Second year get better?

I’m kind of down in the dumps. Have been getting so much work, pitching a lot, and painful deals. I hate banking and want to leave but maybe only around December. Does it get better / easier second year? Do second years pitch less? Does IB slow down over the summer / do interns help at all? My group is trying to hire laterals but it takes a while.


Please give thoughts or insights or let me know if you all feel the same. 

 
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You are not alone; It feels horrible leaving for work before the sun gets up and leaving the office long after the sun has set. I had a few months around the one-year mark where I felt just like you and considered quitting almost every day as I walked home. As a "senior" first-year analyst, you are caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of slack. There's no more room for rookie mistakes, and people rely on you for more meaningful work. At the same time, you are still not completely confident in your deliverables and will get pointers and directions on things that you should "fix" from senior analysts/associates, etc. Does it get better? For me, it did, and I think that will be the case for you as well. 

Banking comes in waves, and workflows will vary throughout the year. If you are doing "a lot of pitching," I reckon you have also lost quite a significant number of beauty parades. That's the name of the game sometimes, but more often than not, it has nothing to do with you but rather about your MDs relationship, or lack thereof, to the potential client. Try to distance yourself from the outcome of these competitions and finish your tasks as well as you can. I don't necessarily think there will be less pitching as a second-year, but if you win more mandates, there will be less pitchwork due to a full pipeline of deals. I'd say that you should try to hang in there and cross your fingers for more closed engagement letters from now on. 

As for what you can do in the short term, I found it particularly hard in banking when my other friends, who are not in finance, were blasting social media with how much they enjoyed themselves in the sun, whereas I was stuck in my cubicle for hours. These weeks right before summer are usually the worst, I've found since everyone is trying to wrap things up before summer. However, try to hang in there for just a few more weeks, as things slow down and when the summer interns are hitting the desk. Regardless of which group you are in, there will be time for you to take two full weeks off regardless of what shop you are at.

Things do get better over time!  

I don't know... Yeah. Almost definitely yes.
 

I've been in banking for a while and it does come and go in waves, so there will be periods that are better than others. You won't necessarily pitch less as a second year, but you are much better at your job by now, so things will take you less time and that should provide you with more free time to have a bit of a life (nothing crazy, but there is a big difference between 70-80 hours and 90-100). This current market is the craziest i've seen, so know that it isn't the status quo for everyone to be this busy. It typically slowed down over the summers, but this year it hasn't. Summer interns will help a little bit, but remember that they don't know much so you have to spend time getting them to where they can be productive.

My last point is that if you hate banking, then you should start looking at exit options. It's not for everyone and you have to prioritize your happiness.

 

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