You guys need some perspective

Dude you gotta chill out. We get it, you’re jaded that you didn’t get into IB, but there is other shit to do in life that is vastly more fulfilling and important.

At the end of the day, IB is just another corporate job where you sit in a cubicle for 12+ hours a day, and just because it’s selective doesn’t mean people can’t complain about it. I generally agree with the sentiment that IB sucks. I think one of the good parts about it is that you work really hard and realize how bad a job can be and it motivates people to try new things and do shit like move to Bali to be a surf instructor.

Kids on here are so hell bent on getting a banking job and will ignore every piece of advice telling them to try something else. The problem with that is 1.) what if you don’t get a banking job? It is very selective so wtf are you gonna do if you don’t have a backup. And 2.) the job legitimately sucks and people are trying to give you solid advice that it is NOT worth it. It is such an overrated career in my opinion.

You're really obsessed with jobs and status, aren't you? News flash: nobody outside the finance bubble cares where you work. My parents have no idea what a Moelis or Evercore is, and Bank of America is the place where they go to open a checking account. Go talk to some normal people and you'll realize how meaningless all of this is.

You sound just like my this guy I know who doesn't work in finance but is always telling me how he'd love to do what I do even though he's never worked later than 8pm in his life.

Don't get me wrong I like my job and the pay that comes with it and, for the time bring there's nothing I'd rather do, but it's easy to say you're willing to work hard but next time you're having a nice weekend imagine what it'd be like to be cooped up in a cubicle alone and working till midnight and doing that for weeks/months on end while someone take a dump on your work at 9AM the following Monday.    

The only thing in your post you can say with any degree of certainty is "I'm only in my early 20s and don't know much"

LMAO "I would literally be willing to die 10 years early to be able to work in IB."

No offense, but you're an idiot. 

The one who needs perspective is you

Can someone ban this fucking guy, all of his posts here are just him whining about how he can’t break in and that all of his friends are killing it

Offering some perspective as someone as someone who worked like a maniac to break into PE from a super unconventional background (only did a banking internship, no FT experience).

1). Like anything in life, the job can be great IF you truly want to do it. Many do not. IB/PE roles present phenomenal opportunities to learn a ton, increase career optionality, make a lot of money, etc….but again - you need to want the job for the right reasons.

2). Thinking of your job in terms of “prestige” is incredibly toxic and worthless. My least favorite question I am asked when meeting people is what I do for work. 99% of the population has no idea what people in IB/PE do nor do they care. If you are living your life to impress others you are going to live a sad existence.

3). I worked relentlessly to break into PE but now that I am here I recognize it is not all it’s chalked up to be. Playing into the theory that the journey/chase is always more exciting! But again - I never saw this as a “forever” thing, only as a stepping stone (which is why I fell out of love with it despite a year+ honey moon phase).

I have really enjoyed my time in PE and it’s allowed me to build a nice skillset, but I am planning to make a jump sooner rather than later into the best way to build wealth - running your own business.

But again - it’s your life. Godspeed my friend.

wtf is wrong with you. it's a job that pays somewhat well (not scaling with inflation at all); hours suck ass and many of the people are miserable. prestige is a facade, no one cares. i would rather enjoy my life. just doing this to get the early experience in my life. 

This attitude is probably why you can't break in. Get a personality and a life outside obsessing over something you don't understand.

I MS you and I came here to write a way better perspective: Each one is free to do what they want. Each one sees things a different way. Each one wants different things at different moments. 

The guy writing about how HE feels: Good, it's about him.

You writing this: Not much sense. Unsolicited extremely subjective advice. Will resonate with some that think like you? Sure. But it was writtem for them? No, it was for those that want something else about life.

Live and let live.

Because it's different when the perspective comes from a MD that had the same thoughts as you and just shares some perspective because went through existential ups and downs; contrary about what you're writing, which is basically a sort of mental toolkit to cope with the situation - which is not what they need (I'm sure they already coped enough for months or years, with way more persuasive arguments, before deciding to rant and get out from this industry).

Thanks for the input and all the luck in your career. Hope you never want out from it (which I'm not even sure if it would be something good or bad).

The industry has a lot of ways to go in terms of being a better place to work. Just b/c it pays well doesnt mean someone cant struggle in the role. Its precisely why ppl struggle. If it paid nothing no one would have this internal conflict

News flash for you and your loser friends. The richest people I know - not a $10M networth - were not from banking. They did not work in law or any area of finance. One is a barber who has one of the largest hair salon’s in all of Greece, the other is in construction, and one is a restaurant owner. All $50M net worths. They also have the time to enjoy and live their lives something you would never see in banking. More than half of us are trying to fucking leave because we haven’t had a weekend off since college. Based on your attitude, you would be fired before your probation ends. Before you start calling other people’s parents losers just know that you and your loser friends are the real losers for thinking the richest people in the world made it in investment banking. Move the fuck on and get over it. You’re seriously the most spoiled immature kid I’ve ever seen on this forum. 

Make a bit more money than average but give up your identity, youth, relationships, hobbies and everything that makes you interesting as a person, yeah people are so crazy for not wanting this.

What many people don't realize is that you are always going to earn squarely in the middle of your peer group. When you get to the tail, your peer group changes.

When I was a corp fin analyst making 60k I thought that crossing 6 figures would make life blissful. Then it happened, I had some more cash cushion but realized things weren't terribly different. Then I thought crossing 200k would be the promised land. Once that happened, I started working with much higher-level people making double digit multiples of my income. I started going to nicer restaurants, golfing at nicer courses.. and suddenly feel mid again. Now I have it in my head that crossing a half-mil is where I need to be.

