What is harder? Recruiting or actually doing the job?

Recruiting into IB/consulting from school is beyond easy - anyone with half a brain and passable social skills who starts during freshman spring and who is willing to spend just 6-10 hours a week working at it will land something decent by junior summer. Then recruiting into PE afterwards is the same - just spend 6 hours a week starting from your first week practicing LBO tests and PE interview questions. I don't see how anyone from the top 12 or so firms (BBs + MBB) should have trouble as long as they know what they want early and put in a miniscule amount of time every week. The only people who have a right to complain about difficulty breaking in are people who made a late switch (like pre-med -> finance in junior year) or who went to a serious non-target.

For me being on the job and going through the marathon of stressful drudgery is SO MUCH harder than actually recruiting. It's so much easier to just switch yourself on and be the person they want you to be in a 2hr interview. But to do it, even 70% if it, every day for a year? I am about to die from a mixture of stress and boredom. I have to worry about 10 different stakeholders, my boss' secret career agenda and where I fit into it, who to please, which analysis to prioritize, does this investment make sense (and does that even matter? maybe my principal just needs to deploy or else he'll get ousted, etc). None of this is tested in the interview process at all. They act like everything is about building a sick LBO and making an insightful case presentation, when that's frankly the easiest part of the job. 

I miss the days when you didn't have to give a shit about anything as long as you prepped well and brought 110% for your 2-3 hours of showtime. 

This also makes me think about how flawed the recruiting system is. I honestly shouldn't have gotten this job tbh....