Is it a waste of time to go into the office early?
I am a morning riser but in consulting it was a waste of time to wake up early; the partner I worked under would only send comments in the afternoon that would take until 4am to turn, and so it made sense to get into the office at 11-12.
I would much prefer to get into the office at 7:30 or 8 and finish my workday earlier in the evening. Is this possible due to the nature of not doing client-facing work? How should I think about this? Is it still in my best interest to get in to the office later to maximize sleep?
Any advice on norms of working in PE and how you fill your hours would be helpful. Thank you.
Morning riser here as well. Also a consultant -> IB lateral. I chose to go in later and do “the usual” 9-10 AM arrival while enjoying my freedom in the AM. There was no way around the late nights. Only takes a few times getting f’d over and you’ll take every second if morning freedom you can get.
The one thing I can control is the certainty of no work and zero emails 6-8 AM. Hate to beat the gym horse dead, but it is “my thing”. So, the pain of not making it in the evenings when something pops up is > the pain of waking up early on limited sleep. I think it is really about the fact that I can control the certainty of the 6-8 AM window vs. The actual workouts themselves.
Non gym related note: I have found that seniors don’t love the “early early” arrivals by the juniors. Excluding one-offs, most seniors seem to like that coffee/reading/email catch up silence from 7-9 AM before juniors roll in. Kind of a balancing act of the annoying “hardo” image that hurts you vs. demonstrating commitment.
Ultimately, it is a group specific thing. It takes some time to figure out what your bosses/seniors do and a bit of social IQ to navigate their schedule and then capitalizing on what they “give” you.
In general is this true of PE as well? I was under the impression that it's less "things popping up in the evening" and more like "here is all this stuff you have to do for the next few weeks: it's clear that you have to get it done but you won't be blown up with requests at midnight for random stuff the client just asked for"?
Or I suppose that too is dependent on who you work for?
Tough to say. I wanted to comment from the consulting -> IB POV for other readers. Hopefully some PE feedback can round out the comments section.
A majority of your PE team will be coming from IB roots and routine so my guess is that it will be somewhat similar. Also, from the posts I have read the demands on the PE train aren’t too different than the IB demands (junior levels) and expecting them to be is setting yourself up for disappointment.
It will definitely be helpful to provide some clarity on region/shop size/group size (from what you gathered via interview) for the PE guys to give you more tailored answers.
Unlike banking, you do not get to choose your start time in PE.
You are more or less expected to be at your desk anytime between 8-9am depending on firm. You do, however sometimes have the flexibility to say - stop work at 1am, and go in early at 6am to finish it before whenever the person will review it (usually at start of the day ~9am). Of course, this requires a high degree of confidence that you will be able to wrap up the work in that amount of time.
It depends once people trust you, you can come in any time from 8-10am In pe rarely also seen some people come in later (they tend to stay late too). Fully a function of your priorities, you being single or not (do you care about having dinner with an s.o.) and the flexibility of the team. Generally 930-945 is ok.
That makes sense, from what I understand you do have to get in from 8:30 - 9:30 in general give or take a few people here and there. I guess I'm just wondering if I could juts do 7-8 instead of 9-10 (I am sure it's a wait and see but am wondering if there are any general industry norms around this). Like you said the whole point behind this would be to see my s/o at night and maybe have time for a 20 minute run in the evening. But if it's like consulting where it's just random shit here and there (client work) then that strategy might have a hole in it. Does that make sense?
In PE usually people start much earlier, 8-8:30 is the norm. I have friends across many PE firms and have not heard of anyone starting later than 9. Of course you also usually end earlier.
There's not much "turning comments" or sitting around in PE. You usually know what needs to be done days in advance, if not a week+ in advance, so you have more control over your own schedule. For example, you have a 1st round bid due in 2 weeks based on the process letter, and you know you need to do a preliminary model and pre-IOI presentation for your VP with enough time to iterate/review. Or you know you have a management presentation in a week and a small data room dump just happened, so you have to get a databook/pre-management meeting overview packet to put together for your team.
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