The Dreams of a BB Analyst

Sat at your desk, getting texts from off old friends, and girls you could've got on, who are out partying just a couple of blocks from you.

Sat at your desk, falling asleep, feeling the emotional, physical and mental pain of yet another all nighter.

Sat at your desk, hating yourself for being so driven by the artificialities of prestige and money, whilst everyone else is out there living their few precious years with a happiness you can't even understand enough to properly envy.

You're tired, you're sure you're knocking years of you're life expectancy, you're in agony, and can't stop focusing on that extra weight that's started to accumulate.

Then you start to dream...

I could've been an entrepeneur, I could've been a musician, I could've opened up that little salsa bar, I could've just travelled the world, using whatever job I find in one place to fund the move to the next. I could've applied to wealth management (they all go home at 7pm and have 0 stress). I wish I banged my best friend at university (who was a girl! and smoking hot). I miss the intimacy of a relationship. I miss getting regular sleep and being home in time to go grab a beer with my friends.

This is a post for those toughest moments in the life of an analyst. Keep going - you'll be ballin' soon, and this will all be a faded memory! The pain of this moment, will soon be outweighed by the joys of the next.

Much love.

50 Comments
 

Protip: your is not you're.

Your dreams also don't include the other side of the coin: I could've been broke, I could've been working a dead-end office stiff job, I could've been feeling unfulfilled personally and professionally.

 

The way I think of it is: I'll be out before 25 (only 22 now). Which means I'll still be pretty young to enjoy some more free time and money.

 
MezzThe way I think of it is: I'll be out before 25 (only 22 now). Which means I'll still be pretty young to enjoy some more free time and money.

Gee, thanks, I'm 24 already and only just start in July...

 
tandaradei
MezzThe way I think of it is: I'll be out before 25 (only 22 now). Which means I'll still be pretty young to enjoy some more free time and money.

Gee, thanks, I'm 24 already and only just start in July...

lol, my bad man.
 
rodneymullenSat at your desk, getting texts from off old friends, and girls you could've got on, who are out partying just a couple of blocks from you.

Sat at your desk, falling asleep, feeling the emotional, physical and mental pain of yet another all nighter.

Sat at your desk, hating yourself for being so driven by the artificialities of prestige and money, whilst everyone else is out there living their few precious years with a happiness you can't even understand enough to properly envy.

Your tired, your sure your knocking years of your life expectancy, your in agony, and can't stop focusing on that extra weight that's started to accumulate.

Then you start to dream...

I could've been an entrepeneur, I could've been a musician, I could've opened up that little salsa bar, I could've just travelled the world, using whatever job I find in one place to fund the move to the next. I could've applied to wealth management (they all go home at 7pm and have 0 stress). I wish I banged my best friend at university (who was a girl! and smoking hot). I miss the intimacy of a relationship. I miss getting regular sleep and being home in time to go grab a beer with my friends.

This is a post for those toughest moments in the life of an analyst. Keep going - you'll be ballin' soon, and this will all be a faded memory! The pain of this moment, will soon be outweighed by the joys of the next.

Much love.

Does it get THAT much better after an analyst stint?

 
boshyj

Does it get THAT much better after an analyst stint?

Maybe that too is just a dream... ahhhhhhhh.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 
boshyj
rodneymullenSat at your desk, getting texts from off old friends, and girls you could've got on, who are out partying just a couple of blocks from you.

Sat at your desk, falling asleep, feeling the emotional, physical and mental pain of yet another all nighter.

Sat at your desk, hating yourself for being so driven by the artificialities of prestige and money, whilst everyone else is out there living their few precious years with a happiness you can't even understand enough to properly envy.

Your tired, your sure your knocking years of your life expectancy, your in agony, and can't stop focusing on that extra weight that's started to accumulate.

Then you start to dream...

I could've been an entrepeneur, I could've been a musician, I could've opened up that little salsa bar, I could've just travelled the world, using whatever job I find in one place to fund the move to the next. I could've applied to wealth management (they all go home at 7pm and have 0 stress). I wish I banged my best friend at university (who was a girl! and smoking hot). I miss the intimacy of a relationship. I miss getting regular sleep and being home in time to go grab a beer with my friends.

This is a post for those toughest moments in the life of an analyst. Keep going - you'll be ballin' soon, and this will all be a faded memory! The pain of this moment, will soon be outweighed by the joys of the next.

Much love.

Does it get THAT much better after an analyst stint?

no, it doesn't. based on the general ambition of ppl on this board, you'll have higher expectations and dream to obtain the next best thing.

