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Bump-Anyone? Is there only 1 Associate on the forum?
lol
I think the sleep is not the biggest concern for the associates (in comparison to the analysts) as a majority of them are either married or in a relationship. In my very short stint, I've come across way too many successful bankers who aren't as successful on the personal front. This job involves a lot of missed commitments and lost family time. If you're upfront and clear with your partner about there being a chance that you'll probably won't be able to make it to your anniversary dinner or to the date night you've planned for weeks and make up for the lost time whenever you can (gifts, vacations, off-days?), then I think you're all set. The associates in my firm who left mostly couldn't balance their work life with family commitments. About health, bankers (seniors and juniors alike) in my office make a point to workout at least 4 hours / week (which to be fair isn't a lot that one can't squeeze it in their schedule). A lot of our conversation revolve around health issues and workouts and this ultimately becomes a motivator for the slackers. As far as stress is concerned, may be someone else will have to step in here as I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with it.
Thanks for sharing that! So how do you manage your personal life then(Spouse, parents etc). And I am not even talking about friends here! For instance, if the job is so demanding, how do you plan to manage your relationship with your spouse, get married, have kids etc? I am guessing most normal people would be thinking about those issues at some point.
As an associate, sleep is no longer the main concern, if you are efficient you can get decent 7 hours of sleep pretty regularly if you do not have any other commitments (family or otherwise). The problem is that you are living just for work-sleep-repeat, and after spending a few years already working as an analyst / b-school this is far from the lifestyle you dreamed of...
You have decent exti opps at associate level and I believe that you have a bit more perspective and can think whether you really want to pursue a career in banking
But then, is that not similar with folks in Consulting as well? Except that in Consulting, your weekends are relatively relaxed. So what are the other options-seems the only way to make decent money is Banking then? Also, how hard is it to make MD these days given not a lot of people are interested in IB post BSchool?
From my conversations with bankers, I hear that a lot of people end up leaving banking when its time for work/life balance and they go into other fields that offer that. Things like consulting, advisory roles on various boards, corporate finance at good companies. About 40% of bankers (my estimate) move to the buyside for work/life balance and to maintain a similar comp package.
I thought moving to the buy side was very uncommon for associates? Unless you’re lumping Corp dev in that figure as well. Out of the 40 or so post MBA bankers I know in my class that graduated 3-4 years ago maybe 4 went to actual buy side jobs (PE/HF) half went to Corp dev and Corp fin, the others are just hating their lives.
Any insights you can share about why the others are hating their lives. I am deciding between Banking and Consulting and not sure at this point what to do. Consulting hours are only slightly better and travel will kill you within 6 months. So how is it better than Banking and that too with lower Bonus?
Mostly lack of sleep from being stretched too thin. This is at BBs and we’ll known MM firms. A friend in an M&A group typically leaves around midnight when not working on live deals and around 2-3am when on live deals and back to the office at 9 for meetings. He pulls all nighters a couple of times a month. He sleeps in on his protected Saturday’s and holidays because he’s too tired to do anything else. Same with a friend in a non-nyc MM.
Exactly - some move to buy-side for better work-life balance and similar comp or to industry for a much better work-life balance and still a decent comp. I have also seen a few bankers leaving to join the startup hype...
Making MD these days isn't easy either (I can't tell about 15 years ago) but my guess is that there is lower churn up there. Bonuses no longer allow MDs to retire after 4 -6 years and play golf for the rest of their lives...
Yeah -I agree with the above 2 posters's comments but how is their lifestyle better on the buyside? I mean if you actually search what people have written on the website, seems life on the buyside is the same/worse. Also, interested to know what the bankers who remain(20-30%) do to maintain their relationships? Stay single ? Marry late i.e around 40? Isn't having kids around 40 late?
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