Curious to see for those at startups what your hours are like for those in StratFin or CorpFin, particularly interested in relatively established startups that are like Series B-D and <500 people (so not seed stage companies, and also not "startups" such as Uber, Airbnb, Doordash, Chime, etc.).
Have a feeling I'm working way too much still despite the "fast paced" and "dynamic" nature of my company and how "it's a lean team." Thinking it might make sense for me to hop to a better place for a significantly improved work life balance once I hit my 1 year cliff as I took a like 40% pay cut to go corporate, but hours are definitely not anywhere close to being reduced by that much (maybe like 10%). Personally doing 60 hours / week minimum still and some weeks (when it's an unlucky mix of fundraising / DD, board materials coming up, monthly close process, etc., all coming together at the same time) easily surpassing 100 at times.
Im an Associate at a Series C stage startup in strategic finance with 1 direct manager. Man, the hours have felt killer, especially as of lately. Somehow I've been online from 8am - 7pm then again from ~830-12...consistently? A few times going until like 2 or 3. Look, I know to some that is not a lot and that that is consistent (I dont have prior IB exp) but I was not anticipating that from a strategic finance role hahah so I hope this is a data point that says '...low key sweaty'.
I think I mentioned this elsewhere, but in my experience in strategic finance so far I would say that the total hours online are lesser than banking, PE, whatever BUT it feels like every hour logged on you HAVE to be doing something. Not a lot of long days where a large % of time goes between turns and comments.
Lol all of that is just to say if I feel this way, I bet you my boss (manager level) is prolly worse
Currently corp fin at giant company and never work these kinds of hours, curious what it is you're doing all the time? Is it just a matter that you're like everything (reporting, planning, accounting, modeling, etc.) or something else?
Correct. Also, because we are a startup, have nothing templatized / the mechanics of our revenue generation would make that tricky anyways. We build everything from the ground up. Not sure about accounting because they are a separate function. In addition, we also do a lot of ad hoc / special projects that come directly from c-suite and those projects can certainly be time consuming. An example of a special project is like our Board deck materials. As I mentioned above, our team is also 2 (3 counting CFO) so it becomes the challenge of 1) there's a lot to do and 2) there's only 2 of us hahahah
This summarizes how I feel quite well - much less true downtime just dicking around, lots to do all the time, but at least it's generally all meaningful work, not work for the sake of work.
What you will soon realize is that all types of jobs in corporate America require long hours, especially if you want to rise or work with capable people. Sure, some people seem to get lucky and skate by, but in general if you want money or notoriety or prestige, you’re going to have to work.
The thing about IB is that everyone gets paid a lot, even the idiot bottom bucket analyst. Everybody gets paid more than they should, and gets paid way more than the average peon in corporate America.
So when you bail on banking for better hours, make sure you really diligence the firm you’re going to. It’s a bitter pill when you are expected to keep working hard but the IB pay net isn’t there.
Hey this is really helpful (I'm the other CD poster on this thread but changed to Corp Fin). Few questions for you:
- are you currently in strat fin or corp dev? Or is there an overlap for you?
-are you still in the startup space?
-I'm an associate and have a salary of 85k with no equity or bonus...I feel like I'm being underpaid? I joined prior to all the salary bumps in other finance roles and I'm guessing my org matched the typical 85k base. What are your thoughts?
-How difficult do you think it would be for someone with 2+ years of Strat Fin exp to move into banking?
At the manager level, and I average 55 hours per week. That said, things definitely ramp up to 80 - 90 when fundraising / other activities pick up.
When I first started in my role, I regularly averaged 60-70 hours per week. With more responsibility and trust, I've been able to better manage-up and set timelines.
I'm hoping that as I hire more for my team and build it out so I'm not the one having to take on everything hours will ramp down a bit. We'll see though.
Pariatur nesciunt perspiciatis consequatur. Tempore voluptates omnis eius velit aut. Praesentium vero rerum officia sit est commodi dolorum. Temporibus consequatur ipsum enim vitae quidem. Reiciendis illum architecto consequatur omnis provident est. Nemo odit cupiditate iusto culpa eos sed vel eos.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...