Who is happy & satisfied with their current role?
When you're in college, everyone acts like as soon as you land an IB offer you'll be happy.
As soon as you hit the IB desk, everyone acts like as soon as you get that PE offers you'll be happy.
As soon as you hit PE, you've got 2 years to figure out MBA or lateral to an LMM or corp dev position and you can be happy.
If you stay the golden course and go to Harvard/Stanford/Wharton, mostly you end up right back in PE or IB in roles you had sought to leave to pursue some unmet satisfaction. From there, most in PE can't really climb to the top and get stuck in the middle somewhere.
I see this dynamic across wall street in which they always convince you that happiness awaits you just one more rung up the ladder, but to me, it seems like it never gets there. I'm about to graduate from undergrad and start in IB at a BB, and I'd like to be the one making my career decisions for myself and not be pressured to race up this ladder of emptiness.
So my question is - who is happy and satisfied with your current position? How did you get there? What about the role makes it a good place to stay and be content?
Welcome to the corporate rat race after you graduate. Not just an IB thing
I'm not in IB, but I'm now early-mid 30s and at the ED/D level in S&T (maybe 2-3 years from MD ish). Overall I'd say I'm pretty happy with my current situation. I'm starting to get senior enough with enough experience that I feel I can print a significant enough P&L on a consistent basis to not worry about RIF, while also getting a decent payout every year. Hours are pretty good for an IB job, and I feel like I'm not really missing out on most things in life. THe job itself is still pretty fun on a day-to-day basis, although like everything, it can get boring at points.
I like money but I'm not gunning to retire with 20mm+, and the job fits well for my personality. Obviously S&T doesn't have the same sort of track that IB does, and the personalities that are attracted to each are different, but I think you can find happiness in finance jobs. The big thing is to not give a shit about what other people think about you or your job or you comp. Do what you want because you like doing it enough to justify the paycheck. As soon as you start comparing yourself to others, you're on your way to the death spiral.
Let’s see Paul Allen’s death spiral.
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.
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.
I think this video sums up most experiences with happiness:
you and me and everyone else on here
life is truly a fresh hell daily when you are trapped by yourself into living a life you do not love, but cannot object to for any specific reason
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:
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".