Am I not cut out for PE if IB is already super difficult for me?
So my plan was always IB > PE like everyone else. I am at a BB bank that has really good exists NYC. However, I am only 2 months in and struggling super hard in IB, which to me is a bad indicator that I should probably not go into PE.
First, the technical work just isn’t clicking with me. I don’t know if I am straight up incompetent or retarded lol but I notice it takes me 3x longer to understand things and “click” compared to my other analyst 1’s. I feel super super dumb and I know that in PE this won’t really fly and the expectation is everyone is super super bright and can understand things perfectly and instantly when being taught/ explained to.
Second, I am handling the pressure and stress really poorly. I straight up cry by myself in my apartment when I am getting staffings and have no idea what to do. I get panic attacks when I hear outlook go off or get pinged by associates. I’ve heard the stress is 10x worse in PE so this worries me.
By the sound of these two, does it sound like I would not last at all in PE? Maybe Corp Dev/Strategy would be better for me? Anyone else in my shoes now in PE that can share? Also I know 2 months on the desk is not long at all so maybe I will get adjusted? Thanks.
You have a lot of time. The first 6 months as an analyst are awful and it takes a while to get up a very steep learning curve. Doesn't necessarily translate to PE readiness in two years. That said, I'd try to troubleshoot the technical side a bit. Take detailed notes, slow down and try to understand things instead of going fast and doing it wrong, ask questions if you're confused.
The stress and panic is more of an issue and that doesn't really go away, in IB or PE. If you are just scared that you don't know what to do, that is normal and you just need to chill out a bit to be quite honest. No one expects you to know everything 2 months in. If the actual work and hours are stressing you out, yeah corp dev or strategy might be the move.
Honestly I would take the first 6-8 months and not even think about your next step. Just focus on learning IB for now and then decide when you have more information about what you want. You will always have PE or corp dev opportunities so just keep your head down for now and try not to stress yourself out too much.
Thank you so much.
I totally agree with this poster ^^ about taking your sweet time. Fight the "must have next job lined up within 28 minutes of hitting the desk" mentality.
Now for a healthy dose of honesty -- it is in fact possible you're not cut out for IB or PE. It's an awesome thing to know your own strengths and weaknesses. PE is slightly different than IB, but not all that different at the junior levels. And I don't know any all-star PE associates who weren't all-star IB analysts, though I'm sure they exist. The follow-up question is: do you like what you're doing? If not, it's a long road in PE.
Or... it'll click and you'll be awesome. I've seen it happen. Either way, congrats on making it into a whole world of lucrative careers.
Hey I hope things get better for you soon no matter what you choose to do with your life. Given what you wrote and the above comment, I’m not confident that PE is not for you, nor am I confident that you should stay in IB or maybe pivot to a corporate job or something else altogether. Hard to tell.
first and foremost, try to take care of your health if you can. None of us are looking for more dead bodies right now, you can be more useful to your colleagues/employer and the world being alive and well than dead/injured/mentally ill or what have you.
if you can start feeling better and managing life, then maybe you’ll have a better ability to figure out a good role for yourself. IB is known to be stressful and there’s a reason PE firms like to recruit people from there and have them stay for 2 full years. It’s good training. For what it’s worth, I think my 2nd year staffer at Moelis (who was a VP then and is now an MD there) told us that just about every if not all analysts breakdown at some point. Some of it is just part of the adjustment from college life to working life and especially working in IB or similar roles.
in conclusion, it seems like it’s still hard to tell what the best longer-term course of action is for you right now in my hopefully humble opinion. Hopefully you can just take it a bit at a time and try to be a little better than you were before.
either way sending my best wishes and hoping for good fortune to you :)
Regards
You are so heavily appreciated! Thanks for writing this out for me and taking the time, it truly means the world to me. You are amazing for this, I can’t thank you enough.
Was in IB before and I'm currently in PE. I used to obsess over things as well. I could literally get home at midnight and start panicking over things such as "did I remember to reformat that footnote? Let's pick up the laptop and double-check every slide to be sure". However, after a while, I started realize how ridiculous I was being. First of all, it's just a job. A job is meant to develop me as a person while also providing me with a salary. Even if I completely messed up in IB, there are plenty of other industries that would be glad to have me and I would still make plenty of money. I also started adopting the mindset that I do my best and if there is a mistake after that then so be it. I do not wanna spend my weekend thinking about whether I remembered to format that footnote correctly or whatever. With this said, it's just a job. Do your best but don't overthink it. Don't take sht from people.
With regards to PE, my experience is that the required skillset is somewhat different. Technical skills is very important as you will likely be spending much more time modelling than you will in banking. The models will often be much more complex too. However, what's even more important is being able to understand businesses, value drivers, and finding creative ways to build value. The ability to have perfect formatting and build pretty slides is not as important. In my experience, there are some hardo VPs who are ex-bankers that still care a bit about formatting. However, seniors only care about getting the message across and really couldn't care less about the rest.
When did you start? For me the stress has varied pretty widely overall since I started. I would stick it out longer and see if you do better as your projects evolve. I was hating my life three weeks ago but this week was more manageable. Next time you have a chance to ‘take a breath’ you should try to review the models / workstreams you found the most challenging.
Did you intern there? How was that experience compared to FT?
Also, how were you able to recruit into the bank?
A lot of first years don’t even touch models or technical work that much, you’ll get it with time and be fine.
My old associate would joke that “no one’s good at this job” haha it just takes repetitions
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