I think I am regretting leaving "High-Finance" Track, Accepted "Dream" Corporate role , but all has been perfect, thoughts?
Hi all, I guess this is some typical "grass is always greener" and I should be more appreciative of my situation, but wanted to collect some thoughts, if anyone has been in the same situation / had similar sentiments. Overall, just want some input and discussion.
I did 2 years IB in coverage at a really sweaty firm in NYC. I practically worked all day Saturday and Sunday for 2 years straight. I did not have time at all to prep for PE interviews. To get some light at the end of the tunnel, I just accepted the first exit offer I received. It was a strategic finance role at a $10bn unicorn.
I say the role is a "Dream" role for many for an IB exit because I work 10AM-5pm, log off at 1pm on Fridays, 0 weekend work at all, make $180k, work directly with CFO and CEO, work is easy, deadlines are super relaxed, no fire drills at all, all meals and ubers comped, etc.
However, part of for whatever reason is regretting not continuing the "high-finance" route and into PE / HF. I for some reason feel like I am missing so much even though I have friends in PE circle say they would kill for a job like mine. I guess I feel super weird that if I ever wanted to go to the buyside, that door is now closed forever (?). Am I missing a lot? Is it true that only a very very select people get promoted to VP / Principal and actually make carry? If helpful, my dream job long-term and down the line is VC. If anyone has any thoughts regarding my situation, much appreciated.
If you want to do "buy-side" work and keep similar hours and comp, you have a very easy and simple answer in front of you...corporate development. Strategy is one side of the coin; M&A is the other side. If you want to still work extremely relaxed hours, little/no weekend work, good pay (relative to the rest of the world, not the 1% that make up PE/IB/HF), and still do M&A then Corp Dev is probably where you'd want to end up. Maybe your current role is open to you joining the M&A team, if they do grow inorganically. Otherwise, you could start to recruit for Corp Dev M&A roles and try to find another company that offers similar perks.
If you left "high finance" because of the hours and lifestyle, then going back isn't going to change anything. That's completely fine by the way. After so many hundreds of thousands per year in compensation, it stops mattering anyway. Do you think making $250k is going to drastically change your lifestyle than if you made $350k if you live in a place like Charlotte, Dallas, Tampa, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Nashville, etc.? No, it really won't. If you want to live in LA/NYC/Miami/etc. then maybe it will, but even then, you'll be living very comfortably in those cities as well. As long as you're happy with your lifestyle and the job function, then I wouldn't over think it and put yourself back in the hole that you wanted out of to begin with.
I think $350K is definitely very different from $250K in NYC. I think past that... it gets more marginal. But $350K is ~$60K in additional post-tax income which is very helpful especially when you have a child/SO/family.
Bro I think even 1m is not enough for a single guy in nyc if you're trying to live a truly differentiated lifestyle. I mean never take public transport, Michelin meals weekly, multiple luxury trips a month to southern Europe/hamptons, yacht rentals, duplex penthouse etc. While still saving 25% of your gross. You'd need around 2m for that.
And I think if you're not living that lifestyle why bother working the hours we do?
Username checks out
Avoiding public transport in NYC might be the dumbest idea I've ever heard of.
Homeboy has meals and Ubers comped, a $180k base, Equity upside (UNICORN), and is only 24-25 years old. I’m pretty sure they will be fine monetarily speaking.
Good meme
Thank you for the write up, I genuinely really appreciate it. Just to note, my strategic finance role is M&A / Corp Dev baked into it, its all under 1 role the one I am in. With that being said, the work is still very "finance"-esque as I am always on deals, etc, but I guess I am missing the potential to be making a lot more, but maybe I am being ungrateful with me currently making a little under $200k working 10 AM - 5pm.
Assuming you're 25-28 years old after only 2 years in IB, then making ~$200k with only 35 hours of work a week and meals and more comped, then you're doing better than 99% of people on here let alone the rest of the world. You're way more fortunate than you know to be able to work that little, make that much, and if you're still doing M&A and strategy at a unicorn, your comp ceiling is much higher. You won't realize that ceiling for maybe a decade or more, but while your IB friends and ex-coworkers are grinding 60-80 hours for $400k in a good year, you'll be enjoying life with a very nice salary.
I am just entering my second year of IB and I feel similar - I want to do PE to say that I did it but ultimately want to go to a job like the one you have now. If you can grow in the corporate side of the world and make a good salary and have a good work life balance, it feels like the only thing you are missing is the prestige caused by fomo which is BS. Spend your extra time doing cool stuff, taking care of yourself, with your family, etc. Lots of people in PE/IB would kill for that
Thank you my man
Can spend your free time investing in your PA? Would give you another skill and scratch the investing itch if you have one.
Could also double down on Corporate and grind hard and really make a name for yourself in the company.
180k for a strat fin role post-analyst stint is top end of pay. Pay for those sorts of roles usually hover closer to 150k, so I think you are in a great position. Stay busy and maybe get back in touch with some of your hobbies you weren't able to do during IB whether that be reading, going to the gym, cooking, etc.
Appreciate the response. Thank you.
this is super solid for a 2 yr ib stint and coming out at around your salary level. are you getting additional comp at all in options or other incentive pay? you get your life back. pe is just banking 2.0 and you think grass is better over there, but it's really not
Appreciate the response. Thank you.
brother are you hiring lmfaooo
Yeah seriously, seems like the dream
why do you say that? just the reasons i mentioned? dumb question i know just curious how you are thinking about it
Uh can I pay you for an interview here. Deadass. Would sell my soul for a 200k comp at 35 hr a week with smart teams and interesting work.
