Drinking culture in IB across cities

After finishing my SA internship in Charlotte this summer, I noticed that going out for drinks during happy hours or on weekends was not as apparent. It got me thinking — how much does this vary by city?

For those who have worked in places like NYC, SF, Chicago, Houston, etc., how would you describe the drinking/social culture within IB where you are? Is it more low-key, or is going out an expected part of the job/socializing?

Curious to hear perspectives across different offices.

3 Comments
 

I think it depends less on where you are then the team. I am in NY and we rarely do. Even when seniors offer juniors tend to decline. Haven't heard much about juniors going out together either. Seems to happen infrequently vs a regular thing. 

 

Unfortunately COVID and phone addiction killed a lot of people's desires for in-person social interaction - even on my team when I was in IB, the amount of times we went out for drinks or lunch pre-covid vs. post-covid wasn't even comparable. When I went back for my MBA I realized a lot of the school's undergrads didn't even attempt to socialize with each other. My girlfriend is a teacher and she says she never has to ask the class to stop talking and pay attention, something that literally happened every 5 minutes when I went through school

 

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