Why Is Everyone Complaining about IB?
The title says it all. In the past month there has been an uptick in posts stating 'IB sucks', 'Quitting IB', 'Not Worth It', etc., you've seen them.
But what has really changed? Is IB harder than it was 10 years ago or 30 years ago? The contrary, it has actually been getting slightly better over time as most firms have implemented some type of protected weekend / protected time.
Anyone who is a prospect on this forum, you can literally read how IB analysts average 70-90 hours / week depending on the shop and you will likely work up to 100 hours in a week at some point. You know what you are getting into. Yeah it sucks but don't act like this is a surprise when you are 6 months in. We are all doing this for the same basic reasons: super fast career advancement, money, etc. Nobody goes into banking expecting to make the world a better place. Just drink your 5 hour energy, be your VP's logo bitch and envision your future mansion like the rest of us psychopaths.
We all go through the same hell, nothing you are doing now is new. The ridiculously demanding MD, the lying VP, the worthless MBA associate? All part of the IB experience. Sure part of the fun is complaining about how much your life sucks, but acting like you have it any worse than it has been is just dumb.
I'll also mention that Covid has changed the IB experience, but there are just as many benefits as there are downsides. Just remember that a 2-year program over the course of your 100 year life is barely a blip, but the difference between finishing the program and quitting at 9 months will drastically change your career trajectory.
I think a lot of people are struggling with mental health issues who wouldn’t be if they were working in the office. They’d have more camaraderie with other analysts, and they would at least get out of their house a few days out of the week (to walk to work).
It’s hard to separate work and home life when you work at home. Speaking from a student’s perspective, I’m suffering with pretty bad depression because I’ve been locked up plenty of days over the past year. I can’t imagine what it would be like to do this AND have to meet constantly strict deadlines 24/7, being unable to count on enough time to make dinner every night.
TLDR: the job hasn’t necessarily gotten harder, but I imagine that constantly WFH makes it harder on mental health because you can’t separate work from your home life.
My experience, and from what I've been reading, is that the average is not 70-90 hours these days but more like a minimum of 90 with an average of 100 during COVID. 70 hours honestly sounds luxurious. For anyone who started during WFH or went WFH shortly thereafter, your life has become being a slave for people who you've never met. For some people, it may be worth it, but I think others are using these 90 hours spent alone at a desk having not left the apartment for days to evaluate what they value and want out of a career.
I'll certainly recognize there are benefits from WFH. More sleep, easier to eat clean (if you find the time to cook), can do a quick clean to step away, but none of that matters if your mental health goes down the drain as the commenter above mentioned.
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