Whats With The “Loser Talk”
So many people recently have been posting that they are thinking about quitting half way through the internship or before it even starts.
Didn’t you network with hella analysts and associates and realize the shitty hours. Giving up on something you started or before you even start is a “loser mentality” in my opinion. As someone who comes from a non-target, its more infuriating that you took someones spot in a intern class who would gladly switch places with you. Also, most careers in finance and business in general will have shitty hours directly after undergrad, and dropping and internship looks bad on you.
Also, I don’t believe that Gen-Z is lazy crap. It just seems that people work their asses off in HS and college and believe they deserve a cushy job with low hours and high pay. It seems that most people who quit early only wanted the satisfaction of putting the company on their LinkedIn and social satisfaction from others for breaking into IB.
Just my two cents.
Second this.
Fought like hell to recruit FT this year.
Hours will be long, but it’s what I worked towards.
Agreed.
The '21 Tech PM tik toks did not help public perception.
Needed this reminder 🤝
Is it a loser mentality? Or is anyone who is in IB just actually a total loser (myself included).Did they maybe realize it's not worth their time to work for tools whose entire personality is wrecking juniors live's so their frail egos can feel okay at the end of the day?
People quitting are doing what 95% wish we could do, but don't have the balls or bank account to do. Let's not act like IB is glorious or even that the perception of what the job entails remotely meets the reality of actually having to do it for more than a summer internship (when there is a close and definite light at the end of the tunnel).
If someone realizes right away that this job is not for them and that there is more to life than being your MD's servant boy…kudos to them.
Two years is not long-term (let alone finishing a summer internship). I got out of banking after my analyst years (only to get back in later), was incredibly burnt out by the end, but quitting before the 2-year mark was never a consideration. Obviously, if you are leaving with an offer that you prefer in hand or stepping down because your health is legitimately suffering, go ahead and leave, but quitting on something that you signed up for because it's hard or because you're not having fun is virtually never a good thing. I haven't heard many success stories, in any walk of life, talking about how quitting when something got really difficult and started to suck was the key to their success. Have heard the opposite many, many times.
If you have a valid reason to quit, go ahead. But getting in the habit of quitting things because they're difficult or because you don't like them is a recipe for building a weak character. Certain that I'll get called a hardo for this, but it's advice that I'd give for basically anything in life. For example, everyone who's ever played football remembers that there were kids every camp who would quit because it sucked and it was hard to get up in the morning and practice for 6 hours. We had a word for those kids...pussies. They weren't living their best lives or coming to a realization that they didn't "want it" anymore...They still wanted the pay-off, they just talked themselves into believing that it wasn't worth the work in a moment when they were really going through it. Every one of those kids walked around with their heads down and their tails between their legs on gamedays because they knew that they gave in during a moment of weakness and fucked themselves out of the pay-off. Doing that once allows you to justify doing it again, and eventually it becomes a habit.
Again, if you have truly legit reasons, you're not quitting if you leave. If your primary reason is that it's difficult and you're not having fun, you're almost guaranteed to be making a mistake by leaving, will regret that mistake later, and are in the process of developing a terrible habit that is going to prevent you from accomplishing anything worthwhile.
Think they call this Stockholm Syndrome lolll. As if IB is the only path to wealth. It’s not the 80’s my man
Actually, Tom Cruise quit multiple jobs in his youth and tried out many professions. He even tried to become a pastor but when he finally discovered acting, that’s when he felt passion. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger said “Leave no stone unturned”.
If you don’t like something, don’t bother wasting your time, you tried it so might as you try something else that you actually like so you can be both passionate & successful at it.
Dude, agree 100% with this. All this corporate bs, and at the end some dude with a decent family business or an e-commerce startups exits it for a couple of hundred grad... It's insane. I get the fact that startups have like a 10% success rate and not everyone is born to a good business, but honestly, looking at it, a lot of these mom & pop dry cleaning/convenience/tire repair/body shops clean upwards of $200K a year... It's insane. IB/Consulting/PE/whatever is just one out of a million ways to make good money and live a comfortable life.
I have no problem with interns realizing IB sucks and then deciding it's not for them. It's one thing to tell yourself that you can work 80 hour weeks doing boring af work, it's another to actually do it. Better that they realize it now than later.
Also, I don't agree with your stance that they take away spots from a non-target who would be grateful for the job. That's just dumb "woe-is-me, target kids take all the jobs" reasoning. Of course they take all the jobs, they are better schools with overall better candidates. These kids positioned themselves well to get the internship and ultimately it's up to them to decide if they want to do it or not, in my own opinion. I went to a non-target so I know how hard it is to get a banking job, but at the end of the day it is just a job and success can be made in various ways (banking is not the end all be all).
All I know is that the analysts/interns who are motivated to be good are true savages. If they also happen to be cool, then they become legendary…until the next version of them arrives. Carry on kings.
