Hey everyone, just wondering about the process behind requesting vacation days as an incoming FT IB analyst. Would love to take a week off around Christmas to spend time with my girlfriend. Can you actually use your two weeks of paid vacation or is there a lot of implicit pressure to keep working? For reference I’m working at Wells Fargo in NYC in a group that doesn’t seem to have a culture for being sweaty/having unnecessary facetime.
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First, I'm assuming you are starting in the summer? Do not ask for a week off, especially during Christmas. It should be slow and will be lots of down time. Last Christmas, my associate and 2 other analyst just rotated taking 3 days off each for 2 weeks.
2nd. when it comes to actually putting in request, no idea. I'm taking vacation in June and just told my vp and associate im taking off.. I don't think they care much about putting in those days in a system or what not. not for me anyways. Work so much, who cares especially if just take a few days off a year.
Thanks for the info! Yes, I am starting this summer. The reason I ask is because I would probably like to take at least 3-4 weekdays off (Tuesday-Sunday or something similar) the week of Christmas or before so I figured I had to make some sort of formal request, but it makes sense that things would be pretty slow around then anyways. I guess I would just tell my staffer what days I would be busy and they'd take care of it. How far in advance would you suggest bringing it up?
My advice to you is to not make plans and stop thinking you’ll get all those days off. That’s a lot for a first year who just started. I would just see what happens. If you are able to get 1 day off, be grateful.
I completely disagree with this advice. You should take time off whenever the f*ck you want/need time off - quit letting fear of judgement make you miserable. The only people who never use PTO are the massive asskissers who are willing to sacrifice their whole life/mental health for an extra 10k in their bonus, and the people who are really insecure in themselves and feel the need to prove their worth by killing themselves with work. I have way more respect for people who are willing to stand up for themselves and have the confidence to say f*ck off to the neurotic senior bankers who want you to sacrifice time with family to put together books that clients wont even look at.
And just to be clear, I don't have anything against you... but in my experience this mindset is what creates such a ridiculously toxic environment in IB. There's literally no reason for IB to be this way and it is only going to continue pushing away talent.
Wouldn’t recommend taking any days off (and at least mentioning vacation when you’ve just started), from my experience the week between Xmas and New Years is very slow and you can definitely take some time to yourself then
As an ex-Wells guy, you won't need to worry about being allowed to take vacation at wells lol.
Agreed with investinyourshelf. Taking PTO around Christmas is not a big deal. The only reason I would say to not take it is because you’ll likely not be busy so it’s easy to get away with not being online or just having your computer open but not actually working and saving your PTO for other days. Will depend on your group and at what point your projects are at. Anyone that says first years aren’t allowed to take PTO around the holidays is a complete loser. They’re the ones with the issues not you. If you take time off just email your staffer and deal teams about a month before saying you are planning to take these days off and will be OOO. Remind them again 2 weeks and the week of. Trust me, everyone else will be trying to not work and spending time with family
I worked at a BB - me and most of my friends had basically the last two weeks of December completely off (as first years in pretty good groups), so would not waste your vacation days on that - ask the second years in your group through what they think. If you end up being staffed in nov/dec on something that you think would go into vacation time, then just take it off. Life is too short to not spend the holidays how you want, and first years should not have to fucking suffer. It’s a job, don’t let it consume your life. sometimes you have to just tell yourself that you don’t give a shit about the job and do what’s best for you and your health. Good luck!
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