Title says all. What’s the shortest stint you’ve seen or heard of where the individual leaves banking for a ‘better’ job in terms of pay. 1 month? 3 months? Just the internship? (With a return offer)
| +152 | ONLY THESE BANKS OR YOU STRUCK OUT | 39 | 1h |
| +122 | Why UBS Is the Worst Place to Start Your IB Career | 13 | 1h |
| +113 | IB Energy Drink Tier List / Ranking | 74 | 48m |
| +61 | Firm Thinks I'm Lying About Offer | 20 | 51m |
| +54 | Indiana University Fraternity Pipelines | 33 | 2h |
| +39 | Stay at Weak Dealflow Team or Lateral? | 12 | 1d |
| +36 | Rogo AI | 15 | 41m |
| +36 | Elite Boutique interview questions | 8 | 1d |
| +34 | Suspended for a Year | 11 | 16h |
| +23 | 1st Half 2026 (1H26) RX IB & RX Co. Rankings | 14 | 2d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Not for a better job but an analyst quit after 6 weeks
Evercore houston had a few first years quit before the 4 month iirc
I saw someone quit after 2 weeks.
There was an MD that was no cap under 5' when I was an intern.
How tall was he with cap?
Just the internship + return offer is pretty common. Lots of people realizing IB is not for them and leave for something with more WLB, different industry, etc.
Have seen someone leave after 2 months. Also a guy who was actively telling people in week 2 that he had decided banking wasn't for him and was trying to recruit elsewhere... think he stuck it out for a year.
None of these were for better paying jobs, all for better WLB. I would be wary of leaving super quickly just for a higher paycheck unless it's massively different, a short stint will get questioned.
Not anymore
6 days. Was at an MM and we hired a lateral from Deloitte (audit I think). Despite him saying that he knew banking hours were tough, he was confused when he was asked to come in on a Sunday. He quit Monday never looked back. I know for a fact he didn't get crushed the prior week either, maybe 70 hours.
An MD that originally interviewed him said the guy said in the interview "I have no family or freinds in this city, i'm here to grind".
This is awesome. Big 4 laterals have all been duds in my experience as well
Personal experiences are personal experiences, but there are many ex Big 4 in London IB who are great and their actual accounting knowledge is a significant value especially in M&A teams (lockbox/completion accounting). Have had to rely on a few many times to actually understand the theory behind whatever I was working on
Agreed. I worked with an ex-Deloitte guy who was very technically proficient but just did not understand the concept of being staffed on multiple deals at once. I guess he was used to working one project & one client at a time. He literally just could not cover two things at once and would immediately try to push anything else he was staffed on to an Analyst or other Associate.
I was the one who found him (he reached out to me via LinkedIn before we put an official job posting up) and he basically became my problem. I remember having to explain to him, dude, everyone here is covering multiple deals at once and we all go into each day with a backlog of stuff to do across multiple deals. You cannot just push everything off to someone else besides the one deliverable that you are immediately working on, because whoever you're pushing it off to also has other work to do. Dude was an Associate 1 delegating like a VP staffer.
Big 4's clowning as always
No joke, an Analyst quit after 3 days.
Not because of work but i think the hazing were bit much even on IB standards.
I know the first 3 hours of sitting on his desk, the VP sarcastically commented on the fact he sat on his favourite analyst spot (the firm doesn't have a fixed seating) and he said "Wow, first day and already sitting like you own the place huh?"
Then i think on his 2nd day another VP cursed at him and threw a printed deck literally towards his face because of some number doesn't add up.
And i think the last straw was when he left office at 2am and decided to be late for about 30 mins to the office (we start @ 8.30, he arrived shortly after 9am) and the VP commented that if he couldn't handle being on time after working super late he would happily show him the door. The analyst straight up said "Thanks, i already knew which way to go."
Your VPs sound like clowns tbf
Yeah, bunch of grade A a'holes. They would be physically upset (banging desks, throwing decks, etc.) and frequently curse at you while throwing tantrums over the most random things. Gotta have some thick skin and selective hearing while working with them.
This doesn't sound like hazing as much as your team is full of douches...
What would you do at this point? Expose the VP on social media?
This firm is THE largest and most prestigious IB in my region (GS/JPM equiv.).
Ratting them would mean the death of your finance career since they pretty much knew everyone in a FO position in every major institution. And everyone thought it was just "paying your dues" so for those who are able to take the abuse just kept their head down, and for those who can't simply quits. I myself took the 2nd route.
Yea it's open-seating system, since everyone got a laptop and the desks are basically just desk and chair + huge monitors that everyone just plugs in.
The 8.30 thing really depends on your team, since some people (for god know why) really bang on about coming in early. While some really couldn't care less
honestly, good for that analyst. Don't allow people to walk over you like that. Ever. VP, MD, doesn't matter - let them know you're not one to be fucked with. Would've been better if he said that vs. just quitting but I guess he did the second best thing with regards to self respect.
