Working on Wall Street with Epilepsy
Developed epilepsy as a young adult and control it with medication and 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Absolutely no alcohol, no tobacco/nicotine, no recreational drugs, no driving, and I exercise 2-4 times a week. The times I've had seizures, neurologists concluded they were due to lack of sleep and/or something incredibly stressful going on in my life.
IB doesn't have lives at stake on a battlefield, an operating room, or in a burning building. but I guess what I'm trying to gauge is this - just how intense, difficult, stressful, and mentally taxing is it to work on tasks and projects? Is it an actual challenge, or is it just the volume? I've already interned at a PE firm and at a single family office, both of which included M&A and CorpDev campaigns to grow holdings companies with acquisitions, and I was directly involved.
If I'm trying to climb the ladder past the analyst and associate years, is a long-term career in investment banking realistic, or should I pursue other paths?
Thank you for your time.
Honestly dude, no. There's plenty of careers, and many in finance, where you can make very good money and not live in a constant state of fight or flight from stress + no sleep. If those are your triggers I would not do this especially coming in as an analyst where 3-6 hours of sleep and ridiculous stress are the baseline expectation.
A BofA intern with epilepsy died a few years back because it triggered his condition. That's obviously a very bad example but IB is not really a sustainable long-term career for anyone, let alone someone who needs to prioritize sleep and minimize stress.
This 100%. Not worth risking your health and possibly your life.
Totally possible man… no need to limit yourself. I have epilepsy as well and currently work in PE. Granted, I have only had 4 seizures in my life, 3 of which were during college and one first year out of school. I’m not light-sensitive either so screen time is not an issue, but my triggers are severe dehydration, consistent lack of sleep, and high stress. Obviously, those are difficult ones to cope with working on Wall Street. However, since I have been seriously consistent with my medication, made sure to get a decent amount of exercise in, stay away from drugs, and eat clean I have been seizure free (for almost 4 years). I honestly still drink causally on the weekends, but always make sure to drink water and not get black out drunk like I used to in college. Always remember that your health comes first… no job or money is worth risking your life. However, as long as you stay on top of things and take necessary precautions sky is the limit.
Did you do IB stint before PE? How was your schedule? Did you manage to get a decent amount of sleep each day?
I did which definitely made things a bit tricky. I will say I had absolutely awesome seniors in my group which made my life much more bearable. I never told them I had epilepsy, but they naturally were great at just not f***ing us with comments at 3am that could be handled the next morning. I’d say I very rarely worked past 2am and usually wrapped up around midnight. Which made it possible for me to get at least a solid 6-7 hours of sleep most nights. Probably drank over a gallon of water a day, was on a high dose of meds at the time (current dose is much lower), and had a verrryyyyy low dose benzo prescribed to me by my doctor that I would take if I ever got the “aura” feeling which would instantly quell any seizure activity. Only used that a few times throughout my analyst years though. Honestly, working in IB probably wasn’t the most ideal thing for my health, but I think epilepsy is a condition you have to take on a case by case basis. I’m lucky to have a pretty minor form of it, but I think it has to be the individuals decision to make.
I am not OP, but just wondering... If he discloses his condition to HR as a disability (which it is like every chronic condition), won't this lead to getting some adjustments? Never worked in IB but I feel like currently banks advocate for diversity candidates which also includes candidates with disabilities. The banks have perks from that so they want to have a certain quota of disabled applicants. I'm guessing that disclosing this would lead to a better protection of OP's hours and in case of getting overworked, he could get to HR on that. But he would also need to choose a relatively chilled group. Just curious your thoughts on that guys
Under ADA rules, the accomodations have to be "reasonable" for the employer - and limiting the hours worked would not be possible given the nature of IB (they can't stop a deal because the analyst has reached their hourly limit, they'd have to re-staff his/her deals).
The "reasonable" accommodation offered would very likely be an internal transfer to a 9-5 job elsewhere within the bank. Lots and lots of legal precedent for this.
Honestly, I never told HR. I only would’ve brought it up if I felt I was being pushed past my limits which I never really was. Important thing for all juniors in any career field to remember is 99% of the time HR is NOT your friend. There job is not to look after the employees but to protect the firm and it’s image. I think it would only be worth it to possibly bring up after you’ve already been hired and know your probably gonna only be at the firm for a couple years because at that point they know they can’t axe you for it.
Speak with your medical specialist but I would advise no. One of my best friends has epilepsy and has an Ivy league education. Despite their early on career ambitions, epilepsy episodes led them to having to take a back seat in their career. Luckily, seems like they are doing better and are in a financial situation where they don't need to be making 200K+ to maintain their upper middle class lifestyle.
This is a really terrible accident waiting to happen imo. If you're still going to do it anyway (not worth risking your health - there have been instances of epileptic seizures and/or death on the job due to lack of sleep) then 100% report that you have a disability (ie, epilepsy) on your application so once you get there you can work around your condition. Do not try and be a hero. You can't make it to the buy side and collect on your 25 bps of carry if you keel over as an IB Analyst.
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