You’re getting scammed.

After half a year at a truly healthy MM bank after leaving an underpaid role at a sweatshop, I only have one point to make. If you’re working more than 60 hours a week at any point in the year, you’re being scammed, taken advantage of, and under no uncertain terms— you’re being abused. Even the most well paid bankers are closer to being homeless than they are to the oligarchs.

We evolved to eat berries, sling darts at deer, and fuck bitches.

Stop accepting serfdom and slavery. Be the change you want to see.

23 Comments
 

Bankers are a lot closer to homeless than they are to billionaire status.

What the fuck is this supposed to mean? Someone worth $10m or $100m or $499m is numerically closer to being homeless than a billionaire. What is your point?

It is about percentiles. Someone in the 95th percentile earns $300k and is closer to billionaire status than they are to homeless because income goes up exponentially with each step. Don't get big mad when you're on that early part of the hockey stick.

 

you're just a normie / average guy that wanted a job, you aren't made to be the next Head of Product/PM and call the shots

boo fucking hoo loser

Buy land, cause God ain't making any more of it.
 

I've always believed that you should view a career objectively. For what it is, in this case a rare opportunity to develop credibility, financial stability, and build a foundation at any early stage in life, and for what it isn't, in this case, at the cost of work-life balance, forming or sustaining relationships and personal hobbies over a longer-term (with exceptions). 

Most people, I'd argue 80%+ (perhaps higher), leave investment banking within two years and many who've decided to position the life of part of work-life balance, decide to pursue roles that give them that stability to do so. Now, I've always stated IB is not for me, many years ago (feels like a lifetime ago), I had an opportunity to pursue the work, but it was just after seeing the mental and physical toll it took on my friends at the time, and I knew my own limits. I wouldn't survive and I wasn't intrinsically driven to survive the grueling nature of the work. 

With that said, I've still helped people get in by giving mock interviews, reviewing cover letters, resumes, and sharing a number of resources that I had developed ( cough  coffee chat guide cough). If you've found the industry isn't for you and you've found a better, more fulfilling venture elsewhere, then all the more power to you, but simply ignoring or omitting the benefits of this industry strips it of it's nuance. But others will come to their own conclusions through their own experiences. They may leave in the first few months, perhaps make it to IB Associate and further, that's up to them to decide. 

tl;dr - why so negative? Let people be and learn.

 
Most Helpful

Perspective, my friend.

I come from a family where my blue collar parents worked the same 12-14 hour days for a quarter of what an analyst in IB makes. Grew up poor/lower middle class my whole life.  Their jobs involved manual labor, weathering the cold, etc. Even now, several promotions/job switches later, they still only barely scrape 6 figures (combined household income) in their jobs. I, as an AN1 AT a MM, will be making more than both of my parent's salaries combined. Better yet, I get to do it in the comfort of an air conditioned office, where my transportation is expensed, and my meals are too. 

Many people on this forum grew up well off, so an IB job loses it luster fast. For people like me, this isn't serfdom. I've already been grinding my entire life because the alternative is staying in this income bracket that I was born into where my family is one unforeseen disaster away from being unable to afford our bills. What's a few more years of the same grind, except this time I make money?

 

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