It really hit home last year when Chat GPT was blowing up- I was sitting with an executive who is worth 9 figures, and we were hearing about all the things Chat GPT could do. This exec says "I should ask it how to make a billion dollars"

Here is a guy worth 9 figures, and the things that pop into his head are how to get to ten. Why? Because at the events he attends and the clubs he is part of, he is rubbing shoulders with billionaires.

Believe me- when you get to an enviable position, you are no longer the top performer in your peer group. You are a middle or low performer in your new peer group. The euphoria is gone, the prestige is gone (because everyone has it... so no one does), and if your hours are miserable, suddenly the dream of leaving it all for a beach in Indonesia sounds pretty great.

If this isn't a troll post, the fact that you'd be "willing to die 10 years early to get into IB" implies to me your opinion on life priorities is too warped to be listened to. 

The upper middle class is a hard place to be it seems, strangely enough.

People below you are understanding of the fact that climbing up may never happen for them.  Ask your local latin immigrant who builds the towers in midtown, and see if he has an answer to your "what's the point of all of this" question.

Those above you can live off their yields, and to a certain extent, live that instagram lifestyle.  

But the Upper middle class needs to hustle to maintain what they've built for themselves, or maintain the childhood that was handed down to them by their parents.  

Ideally, Americans would understand how lucky of a position they're in.  In most places, climbing socioeconomically can't be done without immense pain.  Here it can be done, to a certain degree, very easily.  

I have no answers.  As long as more broke hustling people are coming to the US, avacado munching, shitty latte sipping gen-Z babies, can be outcompeted.  

Enjoy being a real cog then.  

I agree that it's lack of perspective. I think 20 years ago, we were more conscious of how damn lucky we were just to be part of a small portion of the world to have great white collar opportunities, not to mention a job that probably pays better than any other job in the world that doesn't involve being the #1 salesman your age or taking risk on a business. Now days, I myself can't get through 3 minutes on Instagram without seeing some signal of people my age or younger making million off social media and sitting on a boat in Italy or bragging about their high rise condo in Miami. Social media just blasts this content (probably b/c it can be so triggering so people so it gets high engagement). What this does is create the perspective in our minds that so many people are living like this in the world. In reality it's like 0.0001% of the world and suddenly we forget that probably half the world commutes 2 hours each way to work a terrible factory job making a few bucks an hour, working long days and 6 days a week (in a dirty sweaty factory, not turning comments in a nice office eating seamless while you wait for feedback) and wearing the same clothes for the past few years because they can only afford necessities. It creates this illusion that working in something like IB is no longer a huge win but rather that you're getting f'd and deserve something better because all of these idiots on social media seem to get it so easily. 

Humans have a great propensity to make everything relative in our heads. Have you ever thought how we would feel terrible to have to drive a 1995 Honda Civic every day without air conditioning but 200 years ago this would have been the sickest thing around and the richest person in the world would have been on cloud 9 to have one? What's the difference? it's the same car both ways but one guy feels like king of the world and the other is depressed about it. It's because we make everything "relative". So same thing here when all we see on social media is people getting it better and easier than us, our brains turn it relative and make us feel like we are getting shafted and suddenly we're unhappy (even though the reality is that it's very very few people, just that social media makes our cave men brains think it's much more prevalent) 

I too think all the time about wanting to quit it all and move to southeast Asia, but I'm not sitting here depressed about it. We need real perspective. The fact that someone who can get a job in IB at 22 and work for 10 measly years until they're 32 and live within their means could then go to a place like Bali and buy a brand new multi bedroom home and still have enough money to not have to work anymore while still being able to afford a western style of life, eat out all the time, go to fancy gyms, travel when you're bored, etc. while never having to had work hard labor ruining your knees or your back or ruining your skin being in the sun all day should just give you the perspective of how insanely lucky we are. The local people in Bali work hard labor in the sun all day until the day their body just gives out on them and will probably never have money to even take a vacation their whole life, live in a shack without a/c. And that's actually most of the world. The select few that made millions in their 20's online or however are so few. Younger people really need to internalize this and they'll feel happier. I'd imagine the average person here spends at least 1 - 2 hours a day scrolling social media. Gen Z has been doing it since they were kids. How many times a day do you see a post about some social media guy crushing it? Even on YouTube i get a couple recommendations every time I open it about "I made $20 million in my 20's" or "young millionaire living in Miami". I don't even click on them and I still see them. And even though I don't watch them, my brain is still seeing that. Our brains have no idea what social media is so we think for the past 10 years we're seeing 20 people every day living like this. That's not the reality. 

It’s just a job, stop busting a nut over it. You’re glorifying working 100 hrs a week, constipation, no social life, receding hairlines, and unrealistic deadlines from clients. Unless this is your wet dream, chill out

I get your point, but it's not that black and white. I’m in my late 20s, and I’ve seen people in these "elite" jobs hit a wall. Yeah, the money and prestige are cool, but it can really mess with your head. I’ve got friends in IB who barely sleep and have no life outside work. From the outside, it looks amazing, but once you're in it, you see the downsides. It's easy to envy, but it’s not always worth the mental strain. Sometimes, a simpler life sounds pretty damn good.

I like how he acts like he’s the ONLY one on this forum with wealthy parents 🤣🤣. Dude, touch grass. Btw your opinion on wealthy is prolly a few million dollars because the people I know with $50M in the bank don’t talk like you, they hide it.