Cant work with background noise

Going into IB next summer and have done two other internships in finance— i noticed my best work gets done when everyone leaves the office and it’s late at night/early morning (noticed deadlines make me work faster too) — I think the single biggest detractor from my focus however is background chatter, teams pinging noises, etc. Given this, how could I best prepare for IB since there will be bullpens/constant chatter between analysts? I’m personally very extroverted and contribute sufficiently to meetings but I’m super autistic about background noise and it irritates me to no end — probably work at 50% capacity when everyone else is in the office dicking around (past two internships in AM at family offices). Any noise cancelling headphones recommendations appreciated too.

22 Comments
 

I have the same issue as you, as an extrovert with ADHD. I vary between using AirPods Pro with the Adaptive Mode and Loop Quiet. There's plenty of good lists of music for focusing and deep work, and I usually start my day completely quiet with the Loops and then move on to AirPods during the day. 

There's been a shift in how this is perceived at the office, at least since I started my career a decade ago, and even seniors are quite understanding that people need silence to focus. 

 

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