The truth about investment banking hours

[Zamonee]

I see all sorts of different things online.

To those who have directly worked in the industry and in the front office what are the working hours truly like? Are you finishing at 10pm or is it a slog to the early hours of the morning? Do you have to regularly work weekends and on annual leave?

Does your mental health suffer?

Is the truth about constant 100+ weeks true?

I used to work in investment banking at support level. Hours were long. When a deal was underway it wasn’t uncommon to work to 10 pm or through the night.
Grads were known to work 2-3 days straight sometimes. That was 30 years ago, I expect its better now.
Money for the seniors was huge.

It was a great training ground and those that stayed the course had great money and bonuses, and usually retired early, as did the traders.
Drug and drink problems were not uncommon.

You’ve posted before haven’t you?

One of my DC did Economics & Philosophy at LSE. Shipped out to the US, now early 30s, senior economist at the Federal Reserve, long hours including some weekends, almost always on call, salary ca $250k plus bonuses, 401k and great health cover. Worked first 5 years in liquidity and risk. Central banking is definitely worth considering.
And the university does matter I believe.

I think personality comes into it to. My OH has been at Barclays for 14 years last 3 at VP and SVP he is autistic and burned out about 12 years ago but the got him through it and now he is flying. It's not a super high salary only just 110k but a lot of perks shares, medical all the usual and 100 pc work from home now. Initially it was 2 weeks Philadelphia and 2 weeks London which was hard.

Sorry didn't mean to reply to you necessarily, he hasn't been to Uni though, all self taught, he is a bit of a savant

I work in law so not the same industry but similar. As with any industry, banking has a range of roles and demands. Salaries can be sky high (junior salaries across professional services have rocketed over the last 5 years) but we also expect a lot of our juniors - minimum 9hrs a day not including any breaks. But we also reward them well, and I loved my time as a junior professional - I worked hard and played hard, had a great group of peers who were working in the same way and I look back on my 20s very fondly.

If your YP is keen, they should go for it - the mad hours are almost part of the fun. But if they want an easy life or a 9-5, it’s not the world for them.

Which role is he in? 110k is very low for 14 years of experience in ib. I earned 6 figures in my first year and that was almost 20 years ago.

How do you survive with no sleep?

I’m front office IB and have spent 25 years in it across 3 banks. 7am - 7pm is a standard working day, but if you’re on a tight deadline you can easily be working 6am - midnight for a week. If you need to cancel leave and work weekends you do, without question. It doesn’t happen that often, maybe 3-4 times a year, albeit I’m relatively senior now, so I bring the deals in, the juniors do the pitch decks and number crunching. I don’t like to walk out of the office and leave them there though if they are working on one of my trades.

I’ve advised my own DC to avoid IB, it’s not so much the hours, it’s the complete lack of job security, you get very used to being made redundant, it will happen several times throughout your career. AI is also making huge waves and I’m not sure what that will look like for the juniors yet. We will still need some, but I think the job and volume will change enormously.

After bonus what is total pay usually like?

How long is a piece of string? Totally depends on personal and team performance. Business is bad, bonus is bad. Business is good, bonus can be amazing.