I FUCKING HATE THIS INDUSTRY
I AM SO OVERWORKED AND MISERABLE DOING THOUGHTLESS ANALYSIS ON MY STUPID COMPUTER SCREEN ALL DAY!! This is no way to live. 350 days out of the year is just working behind a fucking little computer? I’m fat now. I’m losing my hair. My balls have shrunk. I lost all my friends because I don’t see them. This is ridiculous I am quitting the second I get my bonus in September Jesus fucking Christ I hate finance
Size of fund, strategy, etc?
Your only other choice is to go to corporate and take a pay cut. Congrats on being swindled (I was too) by the fools and Gen X on this forum who claim finance is a decent path in 2025. I’m going back to school for medicine personally.
It is a decent path for people who find finance or investing interesting. You are paid amongst the top 1% for all jobs as well. Absolute brain dead take: do something else if you have no interest in finance/private markets investing; but if you do, the job isn't that bad.
The brain dead take is thinking that you have a floor on your comp forever of being in that “1%”…the job security is horrible and the amount of time to find a new role is quite awful. People are in for a rude awakening if they every want to get another role or God forbid get laid off. It’s not about the job being “interesting”…the supply demand in balance for these roles is not in the favor of juniors today.
You're missing the point, PE is decaying/overbuilt "asset class". The outsized pay outcomes (not making $500k a year, but the millions in carry) is dwindling and life sucks no matter what level you are. You can easily make $350k a year at 35 in corporate roles working 35 hours a week and if you're high enough up at a private company you'll get stock with zero risk and if you're at a public you get stock...Plenty of people working at very boring companies are worth $10mm from receiving a few hundred grand in public stock per year (and just holding while company performs) and not even sniffing the c-suite (see easy job).
The cost to payoff ratio in medical is way worse lmao. No wonder you don't like finance, you can't even do math
Only sort of when you factor in expected outcomes. There's a reason that physician is the most common occupation amongst the top 1%. It's because you get at least 30 years (and in practice however long you want unless you physically can no longer do the job) of clipping at least 300k and often multiples. No other job offers that. So that means that many people who went into finance and were earnings 300k in their 20s are no longer earning that much and, worse, may be pushed out of the workforce entirely. Otherwise you would see more people in the top 1% (and I am talking NW of up to 10mm, not the outliers within the top 1%) who went into finance. But that's not how it works out...
Wow, almost as if people have different interests and find different things interesting. I think the crux of the job is pretty interesting; I don't mind spending the required time between computers and enjoy the people I hang out with. I'm very happy to continue in PE and become a senior associate.
I think one of the major problems is that everyone is told to pursue roughly a similar set of well-paying jobs by schools and colleges. There are a bunch of good career paths and jobs out there; obviously, not everyone is a good fit for all of them. People in general should try to be more self-reflective and try to find better fits for themselves. You'll very likely have to take a pay cut coming out of PE, but in the long run, it's worth it for your happiness to do something you are a better fit for.
>bunch of good jobs and careers out there in 2025
>doesn’t name them
the ush - spinal surgeon, neurosurgeon, LO PM.
I don't think you understand my point, and you are just mad. Let me write it in a way a five-year-old would understand: people have different interests, and based on those interests, that's how you should find a job that would be a good job/bring you happiness. Even if you're not interested in the job, it should at least be something you tolerate. There's no such thing as a good job for everyone.
Do you think we're on headhunter oasis?
When exactly do you find the time to see your friends?
you get 15 days off during the year? must be nice
Ngl this was the first thing I noticed too lol - I get 10
How many weekends you working?
Then leave. It’s not that deep.
It’s so funny that bankers are on the other side of you also doing shit they don’t want you and that you may not find super useful. The ‘issue’ in the industry is truly the people.
The people I am referring to though enjoy it so it isn’t an issue for many. These are people who have no hobbies, don’t value personal relationships or their own time. That is honestly the ideal high financier from employer perspective. Neurotic as well.
Facts. Would be great if those types of people just all assemble and work at one bank and let the rest of us try to carve out some small sliver of wlb while doing this job
eke*
They do. It's called Goldman Sachs
This - you have to eat this shit up and absolutely love it to stick it out in this career and do well. No concern for relationships, physical health, or any sort of hobbies or interest outside of golf, trying restaurants, and materialism. This is what I've come to notice after my first year of PE and having done banking, but everyone's perspective and experience will be unique.
