Who is happy & satisfied with their current role?

Welcome to the corporate rat race after you graduate. Not just an IB thing

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I actually am very satisfied with my current job and have no intention to leave. I am on a healthcare investment banking team and am pretty happy. I was very happy with my bonus, not only financially but because I felt like I was really being valued by the team/firm. I find the work I do interesting and even at a junior level, many of my MDs let me have a ton of direct client interaction and getting to work directly with some really smart people on stuff is cool IMO. I also like my coworkers a lot, not just the analysts but my associates and VP level people are pretty top notch and are really friendly people who I genuinely like. I think people sleep on the need for good young coworkers in IB, and I think this can be a real make-or-break thing for me. Glad it worked out so well. I could gun for PE, but honestly am happy enough in my current situation that I have no desire to try. My team also likes to promote internally and retain people long term, so even at the analyst (moving closer to associate) level, I see a pretty defined pathway up that allows me to have some say in shaping myself as a part of the team and gearing myself towards specific segments and deals that I find interesting. I think positive relationships with seniors help this even more. We have some young, homegrown MDs who turned down pretty good BB offers to stay with us, which I think speaks to the career potential, both regarding financials and stability, on this team. It is really just a place/job I feel comfortable in with teammates from analyst to MD who actually give a fuck about my development, and that helps a lot with a job as grueling as IB.

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Agree with what some others have said. I’m on the older side (for this forum, I.e. mid/late 30s) and have had ups and downs in my career, but I can say I’m pretty happy with my job/career. My thoughts:

1) don’t compare yourself to others: as someone else pointed out, this leads to disaster. There was a time when I did this (who is in what role? what firm? Did someone get a bigger bonus?) and it was distracting and only led to disappointment. I remember sitting around after a (relatively) large bonus and thinking if that was actually enough and then realizing that even if you “win” (which to be clear you never do) the comparison game, what are you going to do? Go tell someone you just crushed the last year? That you got a huge bonus? Great conversation, people will eventually stop being friends with you, it doesn’t bring any happiness
 

2) find work you love: this is hard to know when just coming out of college, but the “standard” track is one of MANY paths and it isn’t for everyone. Yes, it is tried and true and gives you the best probability to land in PE, but there are so many ways to make money and so many careers that are ignored because they aren’t the “sexy” IB path. I’m not saying go be a ski bum (although I would enjoy that) but try to take some time to independently research roles, careers, etc and try to picture yourself in these jobs. And if it doesn’t work straight out of school don’t beat yourself up, you might take a nonstandard path to your ideal job (just think of 10-15 yrs ago if “data scientists” said they were going to be managing hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, that path didn’t even exist)

3) join a team and people not just a name/brand: the culture and people you work with are so important, not just for happiness (whether you are friends with them or not is less important) but for your sanity and career development. Find people who care about their team, who are invested in their people, and chances are you’ll really enjoy working with them and end up with good friends. At a minimum you need to trust that these people are looking out for you (even if you can’t get along with them). But I have to say I’m great friends with many of my coworkers and families and that is a huge help. 

4) have something else: I’ve found that balance is important (at least for me), and having hobbies, friends, and activities outside of work help with happiness. At a minimum it helps offset hard days at work (“well at least I have X..”) and so you aren’t 100% focused on the outcome of your work. But I’ve also found it makes me more productive at work and an overall better employee. Your mind needs exercise and needs different ways of thinking so I have hobbies (exercise and mental) that help keep me balanced. 

Anyway, this is also much easier to say with over a decade of experience, after many hard years and having “made it” (at least to where I want to be). 

I work in middle market M&A, about to get a VP promotion, and finally after 6 years in banking really starting to enjoy it. Helping middle market clients sell their companies is quite fulfilling once you aren't an analyst / junior associate.

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I think this video sums up most experiences with happiness:

I'm happy with my current role. I work in consulting. Here are the reasons:

- I work 40-50 hours/week on average

- No face time, no work for the sake of work. Work from home was normal even before covid.

- If I need to go anywhere during the day, like a doctor appointment, it's all super chill, I just let people know that I need to do something and I'll pick up the work later in the evening, and nobody minds

- The team is great: very nice and supportive

- No stress at work. I know that my Partner values me, and I won't get fired

- Very nice pay. I was paid $100k/year right out of school

- Fast and transparent growth

- The work is interesting and pretty simple

- Work experience is valuable. I get headhunters reaching out to me with IB, PE, corporate development roles

- Geographic mobility. I can live and work in any major city in the world.

