What are truly your hours in IB?
I work at a small shop in an M&A group and work from 9am-9/10ppm on average with no or very limited weekend work. My friends who are also in IB swear that they work 30 more hours a week. I have been considering a lateral move upstream given all the recent apps - however, due to the “chill hours” I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to leave coupled w the 3 year analyst program at my firm. Would love others to chime in on actual working hours in IB to see if I truly have it good in respect to hours.
I have found that hours are mostly exaggerated. Sure, during crunch time, the hours are bad and I had 3 months of consistent 80+ hours with weekend work. However, the rest of the time I work 9-9 Mon-Weds, 9-7 Thurs-Friday, limited weekend work. Currently Assoc 1 at a mm IB (JEF / HL / Roths) in London
No way this is true I work at MBB and have longer hours than that. I interned in IBD and have tons of firends in banking and nobody works less than me. Weekend work is always expected (Sunday is a normal workday) and never heard anybody finishing before midnight Mo-Thu.
This is also for LDN/FRA just for reference.
It is true, it is similar for majority of teams as well. Did preface that this is excluding crunch time which will hit incredibly hard, but most teams during marketing are much more chilled. For example, would expect to see many people out on pub on Thursday evening
Can confirm. Worked a bit more than that at MBB and not a single banker friend worked less than me (LDN). Also did IBD internship in an honestly chill group and leaving earlier than midnight on a weekday (except Friday) was an exception OP, the absolute chillest banking jobs are around 70h a week on average if still want a decent bank and/or team.
congrats on HL
I think it varies a lot by bank/group. Even when I was in a “sweaty” group the hours of actual work averaged around 50 and I was on call for another 20 hours or so.
I’m now at a chiller shop where I work 9am-8pm weekdays with a few hours on the weekend. I was promoted to VP last year which accounts for some of the fluctuation in hours as well.
What kind of shop
Coverage works more than product group, exception being LevFin works similar or worse hours to coverage.
ECM / DCM also start much earlier
All depends on team size - BBs tend to have thick deal teams where you can work 9 am to midnight most nights. Know guys at Moelis / Jefferies / Evercore where logging off before 2 AM is very rare
I thought M&A work more hours than coverage aswell, no?
large number of banks don’t have M&A teams or let coverage execute M&A - I would say M&A and coverage hours are similar
Below is the typical week, not a high week...
Sunday - Thursday: 9am - 2am
Friday: 9am - 9pm
Saturday: None usually
I've been averaging almost 100 hours a week for half a year. Basically no PTO outside of Christmas week. Our staffers are incompetent and our reputation as a sweatshop prevents us from getting a lot of quality analysts so you end up having to redo a lot of work your junior analysts do. Associates are mainly MBA because attrition is so high there aren't a lot of A2As and those that are, are usually insane and are perfectly fine working 100+ hour weeks routinely because "hey I did it, so it must be normal".
Fuck this place.
is your team hiring rn?
Yes we just had like 3 analysts quit with nothing lined up.
what bank ?
MOE?
I will echo this. Most of the MM pure advisory firms with deal flows have it very rough. Think Jefferies, WB, HL.
Sounds like Jefferies Houston
Do you hire interns? I am graduating on like 2nd of February. I am an EU-citizen from continental Europe though. I am that kind of guy who you described who likes to work a lot. I am already 80 hours a week on uni stuff and before that at least 60h a week on uni and part time job.
80 hours a week on uni stuff?
Burnout king!
You're a sicko
.
Sounds like Moelis SF tech
Associate in a sweaty group at an EB (ignore title). This is almost exactly my experience. Sunday might start a little later but generally right. On a bad week, might work until 4 or 5 most of the week and obviously Saturday work also comes up. But we’re all on 4+ live deals at a time.
Htx?
VP at NY BB and this pretty accurately reflects my ASO years.
I would caveat 1 full Saturday per month.
I've worked 90% of weekends this year for no meaningful outcome. Gotta love it.
Probably 10-2am weekdays, very rare Saturday work, 10-11pm sundays on average. Coverage BB.
jesus bro thats sweaty i was at a BB and i was probably 10am to 8pm (of course some 9pm-2am nights here and there) but 1-3 hours of sunday work, total around 60
Your post history does not add up lol
Is this normal?
For reference I’m an incoming summer analyst at a coverage group in a BB and have an offer at a LMM PE firm I interned at which I will probably pick if the hours are anything like yours.
what the hell are you guys even working on .. its not like deal flow is there...
MM coverage - 85-90 hrs in avg.
65 hours / week An1 MM top tech group
My hours are:
From: ah fuck it’s 7am
To: oh shit it’s already 2:30am
It’s unlikely that you work until 7 am every day. The issue with this industry is that a small percentage of bankers actually disclose their legitimate working hours. Of course, this job requires a lot of long nights. However, I’ve never heard of a group that works on average past 4 am. This was a genuine post to learn about the average hours, not for someone to lie or exaggerate. That context is not helpful.
You pretty clearly misunderstood this guy’s post. He’s saying his hours are 7am to 2am, which may be a slight exaggeration but not that crazy
No joke outside of maybe 2-3 90 hour weeks, my average has been maybe 55. Prob closer to 40 the last 3 months. This is an M&A group and j have 3 closed deals. Got really fortunate.
9.30am-2am on weekdays, Friday 9.30am-9pm, Saturday mostly protected (maybe of 1-2h of work), Sunday on average 7-8h of work. Would say 1 hell week per month with few days logging off at past 5am. I am at a BB in London
Can I dm you? I have 2 questions about the London location.
On the job for less than 6-months and outside of 2-3 weeks that were 85+ hours, average would be around
~55 - 60 hrs.
VP - average week is around 55-60. Some closer to 70-80 if I’m on more than 1 live deal or my junior team is weak.
Some verticals are sweatier than others too
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them. Montesquieu.
Bump
i do a bunch of pretend work lmao
How do hours differ as an analyst vs associate and VP?
Typically they go down over time but it depends on your firm’s retention. If low retention, VP’s are the quarterback of deals but also the receivers and teaching the linemen (analysts) what to do. Associate hours are dependent on how they got there. A2A will work less (purely because they know what they’re doing) but MBA associates usually work more because they’re figuring the whole thing out still
My first 2 associate years (post-MBA) were brutal since everything I was doing was new. The past few years have been better hours-wise because I’ve seen almost every type of transaction and my bank has a solid culture and retains its junior team.
Other stressors start hitting at the VP+ level though - politics, finding your lane, promotions etc.
Context: I work at a MM industry group (M&A + Capital raises) and our industry is ripping consolidation and capital raises right now.
We have some weeks where 90+ hrs are the norm. We have some weeks where 40 hrs is the norm, but very few between that.
My senior bankers are genuinely great managers and this is the main driver behind the balance that exists, but I have peers at other firms who are getting drilled despite being in the same industry group, all comes down to your seniors and how well they anticipate deal flow
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