How hard is it to last in IB?

Let's define someone who's "made it" in IB as having $10M-$20M (aka a good amount to live off of).

For someone who's already made it into IB and who 1) has stamina to last IB hour weeks for 40 years 2)is semi-personable 3)semi-intelligent and 4) has no prior connections, what are the chances this person lasts in IB (or PE,VC, etc)? Wondering because the major cause of leaving IB seems to be burnout.

14 Comments
 

To hard to tell.

Can you develop stamina? yes. Can you become more personable? yes. Can you learn the business better ("Intelligent in the industry")? yes. Can you build connections? yes.

I think if you have the drive anything is possible, but 40 years is a long time to predict what is going to happen. Whats the price of Apple going to be in 40 years? I don't know and I am not going to waste time thinking about it.

I am sure there are alot of Oil and Gas MD's right now that have a very poor outlook on the future of their career. Meaning you can be riding high doing well and a recession hits, and disrupts you're entire industry. Who survives? The strong.

 

100 hour weeks for 40 years?????? I sure as hell am not going to be working 100 hour weeks when I am 60.

 

I’m not being rude but as a prospect is this a genuine question? The work is COMPLETELY different. Concentrate on your next few years

 

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