Good Networking Questions to Judge Culture/WLB?

Hey all,

Current sophomore here beginning the recruiting process for 2023 SA. At this point, I'm mostly focused on doing networking calls, trying to make connections while also hopefully learning more about the cultures of different places. Generally focusing on BBs (not just GS/MS), EBs, and a few higher-tier MMs that my school has a strong presence at.

A bit of profile: Non diversity, 3.9+ GPA from a strong target school, have multiple previous finance-related internships under my belt, and have a strong network of people at my current school and recent alumni who have been very helpful in guiding me thru the process and making connections. I don't expect to gun for MF PE/Banking 2.0 after my analyst stint – more likely smaller, non-NYC (ideally based in my home city) PE, or maybe corp dev if I get sick of finance. Family also owns a respected asset management firm but would like to build my own thing for at least the first part of my career. Could even see myself going A2A if I like the work. Not planning to chase the "best" group to get the "best" exit opps.

Basically, while I'm certainly not God's gift to IB and don't expect to get instant offers everywhere, I think I have at least some ability to try and target certain seats/groups instead of just casting a massive net and taking the first seat I can get (feel free to reality check me on this). With this in mind, I'm trying to, at least to the degree I can, find a healthy balance between group status/exit opps and culture/WLB. I enjoy hard work and happy to put in my time and pay my dues, but I think there's a distinction between groups that do 80hrs and 95+hrs/week, and I'd like to avoid the latter if possible.

Question is this: I've been advised by multiple people to not ask "oh, how many hours do you work a week?" which I wouldn't really want to do anyway on cold calls (though a couple people have actually volunteered that info, mostly the ones who sound miserable on the phone lol). I'm basically looking for proxy questions to judge how long people are in the office, how many late nights are expected (and what a late night actually means), how much respect seniors treat juniors with, etc. Probably something I could come up with myself but I'm getting slammed between recruiting and schoolwork and this board has been a decent help to me in the past. Any input much appreciated.