I'm happy with my current role, for which I am incredibly lucky to be in. I work part-time as an infrastructure developer.

- I work 15-25 hours per week

- Lean team of only 4 people

- Team is very experienced except for me (all in their 40s, I'm only 2 years out of UG)

- Every team member has a unique skill set that complements the other

- I own equity in the company

- Base is $84K (+ extra $36K per year for every deal under term sheet / in our portfolio) + 1-3 bonuses per year each 125% - 300% of base (at close of deal and depending on size of deal)

- I am given a large amount of responsibility to work independently with our engineering, private equity, and operations partners

- I can work from anywhere (I have never met two of the partners in-person)

Glad to see many experienced folks here talking about not comparing yourself to others and how it leads to being unhappy. 

I think too often we see people evaluating their current role/situation, not on the merits, but on how "shitty" the other guy has it. (ie IB vs S&T or ECM, etc). People that are content with their job and current situation don't spend time looking to put other people down.

To answer the question, I would say i'm comfortable with my job but not necessarily happy. I would like to gradually move to spending time on my investments/business rather than those of a multi-billion dollar corporation. I want to live with no regrets career-wise. 

Not in IB, but did 2+yrs IB before moving to PE. I'm a bit unorthodox in that I never had the dream of wanting to work in or around finance. I almost wound up here accidentally out of equal parts background and right place/right time, so offering what may be a unique perspective on a potentially common 'view' of work-related happiness. Take it with salt.

Happy v. Satisfied

I'm not happy but I would say I am satisfied. Pay is very good, team is lean and close-knit with no jerks whatsoever, experience has been pretty good and looks impressive on resume. I just don't love finance. I don't know what I would truly 'love' to move to, so here I stay collecting my dividend and padding my resume.

How I got here

Got here by networking my way into an IB internship at a not-so-elite boutique after graduating without a job in my field of study (not finance). I was desperate for a 'good job', and was honestly kind of ignorant about finance/IBD. Then took a chance on a PE process run by a recruiting firm I'd built rapport with at the end of my analyst stint and have been there a few years.

Why the role is good 

Good experience mix of transaction focused work and day-to-day portco operational work, good comradery on a close-knit team, partner exposure, high pay, and good exposure to our target industry make the role a good place to stay. I genuinely like all the folks I work directly with, which I think is pretty rare - not uncommon for us to do dinner at eachothers houses/apts with spouses and get loaded. We're also at a big inflection point in the firm right now, which will either pave the way to a new dynasty or crumbling empire.

If I liked finance, I'd be content to stay here for good and retire early. I've been guided to expect promo but not sure that I really want it (or that it'll even happen, who knows) because I view VP+ as being much a 'stickier' role. I understand that this is a bit of a champagne problem and I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea - I am incredibly fortunate and grateful to be in such a position. I'm just very introspective lately and don't think I want to continue in high finance, or at least within this firm/sector/focus/strategy/etc. Not sure what else to do though, and I'm the stereotypical risk-averse, insecure+overachieving PE archetype so I'm sticking around for now.

I would assume the happiness comes from the grind to the top, not actually being at one specific position.

We're all on the hedonic treadmill collecting acorns. It's incredibly sad.

I Do work that’s not fulfilling. I realized that I’ll never be happy at any job unfortunately.

I am happy with my current job. It’s 100% my dream job but just not in a city I like unfortunately. I work in PE as a senior associate, growth equity with a sector focus that I genuinely love. Took me 5 years to get to this “peaceful” point in my career.

What I like: - no clients = no one to report to. The deals we do are generally not in competitive processes so honestly we almost always control the hours - I work about 40-50h a week - Small tight knit team that feels like friends. No office bullying which unfortunately I’ve experienced in the past
- full responsibility in deal processes and I get to decide who I wanna hire for outsourced DD and I get to sit on boards - love sourcing and meeting entrepreneurs

What I don’t like: - that I don’t work in London but in another European city - i also earn less $ than I used to working in IB in London

Now question is do I stay or try to find the same job in London 😅. Hours and culture definitely won’t be as good

I’m in my early thirties now and I’ve always been very happy with the roles I’ve had. I started off in m&a, moved to S&t, briefly left to start a fund, got bought/merged into a larger fund, now run money as a pm. My goal was always to run money in alpha strategies and I took each step as an amazing learning opportunity.
 

