I am interested to talk to people that are in IB or high end finance, but anyone who knows what they are talking about would be helpful One always hears of the miserable hours in IB. Is this true of everything or is it more prevalent in M&A than in Portfolio management, for example. Are there areas with reasonable hours but significant rewards? What about in the secondary markets, like maybe San Francisco or Dallas Texas? Is New York the pressure cooker, but not quite as bad in some other areas?
It all depends. Most people I know in M&A and other transactory services work longer hours than people in AM. But they also get paid significantly more on average. And it also depends on what type of company you work for. My friends at BB’s work 100 hour weeks. A couple of friends at boutiques “only” work 60-70. There are lots of areas of finance with significant rewards. You can be involved in any industry and experience significant rewards. Most people in AM work less, but they also make less. And if you’re outside NY, both the pay and the hours may decrease. It all depends. Before you get all picky I’d suggest landing any good entry level role first.
I agree, I need to get some kind of entry level. I was really trying to ascertain which types of jobs have what hours and what kind of pay. Ilooked over the salary info on CFA’s site, but I was wondering if there are any lucrative gigs with regular hours to sort of point my goals toward. I really have no desire to live in NY or Chicago, but I may be interested in the otehr sort of secondary markets. I wasn’t sure if the nutty hours were more prevalent in NY or if they were industry wide.