Why would anyone quit banking?
Firstly, I acknowledge that I've never worked in banking. I've only done a remote internship. Secondly, I don't mean to invalidate others' experiences or to say that they are ungrateful.
I fail to understand why analysts quit banking to do something less lucrative. After browsing WSO I've seen that the usual complaints are about the hours. I do find it difficult to see why you'd quit over the hours. My dad works over 100 hours a week for a yearly income of less than $30k. Thus, I find it difficult to understand why people would give up such a great work opportunity.
I apologize if this post comes off as insensitive. I don't mean to discredit anyone's experiences or to say that they are ungrateful if they quit banking. Really just curious as to why you wouldn't choose to just suffer and make $500k+ a year one day. I will be working in banking full time starting this summer and my goal is to work in banking until I die, God willing. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Because you're dad works 100 hours a week for 30k you think all people should. A lot of people don't want to sacrifice their entire youth for money
nvm this is a troll
Bad troll is bad.
You can 50 hrs a week and earn 300k a year. Thats why (tech)
but the people quitting aren't going into tech are they?
Some are. My guess is that most are not.
I’m very young so I don’t know much at all but I was just wondering if those people going into tech have CS backgrounds/interests or if they are finding finance roles within tech industry? Like are people becoming programmers or whatever or are they finding some sort of finance consulting/analytics/banking etc.. role within tech?
Until you live a "better" lifestyle and realize all that life has to offer, you won't truly understand. I went through high school pretty much alone, spending most nights playing video games. I told myself, "why wouldn't I stay in IB or PE long term, I wouldn't mind the hours and the money sounds nice". Now I'm at college and have close friends to go out to bars and clubs with every weekend and to hang out with during the week. To go and give up my life to work 99% of my waking hours wouldn't be a life at all.
Should have just stopped there, chief. I've also never worked in banking. Neither of us should be commenting on it.
Your degree of EQ is orders of magnitude higher than OP, and I can confidently say that you would make a great banker. Carry on.
Thank you, I appreciate you. You've just made my day.
Nontarget tho so we'll see about that.
You deserve a username good sir
I have a pretty nice username kind sir, but I have a cringy post history that WSO won't let me delete.
I don't think I'll ever not be anonymous again.
I understand the mindset having also seen my dad work long hours for peanuts.
However there is a spectrum between 100 hours for 30k and 100 hours for 200k going up to a million as you gain seniority.
A lot of people leave because they realize that a steady 200k for a 40-50 hour week is plenty for them. There's a world of difference between living on 30k and 200k, but the difference between 200k and 500k may not be so big, and there are plenty of opportunities to downgrade your hours to something more reasonable while maintaining a good standard of living coming out of IB.
Hey kid, your dad is an idiot.
At some point you realize time is what's most precious, not money.
Right out of college I made more money than both of my parents ever did. Then by the time I was going into PE I managed to avoid meaningful lifestyle creep and I realized the money I was making was dramatically more than I needed to fund a life that made me happy.
Then I started looking at my superiors who made multiple times more than me. They all had ridiculously huge houses and took $50K vacations using the firm's jets, but they were still grinding it out and never saw their families. I asked myself whether or not I valued huge sums of money or autonomy over my personal time and the ability to spend it with my friends and family, pursuing hobbies that interested me. Ultimately I determined it was the latter.
You need to understand that banking and PE tries very hard to sell to junior employees the notion that "it gets better" the more senior you get. It really doesn't - you just get paid more. For me, when I was already making more than I felt I needed to be happy like 3 years into my career, that just wasn't a motivating factor to keep at it.
That revelation made me step off the track, and I do not regret it. I make about what a PE Associate makes now and I work like 40-50 hours a week. I don't expect to make much more than this for the rest of my career, and that's fine.
It's all personal preferences. I would imagine someone that is raised in an environment where $1MM+ comp is the norm is going to feel like they need that, just to maintain the life they've always lived, and for those folks banking and PE is really one of the only ways to do it. After I while grinding it out, though, I just noticed while my comp was going up, my expenses weren't (mostly because I didn't have any time to enjoy myself), and the main negative component of my life was my job.
What do you do now for a living if you don't mind?
Strategy function at a BB.
This, this, so much this. I had all the same realizations pretty early into my career as well. I've tried to get this exact same message and ethos across to mentees and this board, but too often it falls on deaf ears. I do think this is all largely dependent upon the socio-economic background in which you grew up in. I also came from a low-income family and made multiples of what I grew up on as an IB analyst. I knew how to live below my means and realized I definitely don't need annual earnings of >$1m to be happy and content. Someone who comes from an upper-class background and has attended private schools and went to an elite LAC will probably feel quite different as they're accustomed to a certain lifestyle that necessitates a high earnings threshold.
You should have stopped after your first sentence.
I would also note that 80 hours per week is not the same in every job. You're constantly creating new pitchbooks, models, fulfilling random stupid requests, available at all times of the day etc as a banking analyst.
It's not the same as working the deep fryer at McDonald's for 40 hours and then working the deep fryer at Burger King for 40 hours. Maybe, the latter is more boring but it's a lot less mentally exhausting and a lot less stressful.
My main point is that hour per hour is not the best comparison. If banking was 40 hours per week, it would still be a more stressing job than most.
Same can be said for other professions as well on the physical side of things. If you can work 50 hours a week at McDonald's, it doesn't mean that you would survive 50 hours a week on a construction site or farm. Hours are the same - everything else is very different.
I’m having a hard time believing you . Even at $10/hour your dad would still be making $50K assuming he works 100 hours a week for 50 weeks of the year making $10/hr. On top of that I’m not sure how sustainable it is to be working 100 hours at the grocery store non-stop. I mean if he works at Aldi’s he’ll at least have a chair to sit down when he wants but idk.
if hes not lying his dad must be undocumented
I'm assuming that the OP's father lives in another country.....in fact, you don't even have to calculate at $10 per hour. At minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, you're making over $36K per year not even counting overtime.
However, if that is the case, it would be worthwhile to know. If $30K is a lifestyle closer to $70 or $80K there, then that's really not such a huge gap anymore.
Delectus similique ut est repellat est nihil. Et quae aut sapiente excepturi.
Non omnis vitae corrupti repellat sint sapiente nihil sed. Impedit molestiae a molestias assumenda incidunt porro. Ipsum culpa aut consectetur error saepe. Ut unde reiciendis qui veritatis sunt. Autem quisquam quia amet eius.
Minima et laudantium quae accusamus. Et id autem necessitatibus sunt odio et velit deleniti.
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...
Voluptatibus assumenda quae unde esse. Ea necessitatibus asperiores exercitationem id voluptatem. Aut aut aut temporibus eos neque dolore laborum.
Ex dolorem ut quia accusantium. Eveniet adipisci saepe et maiores animi alias odit iste. Id impedit consectetur veritatis deleniti. Quia tempora error quibusdam eos tempore nemo aliquam et. Nam rerum dolorem magni aliquid sit animi officiis. Quibusdam iure ut omnis.
Amet non cumque laudantium perspiciatis tempore doloremque exercitationem fugiat. Sapiente molestias aperiam qui corporis iusto nemo non. Ab aut vitae voluptatem eum. Similique veniam omnis perferendis est. Soluta eos natus inventore iste. Exercitationem aliquam facilis delectus.
Nisi eius debitis id officiis possimus quam qui. Illum id non dolorum dolores neque eos sit. Porro alias omnis qui.