Ex First Year Bankers, can I get your advice
Hi everyone - first year analyst at a BB and wanted some advice. I wake up everyday just out of it. I used to love finance but now I wake up and just go through the motions. I haven’t left my room since NYE (literally). I’m overworked and just sit there fidgeting around with my work streams if I can’t figure something out. I’m afraid to leave and regret it. Is this a WFH or IB thing? I need human contact (was introverted but college made me open up). Do I need a break? I have 17 vacation days this year, do I use 3+ weekend for a small break?
Bump
Definitely a WFH thing that exacerbates the worst parts of IB. I would reach out to your staffer or a VP/above that you're close with or have worked with and share how you're feeling. It shouldn't be this miserable and you definitely need a break at the very least. This is your staffers' job and they should help you handle this.
I already got something restaffed after I couldn’t meet the deadline because of a few MDs that don’t let you work on any other work streams. I just want to enjoy the job
That's a good thing, but I would also take some time to talk to them about how you're feeling. You're going at an unsustainable pace and not one that I think higher-ups at your bank would be pleased to know about (I'm being serious).
I was feeling the exact same way, until ended with depression and anxiety. Yes, directly linked to my job as a first year IB analyst.
I was passionate about finance before joining, and had liked my summer internship a lot. I also come from the most challenging STEM degree in a top/target school, and I knew what working a lot and not having a life was.
Banking in 2020 was just different.
Each and everyday, I found myself getting worse. I’ve lost most of my friends, my will to eat and sleep, my passion for most things, including hobbies I’ve had for life. My physical health had also taken a significant toll, getting almost as bad as my mental health. And so, after much deliberation, I quit in December.
I don’t think IB itself was this bad, but WFH and the ability for MDs to pack up as many zoom calls in one day as possible has made the job sickening bad. I echo a lot of the things you say you’re feeling, and it wasn’t long before this started until I got to the state that made me quit. And as much as I think WFH has made things a lot worse, I think this job has become way worse and unsustainable for the foreseeable future, and urge anyone to seriously reconsider this career. Banks have just gotten used to the way things are, with absolutely no WLB, analysts getting yelled at, and a transaction nature to everything. I doubt that’s going back to what it was anytime soon.
Do you regret it
Absolutely not. If anything, I’m upset I didn’t make the call to quit sooner, as I had already been feeling out of it for a bit. The best thing I did in 2020 was quitting - you don’t realize how much you’re missing out on, how many more opportunities there are, and how much better life can be until you quit. Let me know if you have any other questions!
WFH is challenging because you don't have natural breaks built in (lunch, coffee runs, dinner, shooting the shit with the junior team). If you seriously haven't left your room since NYE you need to learn to push back. Not talking about punting staffings here, no associate is going to be annoyed with you saying "Thanks, will get to this in 30 min" while you take a walk, or taking an hour to cook a real dinner. Get some Friday night dinners with friends on the calendar, tell your associate 2-3 days out and go. As long as you're not on a fire drill deliverable, this is fine and necessary for some balance.
I'd talk to the staffer ASAP and also get some vacation planned - a whole week if possible, if not then 3-5 days including the weekend. Make a plan for how you're going to go forward - communicate with your teams when you're taking a break and force yourself to do so.
I got something restaffed but I just lost all motivation to do anything. On Saturday this past week I finally got it off and just didn’t move all day
Would really encourage you to reach out to the other 1st years, set up a group text or something. you guys should bond quickly over everyone being in the same predicament. The venting about work and the inside jokes really do help put things in perspective and gives you a semblance of that bullpen comradery we are all missing right now.
Yeah that’s probably true but the first years IB my group are competitive with each other
I'm in a similar boat - first year Analyst that's being overworked and given little if any guidance. There are honestly some days where I just don't get a chance to eat until the evenings because I'm getting chased for materials from multiple deal times. At first, I thought there was always this sense of urgency to get things done and it started giving me a lot of anxiety / making me dread waking up to work the next morning. I also started questioning my career path because this type of high-stress environment is unsustainable if the Analysts and Associates I work with continue to take hours to respond my questions. I also really liked my summer internship, but I feel like starting FT WFH is much worse because we've lost the support we would've had just from being in the bullpen.
I've thought about quitting too but this is probably one of the best paying jobs you can get straight out of college so IMO sucking it up until August and getting as much money as possible is the best move. If it helps, I recently started waiting 15-20 minutes before sending work to my Associates/VPs and I've found that that can be a huge morale booster. Take those 15-20 minutes to go get food, get in a quick workout or just lay in bed. Then send off your email and switch to another account or take some more time off while you're waiting for comments. It also helps to say you're switching to another account for an hour (even if you're not) just to find time to get some shut eye before the inevitable 4am night is upon you. At the end of the day, only you know how much this job is affecting you so it's up to you to do whatever it takes to avoid burning out.
Thank you, yeah I’ll start doing that
Having been through this (pre WFH wildness), I agree with the guy who said "give yourself some buffer time" 100%
I always think of it as (old EB numbers):
middle bucket $160K
bottom bucket $145K
typical CorpDev $85K
So incremental difference between middle bucket and bottom is $15K but cost of moving to CorpDev is 4-5x that. So I'd way rather give myself some buffer time and sanity than potentially burn out and quit altogether!
That doesn't even factor in:
(1) opportunity cost of leaving the preftigious IB > PE > MBA > greatness track
(2) often times I think I gained both respect and ability to do good work when I pushed back
Is exiting to corp dev after IB stint really 85k all-in? I feel like I could have gotten 75k base + 10k bonus if I went there straight out of undergrad but I chose to do IB first.
I assume you're a first year analyst who is probably still getting up the steep learning curve (one of the pro's and con's of banking). Let's be honest - you never really loved finance. As a upperclassmen in college, you thought the finance classes "weren't that hard" and you were enamored with what you thought a finance career could bring - money, envy of others, power, prestige. There is nothing wrong with this - it's certainly most people on this site. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe you're the 1% who actually LOVES finance but if I had to guess, you're not. Sorry to be harsh, but there are way too many of these posts. I'd recommend you reflect on why you really did finance/IB and what kind of life you want to live in the next 5-10 years.
I did love it. Even after my offer I kept networking to learn more, I went to conferences I went to speaker series. I lit up when I would talk about it but I guess banking is very different from PE/HF
I think this take is a little harsh. Many people in many industries (not just finance) aren’t 100% in love with their jobs. OP, certainly reflect on what you want your long-term career to look like, but plenty of people in finance use this industry for however many years as a solid starting base before pivoting to something else to build a financial safety net, network, get good professional experience, get into a top MBA program, etc. You don’t have to stay in the industry forever, but this job will definitely open up doors for whatever you want to do next. Knowing what your end game is may help you power through, but it’s not absolutely critical at this point as you’re still just learning what it means to be in the professional world. Give yourself some grace - you’re ramping in a demanding job in a WFH environment that makes learning much harder and without the bullpen camaraderie. I see a lot of great advice on here on communicating with your superiors, giving yourself buffer time, etc. and I hope it gets better for you!
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