Whatever bank you’re talking about sounds like an absolutely horrible culture and I’ve seen it bad. 8:30am even after a late night too haha? What’s the point -
-deleted-
Have to be anonymous because it would instantly doxx me, but I quit literally 5 weeks in to lateral to a large T2 MM bank (not in the US). The boutique I started at was small, brass-heavy, and the deals sucked ass. Also, I had to do a huge exam meanwhile so basically already didn't give a shit about the job. So, when the MD from the bank called me and said "I want you", I squeezed him a little bit on wage and bonus and then quit that shit show as fast as I could. The faces from the partners were gold, tbh.
There was a Morgan Stanley analyst in Frankfurt who quit after the full time training to join EQT in Munich.
chad move
Impossibly based and Saupreissn-pilled
Two years in a row, a new analyst has quit within two weeks of hitting the desk of one specific group known for bad culture. Was genuinely hilarious getting a "leaving" email a week after one hit the desk to announce they will be working their three week notice period....
One of my former analysts now works as an Associate at an EB in the Midwest, and he said they had an MBA-intern quit after 4 days. Ex-military, and came in pretty highly regarded, but apparently go frustrated with having to "take orders from analysts".
Have worked for guys younger than me, and it totally depends on their attitude. If they are respectful and trying to teach you, their feedback goes a long way. If they are super condescending and tell you, "I couldve done the work much faster, and at a much higher quality", it can be really tough. I have worked with both types, more the former than the latter. While I never quit despite being ridiculed regularly by someone younger than me, it made me question my own intelligence and work quality, which was already in question as I held myself to a higher standard as I was older.
Colleague left IB after 7 months for UMM PE where he interned before. Pretty sweet. Europe btw, so less formal PE recruiting
When I was an analyst someone left 2 weeks into our analyst program post training
I had the same feelings in CF- thinking that I would be building these forecasts that are highly dependent on economic indicators, marketing data, and gut feel and would directly drive business decisions and investments and such. But my first role was essentially cost accounting- refreshing reports (just dropping in new data sets) and pricing hourly forecasts from the engineers into dollars. And then in my FP&A roles the forecasts were just rolling up the hourly forecasts from engineers.. simple, simple stuff.
We had a few people quit during analyst training at Citi. Were they ever really employed?
At a boutique bank I later went to, we had a guy lateral who got fired within 2 weeks due to lack of performance. He was really bad.
Where did the guy who got fired end up?
I have to ask, how bad was this guy? Did he literally not show up to the job?
Showed up late and left early every day. Did not go through a normal process because his dad was a big shot. He had prior banking experience but could do nothing. He couldn’t pull comps or make a ppt slide. He’d just say no when asked to do things. Just a zero effort kid so all the VPs and associates went to the partners as it wasn’t going to change.
- Deleted -
Analyst from my class was fired 2 months into the job. We had to travel to bank hq for a second round of training and he just skipped the whole week, then told our project coordinator he was interviewing for other roles.
couple off cycle analysts were brought on including myself. One got licenses and grinded for 3 months then abruptly left for the position & industry they originally came from. its not the shortest but it was very odd
MBA associate quit after two months. He was worse than an intern and the VPs made it clear to him so he left.
My first job was a tiny boutique and we had a couple of days of training led by the CEO. This one analyst kept on falling asleep and the second day they asked her to leave.
Analyst at a place I interned at sophomore summer joined and left like 2 months later. They worked him to the bone with below street pay.
Kwasi Kwarteng
Guy at an EB had a return offer, which he didn’t even deserve to receive, puts in two months of FT and then up and quits without a job.
he found one quickly in corporate.
my summer analyst stint...
Tenetur accusamus doloribus nam odio exercitationem qui ducimus. Nobis dolores maxime est cupiditate. Quia sunt reiciendis ratione perferendis autem corporis. Non laborum beatae aperiam tempore est eos velit.
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...
Quae eligendi labore soluta tempore et. Rem quae quo doloremque autem sunt reiciendis. Porro et et vitae alias. Error ut incidunt numquam voluptates amet illum aperiam. Voluptatibus error tenetur consequatur excepturi ut est. Porro voluptas autem excepturi.
Aut provident et sequi perspiciatis et quia asperiores. Adipisci dignissimos totam et exercitationem consequatur. Omnis sit quia laborum vel temporibus. Dicta voluptates voluptate eveniet.
Iusto repudiandae et molestiae et. Tenetur qui dolorum natus hic velit voluptas. Dolorum tenetur harum aspernatur et occaecati. Hic laborum sapiente qui quis et aut. Voluptates autem eum eaque molestiae sed.
Aut sint alias ratione culpa quasi ipsum. Ut quas et id dolor aut. Officia quis repellendus aut placeat. Vitae voluptatem fugit magnam quaerat quidem. Soluta vitae aut commodi et.
Harum non laudantium debitis voluptatem. Odio et nesciunt enim et voluptatem. Et expedita nisi pariatur accusantium recusandae dicta. Quisquam et veritatis consequatur facilis dolores atque. Delectus facilis consectetur nisi consectetur blanditiis laboriosam officiis. Quod et enim harum cum.
Distinctio rerum aut quos quas laboriosam. A culpa provident sequi dolores neque. Excepturi optio qui vel molestiae provident qui optio. Ut nobis dignissimos quas et reprehenderit.