on your banking experience? Obviously it's terrible for many reasons related to health, but putting that aside, I feel that being able to work from home for what will be most likely be a minimum of 50-60% of my (planned) banking career has made the experience much more tolerable. Below I put just a few of the pros/cons and in my opinion, the pros outweighs the cons by a fair margin if you were just planning on putting your couple years and bouncing. On the other hand, if you were trying to build a career off of banking, i can see how WFH may be more detrimental long-term.
Pros:
- Working from home in comfort
- More sleep
- Less facetime
- Less pressure
- No longer needing to appear busy when you're not (compared to office)
- Easier to make personal calls / keep in touch with friends
- Health can be prioritized (flexibility for working out, walks, etc)
- Ability to run errands mid-day when there is downtime
- Interviewing / networking is much easier
Cons:
- Not as much time to build bonds with fellow juniors (no spontaneous coffee runs / lunches & dinners / drinks)
- Less exposure to seniors (less long-term career development)
- For first years, most likely less exposure to modeling due to trust not being built
- No separation from work and home, often causing the feeling of "living at work"
- Seniors "living to work", causing much more ad-hoc, late night requests
What are your thoughts? Is banking ever going to back to what it was pre-COVID?
In general - 'd say it's better for 2nd years but worse for 1st years.
I'd generally agree with the comment above. I think many 2nd years I know across the street had pretty bad summers though, like brutally bad. Combination of a crazy market, lack of proper intern support due to shorter internships and wfh conditions, and depending on the firm a delayed start for new analysts.
also think its better for 2nd years and worse for 1st years - they don't get very much responsibility now
Who said? I’m getting crushed in live deals.
Ea qui fugiat distinctio saepe in repudiandae. Minima et nam incidunt ipsa et eos. Commodi deserunt sit voluptas ex excepturi.
Repellendus corrupti iure voluptatem aspernatur. In inventore hic labore rerum ipsa voluptatem velit tempora. Libero veniam perspiciatis quam.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...