 
IDK how much of a baller you can be @ 25 without staying in banking.

You're forgetting the Track (Banking -> PE -> Greatness) baby!

 
giants92
IDK how much of a baller you can be @ 25 without staying in banking.

You're forgetting the Track (Banking -> PE -> Greatness) baby!

Never said you'd have to be balling. Plus, I'm re-evaluating my PE aspirations. I'm putting a lot of thought into going the CorpDev route in an industry of my liking, where you can easily pull low six figures and still have a 9 to 6/7 coming in with 2 or 3 years of banking. That would put me at about 25 with some good comp and free time.
 

u guys are hilarious. nothing is going to be different in 3 years. First of all, if you live in NYC you arent going to have enuff money to actually impress any girl for at least a decade. I am not saying that you wont at some point have a normal relationship and a family, but when you enter this field you are giving up on seriously partying for good for 95% of people.

There is actually a great NY Mag article (link below) this week about how clubs work and how girls are brought in to make loser finance guys feel important and drop a couple of thousand bucks for 50 dollars worth of vodka. As you can tell from the article, you arent impressing any of these girls or getting anything more then a cheap feel with a 25 year old ex-analysts budget! Not saying you cant hook up with models, but having a hundred grand in the bank and three years of banking isnt going to help much.

http://nymag.com/news/features/65238/

 

[quote=Bondarb]u guys are hilarious. nothing is going to be different in 3 years. First of all, if you live in NYC you arent going to have enuff money to actually impress any girl for at least a decade. I am not saying that you wont at some point have a normal relationship and a family, but when you enter this field you are giving up on seriously partying for good for 95% of people.

There is actually a great NY Mag article (link below) this week about how clubs work and how girls are brought in to make loser finance guys feel important and drop a couple of thousand bucks for 50 dollars worth of vodka. As you can tell from the article, you arent impressing any of these girls or getting anything more then a cheap feel with a 25 year old ex-analysts budget! Not saying you cant hook up with models, but having a hundred grand in the bank and three years of banking isnt going to help much.

http://nymag.com/news/features/65238/[/quote] Way to go off topic there, champ.

 

[quote=Bondarb]u guys are hilarious. nothing is going to be different in 3 years. First of all, if you live in NYC you arent going to have enuff money to actually impress any girl for at least a decade. I am not saying that you wont at some point have a normal relationship and a family, but when you enter this field you are giving up on seriously partying for good for 95% of people.

There is actually a great NY Mag article (link below) this week about how clubs work and how girls are brought in to make loser finance guys feel important and drop a couple of thousand bucks for 50 dollars worth of vodka. As you can tell from the article, you arent impressing any of these girls or getting anything more then a cheap feel with a 25 year old ex-analysts budget! Not saying you cant hook up with models, but having a hundred grand in the bank and three years of banking isnt going to help much.

http://nymag.com/news/features/65238/[/quote]

I agree, you won't be able to impress the gold-diggers until you are VP at the earliest

also, all of you people who are lamenting the IB lifestyle and hoping that things will get better are a bunch of pussies.

General Patton would be ashamed.

 
DaCarezProtip: your is not you're.

Your dreams also don't include the other side of the coin: I could've been broke, I could've been working a dead-end office stiff job, I could've been feeling unfulfilled personally and professionally.

I thought he meant "your" in a poetic sense. He is talking about our "tired" and our "in agony". A thing that, at some time or another, we all have or feel -- a play on words/homophones.

Either that or he doesn't understand elementary English.

 
Primetime

I thought he meant "your" in a poetic sense. He is talking about our "tired" and our "in agony". A thing that, at some time or another, we all have or feel -- a play on words/homophones.

Either that or he doesn't understand elementary English.

rodneymullenYour tired, your sure your knocking years of your life expectancy, your in agony, and can't stop focusing on that extra weight that's started to accumulate.
That's not poetic, that's the latter explanation.
 
DaCarez
Primetime

I thought he meant "your" in a poetic sense. He is talking about our "tired" and our "in agony". A thing that, at some time or another, we all have or feel -- a play on words/homophones.

Either that or he doesn't understand elementary English.

rodneymullenYour tired, your sure your knocking years of your life expectancy, your in agony, and can't stop focusing on that extra weight that's started to accumulate.
That's not poetic, that's the latter explanation.
  1. I've now changed - embarrassing mistake for any analyst!

  2. If that's all you can take from the article, well.. I'd rather be making English mistakes.

 

[Deleted! No longer relevant.]

The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.
 