I used to think high finance and law was full of high achievers that excelled in all areas of life - what I've now realized is it's full of people that excel in one area of life: work, and that's it. You have to be absolutely dedicated. Forget any personal commitments, you have to put work above everything else in your life. I would understand this if you're a top athlete, in the medical field, a chef, or any other noble cause. Just makes no sense to grind your life away as a corporate raider drinking the kool-aid thinking you're making any positive impact on the world. And if you ask someone more senior in the industry about this, they'll just call it "making sacrifices" meanwhile those sacrifices have led to strained marriages, terrible health, and not knowing their own kids. Of course, there are outliers, but generally the people who do best in this industry are the most neurotic types who love the work and don't mind putting it above everything else. And there is something inherently wrong about that. That's just my opinion, but I don't see how that's any way to live. For me, this was always just a means to an end - provide future financial stability and buy the freedom to do whatever I want. Living to work with no end, even if you "love" the work, is just a sad way to spend your life, and I would absolutely be full of regrets if I lived my life that way till the end.
If this isn't you, and you don't have a burning desire to be the best investor or banker that ever lived, you should get out before it's too late. Sure, maybe you can find a perfect fund or bank that has a great WLB with interesting work and great people, but this is highly unlikely and typically doesn't last long if so. I personally plan to jump to corporate or something adjacent within the next year or two, and don't regreat having done IB/PE. Learned a lot, got paid well, and am getting out as I know myself and what I want.
To me, life should be about experiencing as many things as possible and making great memories along the way. Not working your way to the grave whether you love the work or not, especially not if you don't own the business or have a meaningful stake in it. If that's what you want to do, then you should go for it if you know that's absolutely what your life's purpose is - if not, you should recognize that as soon as possible and come up with a plan to get out and build a life worth waking up for every day.
Couldn’t have said this any better!!! 1,000% agree
Your last paragraph is very good insight. Life is a limited collection of experiences and it's up to you to maximize them. Too many people on this site try to max their career at a huge hit to literally every other part of their life. Some people are built for the grind and do enjoy it, I have had bosses in the past that just work and hang out with their family in their free time, they seem to have maxed the important parts to them (work and family) but they do not have much else going for them.
The trap of external validation really traps people. They think that maxing their career at the sake of their sanity will give them respect from others, when that is a fool's game, the only respect you should care about is your own self respect and immediate family's- all other's opinions should be ignored. If more people did that, they would move to a better career suited for their own goals. But, that is a choice only you can make, requires a lot of self-reflection and brutal honesty.
This is a spot on reply and I could not have phrased it better. For me the most mind-boggling thing was to realize how the "normal-curve" shifts from college students interested in IB/PE/consulting (all v polished, hardworking, etc.) to the normal-curve inside the firm. I thought most people would be more or less the same but then I realized that there are individuals (the ones who stick out) who don't blink with an eye after working 3 AM nights for several weeks straight. Like they just don't care. I've seen this first hand in consulting of ppl getting partner uber-fast. Those were people who sat in the team room until 2-3 AM to prepare pitch discussions, took a flight next morning at 6:30 am, worked through the weekend, etc.
It is just one thing that describes it "work-addicted". You can't replicate that if you have any care for your physical and mental health as well as not forgetting your beloved ones outside of work.
Man I don't even get to golf.
Leaked image of OP's Principal
lmao
People are built differently, and finance really is an “acquired taste.” When my SMD who gets paid 7-8 figures offered clients a 9AM call on a Saturday, I realized I have no desire to become him.
I used to wonder if I was too soft or not cut out for it. Then I realized I simply care a lot about how I spend my time, not just how much $ I get paid for my time.
Maybe you should try looking into lmm direct lending funds. Good wlb (40-70 hours per week) and around 80 percent of IB Comp
I graduated in 2023 and catered my entire college experience to get into equity research knowing I was "sacrificing" certain portions of my college experience to hopefully have it pay out one day. two years later it ultimately did pay out but I've realized that I just don't care(?) about work to this degree. If equity research was an 8-to-5 then perhaps it wouldn't be as bad, but when I seriously look at my analyst and how we are in the office past 10pm regularly, in on the weekends regularly, and live for the extended holidays + the last week of August, I've noticed that I begin to have these moments of disassociation and just hate putting myself in this position. I could've done wealth management and get 60k a year but have an almost strict 9-to-5 with the only bad "season" being tax season. I could've been in some consulting gig making 70k working much better hours. I came back from my first time taking PTO and it's made me realize I just don't wanna be a slave anymore. I wanna come home at a normal time, cook food, workout out, live a little. I wanna not work weekends anymore. I don't want to worry about writing earnings notes. I don't wanna talk to management or investors anymore. I just wanna live and see my friends.
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