Missing the issue here - and now I’m a little more sad moving silly logos around at 2am
Is this a humble brag?
I think you just need to enjoy your life man. I am also class of 22 working very chill hours making a bit less than you do. I take full advantage of it, nothing wrong with that. I would only leave if you truly feel the pull to an investing seat or miss advisory work. But I would be willing to bet you can find more fulfilling things to do with your current free time. If you full send 2 or 3 hobbies from 7-10pm for the next year and still don’t enjoy your seat, only then would I make a move. I currently have time to go on multi hour walks in the evenings, take a long lunch, I’m basically a french employee. It’s unreal dude don’t give this up for nothing.
Sounds amazing, what type of role are you in and what kinda company (F500 / PE-backed / Startup?)
Small niche fund. Basically a family office
I’ll give a different perspective. I left IB after two years analyst stint to do corp dev. I quickly discovered how slow paced Corp dev was. The pay was a steep drop from my trajectory in banking (I had a third year offer). I regretted switching from banking to corp dev especially after how hard I had worked in college to get into IB. I felt like I was working with a bunch of slackers in corp dev to be candid. I went back to IB after a year in corp dev then a series of buyside roles after that. I’m happy I made the switch back into IB to have the career I’ve had. Money, working on deals, and working with hardworking, smart people are some of the reasons I pursued the path I did. Everybody is different though so take my path and opinion with a grain of salt. I think you’re smart to at least ask questions / talk to others and ask for different perspectives….
Brotha you're going to come back to high finance and want to shoot your brains out after 2 weeks on the Buyside. Start a business, pick up rockclimbing, do anything but spend more hours in an office just so you can have a larger savings account. We're saving so we can do the things you already have time for
When I will become a doctor I will be earning about 100k – that's after 7 years of school.
You are lucky
Y r u on this forum if ur gna be a doctor jw
Doc just trying to keep tabs on all his monkeys
Finance is interesting to me.
Also, many psychiatrists in my city's CBD have many banker and lawyer clients. This forum helps me understand their thought process/cognitive reasoning and why they always feel "stuck" in their role, or unwilling to change their jobs.
Bro. Take up golf, start a side hustle, hell buy a SMB and try and grow it.
You’ve got it made, you’re not missing a damn thing other than you should prob stay at Hyatts and maybe just biz one way to Europe (premium economy fine on the way back or better yet take La Compaignie) vs. RT biz on Air France (yawn) and the St. Regis. But I bet you won’t have to crack your computer open on that trip vs your buddy at the MF is missing out on dinners because case 173 isn’t as good as case 152 and the Principal can’t show it to the Partner because the Partner is convinced that 173 must be better even though you know it can’t be because one look shows that you sacrifice margin for growth. Or your buddy at Citadel has a short selling to a long and instead of going to the beach club he’s frantically spending his afternoon trying to figure out if he could’ve seen this coming and if he’s about to lose his shirt because the market loves the deal.
Can you tell us if HF life is any better? - disgruntled analyst who has no hope for future
Ya I’d say it’s better but there’s trade-offs. You very, very rarely get weekends blown up but depending on the pod you may still work long days and weekends. As a MM junior fresh out of banking it’s 7:30 to 7:30ish outside of earnings (maybe better or worse PM dependent) and probably light weekend work (reading, emails, etc). But when you’re on the desk during market hours, nothing else matters - not the text from your gf, not the Euros, not planning your buddy’s bachelor party - it’s time to work. Outside of market hours (+/- 1), it’s honestly mostly what you want it to be but the folks on the other side of the trade are working hard so you need to as well. While you’re never off in PE (late night calls/emails, weekends, holidays, etc), you can guarantee that holidays are off and more than likely you’ll have free reign over your schedule outside of market hours as long as good work gets done. But, again PM dependent, vacations can just as easily get blown up if something in your coverage happens. You can structure your activities on vacation to manage pre/post-market updates but I’ve found that I always work basically every market day on vacation vs in PE you could push stuff off or your team might even treat vacation as sacrosanct (had a VP that would literally uninstall Outlook on his phone). PE comp also pretty structured vs Hf comp at the beginning should be structured and then quickly performance based. Also basically zero risk of getting fired in PE vs HF could be fired for performance (whether you actually were bad or just had a short-triggered PM)
Short version:
PE - on 100% of the time but maybe 0% on vacation if your team is cool, comp can be predicted within a narrow band, you’re not going to lose your job as as associate (or higher up but getting promoted is hard)
HF (MM) - on 200% between 8a-5p and can do whatever you want outside that (though realistically will out in 3-4 more hours a day and a couple hours on the weekend), you’ll work less than in PE but you won’t really be able to take a full week off from work unless your PM is legit a good person, comp should really just have upside early on but a couple false steps and you’ll be looking for a new job
thanks for the response really appreciate it
Are they hiring out of college? I have two summers of IB experience. I can PM for more information.
Man literally has a dream job. The buyside guys will likely be gone in two years’ time.
Why do you think so? as in dream job (any others from what I mentioned when I described it) and why would the buyside people be out? Shoved out / leave for better WLB ?
thank you i know dumb questions just genuinely curious
You do realize that 99% of the buyside guys will just end up in the same role you're in after 2 years with around your current comp? This is the kind of anxiety-induced nonsense spawned from reading the brain rot on this forum for too long. Don't take offense, you're crushing it.
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