Bondarb, that article is absolute GOLD. My favorite part about Wall Street pretenders:

The floor people, they are just to fill the place up. The celebrities and the athletes and the tycoons are the ones for whom this world is zealously designed. A rung below in after-work pinstripes are the money guys, the Deutsche guys and the Goldman guys and the no-name hedge-fund guys—the “whales”—guys like that one over there in a Boss suit and John Lobb shoes, standing beside the table that cost him $3,000. Standing very close to it, like a Little Leaguer who wants to steal second but has never done it before.

Next in line are the cocktail waitresses—in the nightclub glossary, they are also called bottle waitresses, bottle girls—carrying Grey Goose and Cristal high above their heads. If you buy two or more bottles at once, they will sometimes deliver them with sparklers. So if you’re paying $2,400 for two $30 bottles of vodka, now the whole room will know. The models or near models will see the fireworks and float over, moths to green light. The bottle girls are so tired. You can tell when the sparklers light up their faces. Bottle waitresses don’t get excited for two bottles and a sparkler. Try ten bottles and a black AmEx.

 
Edmundo BravermanBondarb, that article is absolute GOLD. My favorite part about Wall Street pretenders:
The floor people, they are just to fill the place up. The celebrities and the athletes and the tycoons are the ones for whom this world is zealously designed. A rung below in after-work pinstripes are the money guys, the Deutsche guys and the Goldman guys and the no-name hedge-fund guys—the “whales”—guys like that one over there in a Boss suit and John Lobb shoes, standing beside the table that cost him $3,000. Standing very close to it, like a Little Leaguer who wants to steal second but has never done it before.

Next in line are the cocktail waitresses—in the nightclub glossary, they are also called bottle waitresses, bottle girls—carrying Grey Goose and Cristal high above their heads. If you buy two or more bottles at once, they will sometimes deliver them with sparklers. So if you’re paying $2,400 for two $30 bottles of vodka, now the whole room will know. The models or near models will see the fireworks and float over, moths to green light. The bottle girls are so tired. You can tell when the sparklers light up their faces. Bottle waitresses don’t get excited for two bottles and a sparkler. Try ten bottles and a black AmEx.

umm, this really deserves its own thread....but it is relevant. the message: for all you dreamers (including myself at one point!) who think theyre on are on their way to becoming ballers, sorry to burst your bubble, but theres always some unattainable level right above you. get over it.

 
Best Response

My friends and I are now at this stage of our careers, and let me tell you, most of your dreams will not come true. Sorry. More likely outcomes are:

  1. got laid off and have to start over (myself included here). I am lucky to be going back in FO, a few friends took middle office jobs just to get back in
  2. didn't get any HF/PE offers and take a 3rd year in desperation (IB) or stick around hoping to make some decent money in the next few years (S&T)
  3. hope to get into b-school - but obviously being overachievers will not settle for less than H/S/W
  4. left industry completely - corp dev, working for start ups or the government, travelling etc. This is actually kind of decent if you find the right opportunity but you will take a pay cut

A VERY small number are living the dream that we all bought into when we started as analysts. I'd recommend focusing on doing your job well and trying to avoid depression. Don't count on being 26, filthy rich, working at TPG, and magically picking up a model who graduated cum laude from Princeton to be your future wife. You don't deserve any of this - you will be lucky to get it.

 

Wow, that was kinda Emo.

But I actually read most of the linked article. Male Pecking order hierarchy Movie Stars > (famous) professional athletes > foreign royalty/ballers > PE/Hedge Fund "whales" > the rest of working professional class (Bankers, Trader, F500, Consultants) > the rest of the population dancing to fill up space.

Let's all go become Tiger Woods by working 100+ hours a week. Oh, wait it doesn't work that way.

----------------------------------------------------------------- Hug It Out
 
Ari_GoldWow, that was kinda Emo.

But I actually read most of the linked article. Male Pecking order hierarchy Movie Stars > (famous) professional athletes > foreign royalty/ballers > PE/Hedge Fund "whales" > the rest of working professional class (Bankers, Trader, F500, Consultants) > the rest of the population dancing to fill up space.

Let's all go become Tiger Woods by working 100+ hours a week. Oh, wait it doesn't work that way.

Tough to stand out in NYC as a finance guy, because there are so many wealthy and successful finance hotshots in the city. my friends who work at citadel, on the other hand, are at the top in Chicago. they get mad props when they tell people where they work.

 

You should have just labeled this post "The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side." Enough Said!

PS -- if your goal is impressing gold-diggers, or if money is the only way you can feel confident around a girl, you have bigger problems than your 100-hour workweek.

 

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