I did not mind the 80-100 hour work week (I kind of thrived in that setting) because I constantly engaged myself. When other analysts would twiddle their thumbs and scroll dating apps (I did too just less), I’d spend my time meeting other people within the firm, learning as much as possible, and building social capital. I even managed to have a decent social life (figured out I could run into a party, say hi, have fun, get it done, and go back to the office with minimal damage). 
 

Some tips:

- surround yourself with positive people

- there is no good reason why you can’t do a lot of what you want — just cut out the wasted time (sitting around in between things)

- go running/cycling/30min workout every day

- make sure to make friends outside of banking

- don’t fall into a serious relationship too quickly, or find someone who can keep up and understands your situation / has a similar mindset 

It's like that saying "comparison is the thief of joy". 

Most people aren't happy with their job or what they have because they are always comparing themselves to others. Its the reason there are people who make $10M+ a year who consider themselves middle class because they know people who make $100M a year. In reality, there are actually a lot of jobs that pay pretty well, and are way less stressful than some banking jobs. It's kind of like a P/E ratio, with price being your time and earnings being your salary. Some people stay in jobs they hate though for a number of reasons, or keep searching for a perfect job that doesn't exist. It's basically a chase for something unobtainable. 

Its sort of a paradox right; people spend a lot of time working at a job that doesn't make them happy, to afford things they think will make them happy, when in reality neither does it. 

I'm on a step of that rat race you described, but wanted to take a step back and comment that your view is pretty mature for an undergrad. I guess the real answer would have been to start on a job / career that you enjoyed from the beginning and can imagine yourself doing until you retire... Looking back I would have experimented with more internships in college, though understand that to even get an IB job now you need to have basically gunned for it from freshman year onward..

I'm learning to be content with my lot in life even though I haven't fully reached my goal yet. The more I've explored careers and the more I've talked to people across various fields, the more I'm realizing that you can pretty much choose any of these two at the same time, but not all three:

• Interesting work
• Great Pay
• Work-Life Balance

For example, if you work in high-finance, you are potentially doing interesting work and almost certainly getting paid really well, but your work-life balance is usually pretty bad. Similarly, if you choose the corporate finance/accounting route, you'll likely have solid to excellent pay (outside of hardos that think $150K outside of finance hubs like NYC/SF is a laughable salary) and great work-life balance, but the work you do is relatively less impactful and probably less interesting day-to-day on average. Finally, if you choose a really interesting vocation that isn't demanding, it's unlikely to pay well (the people who come to my mind are the artists, social workers, etc. I know that are genuinely pursuing something they enjoy/believe in).

The other problem, which others have commented on, is that we're constantly comparing ourselves to our peers, which always makes us unhappy. For example, look at the previous paragraph where I had to qualify that $150K for the typical 45-50 hour week is considered by most to be really good pay. On this forum, that's chump change because in high finance, everyone is making that starting out. Realistically though, making even $100K at age 30 puts you in the top 10% of earners, which most people would consider doing "very well" career-wise. This is doubly true if you live outside of NYC/SF/LA. I've moved back to my hometown during the pandemic, since my firm is virtual, which is about as far from a finance hub as a major city can possibly be. It's been a real eye-opener for me to realize how well I'm doing relative to most people as a "lowly" CPA when I'm not comparing myself against my friends who are IB, MBB, or in Medicine/FAANG.

Therefore, I think career satisfaction comes down to the right combination of being able to fund a lifestyle you can tolerate and being content once you reach that number, even if others are doing better or got there more quickly. The calculus is different for everyone (i.e. I would rather make $150K and work 45 hours a week than make $300K and work 65 hours a week while most people on WSO would do the opposite), but I think it's important to do that calculation and then be prepared mentally to part with the aforementioned factor you give up once you've decided what makes you happiest.

It's like the old saying goes, "you can have anything you want, but not everything you want".

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Truth my man. It's hilarious how so many of these kids turn out to be with a ton of titles and experience and just average in 15/20 years down the road. Too easy to smell through these people when I am allocating capital.