VP in IB, are you happy?

Will add my two cents here. From experience, there's really two paths you can take to the role as a VP, which highlight why the position can be the easiest, or the toughest position in the banking hierarchy. 

In the first, you're an extremely effective delegator that manages up well and doesn't really care how much s*** rolls downhill. Your A&A's most probably dislike you (see ~33% of posts on this site) as you provide minimal guidance and write/respond to emails whenever it suits you, but you don't care, and are able to manage your own workload and personal life appropriately as a result. You're probably mid-bucket but again you don't care, as you (i) earn enough to not justify the increased effort it takes to be top bucket; (ii) have an easy path to your next promotion and salary increase and (iii) can effectively cruise for 4-5 years before you really have to earn your bonus. 

On the other end of the spectrum, there are VPs who opt to play all along the banking pyramid. You're consistently assisting, teaching, and mentoring A&As, and staying well in the weeds on models or decks. You're then expected to lead calls and client negotiations, effectively doing the MDs job for none of the credit or kudos. MDs love you, juniors appreciate you, and you're probably rewarded a little more at year end. The catch - you're probably working harder than you ever have in banking and while 100 hour weeks are fine as a 22 year old, they're not when you're an early 30s kwyjibo. Your personal life suffers and burn out becomes a real issue just as your approaching the levels when banking really starts to pay off.

Is there a happy medium between the two? Of course, and the above poster highlights a great example of this. It's your life and your career - and you are ultimately responsible for what you want out of both.

NO. next question

VP who started as an analyst. Overall I am much happier than I was as an analyst / associate, although IB is still a grind.

 I’ve observed at the VP level, there’s  a very wide range of views when it comes to the level of work, responsibility, etc, and the role is poorly defined. The above posters are spot on: you can have a pretty sweet life as a VP if you dgaf about your juniors, spend all your time managing up, aren’t in the weeds on materials, respond to juniors whenever you feel like, etc. On the flip side, the VP role can be brutal if you “play along” all levels in the hierarchy - aka are constantly in the weeds grinding on models, PPT, leading sector updates, running calls for the Ds/MDs, etc.

For instance, I had one VP who dumped everything on his associates (creating the shell of the deck, putting together a fulsome draft with no input, etc). He trained for marathons, went to cooking/teaching classes during the week, etc. We’d typically send him drafts of materials in the afternoon, but waited around for him to do his personal stuff in the evening. He’d send us some BS comments at midnight and went to sleep, and we’d spend another few hours turning his comments. 

Another VP would be in the office way before us running sponsor calls for his MD, then would shell out a book for the juniors before they even arrived. He was then on calls all day with clients, leading sector updates, etc. It was truly a treat working with him but he also worked ~90 hours per week as a 30 year old.

Point being, it’s up to the VP to find the right balance that works for them. Some things that helped me be happier in the VP role:

• If you’re consistently in the PPT/XLS as a VP, you either have bad juniors or you’re micromanaging, and it will burn you in the long run. It’s important to play politics well and be a good enough person to work with so you get the good juniors. It’s also important to “let go” to an extent and realize you won’t be able to review every single number.
• In connection with the above, the best VPs can quickly parse out what’s really critical to the process vs  not and hone in on the critical pieces. This requires a holistic understanding of the whole process - some VPs just can’t make this leap and get caught up in the grind.
• Maybe this is just me, but I simply started caring less. Now that I have a family and have earned a level of internal cache in IB, I’ve just forced myself to prioritize other things and take the pressure off myself. My MD or the client is upset about something and goes off on me? Go ahead and lay me off, I have hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock and the connections to lateral elsewhere.
• The VP work/thinking about work never really stops, but I choose to be done at a certain point. This is definitely a luxury of the VP role and a luxury you do not enjoy as a junior banker - as a junior, you are responsible for doing/finishing the work and will be held accountable if it doesn’t get done, which leads to some late nights. As a VP, you can “lean on them” to a degree when it comes to actually doing the work (you can’t do this consistently, however). If I want to make it to a dinner, sporting event, workout once in a while, I typically can do it. I’ll need to make up that time somewhere else, but at the VP level I have a shred of control over my time which is huge.
  
  So yes - overall I’m much happier at the VP level. More money, less hours, and (in my case) took the pressure off myself a bit.

Am a VP now. I love life. I I was A2A2VP and i feel like i've saved up enough coin where if I got fired tomorrow i'd probably just say "whatever" and maybe try and grind 1-2 more years at another bank or switch to a corporate role to cover my living expenses and let my nest egg compound on its own (CoastFIRE). Caveat is I also dgaf anymore so I work 9-7pm and then chill at home/fire emails from phone or ipad late night. I go to sleep by 11pm unless someone has the audacity to schedule a call after 10pm (to which I typically take off camera while laying in bed). MDs typically hate me and juniors love me, but ultimately people know I can rev my engines if I REALLY have to because I proved i could work my ass off when i was a junior. 

I hate my life as VP. Jumped to GS from a tier 2 BB and instantly regretted. Constantly on multiple live deals and calendar is always filled with meaningless calls. I have to be on top of everything all the time and my MD gives 0 inputs on decks or anything execution related. Even if I do the bare minimum my life still sucks. How do you even do the bare minimum here?

Yes - very happy. I can now go home and have s*x daily by midnight. 

It depends on the bank/group, but my VP years were the best of my career. I was an analyst promote, so the job was easy at that point and I finally had two layers below me. Started making good money and hours decreased substantially, but still didn’t have any real responsibility for generating fees.

I’m an A2A2VP in an M&A group and find myself squarely in the second bucket discussed above at all times. I am always on multiple live engagements and consistently work ~90 hour weeks for months / years with no control over my schedule.

The largest issue at play is that I have a total lack of leverage from the juniors under me (mind you even in a pooled staffing system with new / different juniors on every project) due to their inability to perform and deliver even remotely passable work product. I consistently either handle tasks myself, re-do/re-write most of what the team produces or most often simply backseat drive them at their desk or on screenshare until 4AM to produce work that is acceptable / up to par to send to the seniors or client. By comparison, when I was an analyst / associate, the thought of a VP opening my excel, editing my pages or working through something side by side with me was truly laughable. I find this shift to be incredibly frustrating. I carried then and I carry now.

I also feel that I’m the only one who cares and is responsible for the work product, causing me to work much more than the analysts and associates I’m staffed with as a result. My MDs are entirely unaware of this dynamic because the work the receive is spotless, so from their standpoint there is nothing to be concerned about… It’s all gravy. Of course, I also have all the typical VP responsibilities serving as the hub in the hub-and-spoke system - I’m effectively playing the analyst-director on every transaction I’m a part of.

With this being my reality over the last few years as a VP with no change in sight, I’m incredibly concerned about the director role, being expected to oversee more live processes, adding client relationship building and P&L expectations to the mix.

Does this resonate with anyone else’s experience at the mid-level or am I an outlier? Would things be different at a Top 3 BB / or an EB? I’m working as hard if not harder than I ever have, and my conscientiousness is causing my mental and physical health to suffer. Would love any feedback or advice from my fellow monkeys on how to shift this paradigm.