Principals and up - what is life/comp like for your friends who stayed in banking?

I echo overandout. 

Life is good for those I know. This is survivorship bias. The people who have made Director or MD are smart enough to transition from an execution skill-set to a business development or management skill-set, to navigate politics, and to continually sell their relevance internally. 

The biggest gripes I hear are about deferred compensation, compensation pressure overall, and junior talent getting worse (class of 2020 onward, so at the associate level as well now). I don't hear people complain about travel. 

The lowest performer I know has never been unemployed for more than six months. He has had a generally downward progression in terms of logo quality ("elite boutique" A2A, forced out after three associate years, fourth associate year at a low bulge bracket before VP promote, forced out after four years, got director title at a SocGen / Mizuho type place without having to do more VP years).

He is more open than I've ever seen him before that he does not find the work rewarding at all and he hates the typical personality in the industry. During the pandemic he moved out of the city and downscaled his expense base. Together those two things led to a breakup where he identified his long-term relationship wasn't right. They both wanted kids but had pretty different values. She was a really status-oriented person, so she wanted trips, not because she was fascinated by particular places but because she wanted to document it all and say she'd been, she wanted to live in a big expensive place in Hudson Yards for the same reason, and so on.

Today he is making less than in his prior role but saving more. Basically it sounds like he's working towards what Reddit calls fatfire and I bet in five years he'll be out of finance.

The highest performer I know has basically experienced a career rocketship. He did not get an MBA. He is still in his 30s but was explicitly told by firm leadership at the executive director to MD transition that he would shortly be added to group leadership with an eye towards broader firm leadership over time. He has the most travel of anyone I know, sell or buy-side. They have him all over the world meeting key people inside the firm as well as long-time clients. 

You asked. Few seem to regret not moving. I think everyone always has a tinge of the 'grass could be greener' syndrome, but when you settle into your groove, you tend to appreciate it. At least this is true for the people I know and keep up with. 

It's harder to comment on whether I would recommend staying. I think there are a few inflection points to call out. If you have more of a self-deterministic streak and are willing to skip the insanely early on-cycle recruiting window in your first year, after the first-year learning curve falls off (usually 6-9 months for most), you can actually reflect on how the business works and whether you can envision a future you like.

Watch your associates. Does their job look fun enough to avoid losing your mind? Can you see ways in which you'd do it better? (The best associates tend to be former analysts ... surprise, surprise.)

Look at the VPs. It's harder as an analyst, but ask the same questions.

Obviously the MD lifestyle seems attractive because they're attained a locus of control that affords them the space and time if they choose to prioritize their families, stay in shape, and so on.

If you feel you can't get definitive answers, there's nothing wrong with recruiting. As a second-year, you have such a better handle on how everything goes that your process will almost invariably feel less overwhelming. It's still such a crapshoot in many ways, but you can mitigate that by networking with investment professionals.

That actually works. Yes, a ton of firms really don't deviate much from the resume stacks their headhunter prepares, but many actually do insert into the process candidates that people on their team refer. Even those who don't are valuable to you because you can learn a lot about how their specific firm works, tidbits about other firms (that you may potentially end up interviewing at), and nuances about the industry that make you smarter for interviews.

The second inflection point would be after a private equity associate stint. You can do the same upward-looking exercise. Does that trajectory look fulfilling? You can then compare to your banking experience. If neither offers what you're looking for, you can pursue other investment roles beyond buyout. Public markets, credit, secondaries, E&F allocator roles, there is an entire universe where something certainly offers enough elements of what you're looking for (compensation, hours worked, personality set, intellectual stimulation, and so on) that you're happy to plug in and begin the vertical climb for the long run.