Shut up tool
You know a lot of the kids who change their mind about IB were once those same hardworking non targets you're talking about right? The job sucks ass and it's hard to fully understand how much it sucks before you experience it. God forbid we didn’t have our careers figured out when we were19
Definitely think interns who realize it’s not for them should still finish strong. What are you going to say at your next interviews if you slack off and don’t learn anything? You can put up with it for 10 weeks. If you hate it don’t take the return.
Bang on about the second point. The culture of instagram influencing and trying to look rich and successful on Instagram has spread to linkedin and the high achieving student/corporate world. This is not helped by websites like this one but many people just feel the innate need to compete with their classmates and want the most prestigious looking linkedin so everyone else can look at how successful they are, rather than actually wanting that career
couldn’t have said it better
Seeing this too often on IG/TT nowadays. Recruiting and joining the industry is already tough as is. It can be a rewarding career.
thebrofessor and CompBanker care to chime in?
Agreed op. The losers are totally NOT eople in the physical prime of their life in ib working 90 hour weeks, getting fat off daily seamless, never seeing sunlight, working holidays, checking email 24/7, fapping to pornhub while waiting for comments at midnight.. it's the interns wanting wlb and eschewing the ib grind. Those are the real losers
I work in VC and one thing about VC is that we tend to see the future of tech/culture before everyone else, just by nature of the job. I'll clue you in on what I'm seeing: there's a seismic shift underway when it comes to jobs/employment/the workforce.You are seeing more of what you described, not necessarily because people are lazy or giving up quickly, but because people's attitudes to work overall are changing. Whereas decades ago people had the attitude that work was their sole purpose in life and they would literally kill themselves to climb to the top, nowadays people are more concerned with the impact their jobs have on the world, intersection of values, and overall work-life balance.
In summary, you're seeing what you observed because people (younger generations especially) are less willing to put up with BS that doesn't fit with their inner values (or lack thereof depending on your perspective lol). You can see this already with things like declining marriage rates, dating preferences, and more individualistic lifestyles. This will most likely accelerate in the coming years.
Nope, they're just offered a better position from VC / consulting / trading shop / PE / Corp dev / quant research so that they're not desperate for the ibanking job anymore. I mean I can literally think of 10 entry level jobs that are more fun and well-paid ( on per-hour basis ). If you don't want your interns to quit, just offer them a better experience. Don't use them as 24/7 grunt work machines. Give them 9-5 life and meaningful tasks ( no changing ppt fonts !! You should ask AI to do that, not human ). Otherwise you'll see more interns quit
quitting from your first week is not "loser talk" is "prestige whore" thing aka the annoying guy that posts how grateful he is for his opportunity and carries the internship on LinkedIn as a badge of honor to (i) impress other and (ii) to ameliorate his parents' regret of having him.
After many years in the workforce, my take is a little different on this. Sure, there is an optimal time to quit. Better to work some place a whole year rather than quit 3 months into the job.
That said, the most important decisions in my career have been which jobs I've accepted and which jobs I've quit. Knowing when to quit is just as important as getting a job. Some of my best career choices have involved quitting sooner than some might recommend. Some of my worst career choices have been staying longer than I should have expecting things to get better. If something is truly not working out and there is a better opportunity out there for you, quitting early may be the right and best decision.
As someone who’s had all but one family member in blue collar work (the one is a doctor) and someone who started working said blue collar work when my age was a single digit, my generation is lazy but through no fault of our own.
I’ve pulled 80’s/90’s/100’s working manual labor. The difficulty of working in construction, land management, mechanic/vehicle maintenance, and farming; which combines all of these industries together and mixes the variability of the mother nature and livestock into the mix, puts investment banking (or any work environment where you have air conditioning/heat) in the fucking SHADE. It’s not that bad, (fellow) interns need to get over it.
I’m in gen Z and my peers are, for the most part, lazy by no fault of their own. All in all, most of my peers have been spoon fed their lives. Their parents view that as a positive because they want the best for their kids, great intentions but it seriously hurts these kids’ ability to get after something.
My generation has found “self help books” as a way to cope with a lack of work ethic/discipline and although it looks good on the surface, reading david goggins and jocko willink without doing the things they say in their books/pods is a form of mental masturbation. The ones that actually do implement the principles taught by (and like) these folks mentioned above are able to correct the lack of discipline and are far and above the ones in my generation who have made significant strides in their career and lives in general. These ones are also the happiest with their lives, because they have a sense of direction. My 2 cents
Unde eaque a possimus qui exercitationem ut corrupti. Voluptatem eveniet quo facere architecto corporis. Quod aut doloribus dolorem sapiente expedita aut.
In a inventore delectus itaque beatae id ratione. Esse ratione ut repudiandae voluptatem expedita qui iure incidunt.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Tempore eligendi sequi corporis expedita voluptatem veniam. Libero ipsam voluptates sint. Est illum sed perferendis hic est rerum est. Eos vitae nostrum recusandae quae.
Reiciendis pariatur quod sapiente dolor voluptate aspernatur commodi. Nulla necessitatibus culpa tempore animi. Quo excepturi molestiae beatae et quia placeat.