When Agatha (not her real name), a female managing director working in the investment banking division of a bank in London, began her career in the corporate sector shortly after graduating from university, she found it unspeakably tedious. “People were just kind of ticking the box, doing their job, going home, and there wasn’t a lot of passion about things,” she said. Agatha’s life was otherwise “beautiful;” she worked 9-5. But it wasn’t enough.
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Vanessa (also not her real name), had a similar experience. She, too, was working in a 9-5 job and found it “super limiting” and “frustrating.” – “I thought that there was so much to be done and so much interesting stuff, but people would literally clock out at five, no matter what, what they needed to do.”
Agatha did an MBA to escape the tedium of her 9-5; then she went into banking. Vanessa did a Masters; then she went into banking too. It’s a well-trodden route. Morley (not his real name) said he went into banking out of university because a job in accounting seemed “so remarkably boring, I couldn’t bear the thought.”
Agatha, Vanessa and Morley, plus 37 other investment bankers in London, spoke to Anisia Bucur, for her PhD thesis* at King’s College. A former compliance professional at Barclays, Bucur investigated what makes people choose extreme careers in banking, knowing full well that they might damage their health.
Bucur found that the “dark side” of banking jobs – evinced in burnout, breakdowns and heart attacks – was accepted by students and entry-level candidates in light of banking’s prestige, “career-optionality” and promise of high-profile work.
However, Bucur also found that once they were in these banking jobs, the extreme demands of the roles could be overwhelming, and that her interviewees developed strategies for pushing back or left the industry.
Bankers told Bucur their junior years were fun. The “excitement” of doing deals was “wonderful,” said Morley. “I just get so excited,” said Agatha. Alan, a director, told Bucur that people who survive in banking love the “excitement and the buzz of it.” It’s, “really thrilling.”
And yet, the hours are beyond extreme. One director described working 100-120 hour weeks. An associate told Bucur he worked from 9am to 5am or 6am, or maybe even until 7am to 8am, for five months at a stretch. “You’d wake up at 6:30 completely tired, really tired, and still a wreck and being in a rush and late to get in,” said one vice president (VP). “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into walls because I was so tired,” confessed one director.
It’s not just the hours, but their unpredictability. One male MD recalled how as a junior he submitted something to his associate on Friday, went into London on Saturday and was then contacted by the associate at midday and asked to turn it around. – “I was just thinking I’ve got to go on in the office and get this done.” Another described how he’d plan to go for dinner with his girlfriend at 7.30pm and then be handed work: “It makes it really difficult.” MDs have a habit of asking for “simple” things like company comparators, which will take all night.
However, echoing Jim Donovan at Goldman Sachs, Bucur’s bankers told her long and erratic hours are simply the nature of the beast.
“At the end of the day, you’re in a client service business, and you’re doing deals and deals are live,” Merlin, a male MD with “zero hobbies” told her. No one can control the deal’s timeline, added Merlin. “When there’s a deliverable, there’s a deliverable, somebody needs to deliver that…That’s the nature of the job.”
Bankers who survived told Bucur there are ways of pushing back against the long hours. Fred, a male VP, described going up the chain of command from his associate to his staffer to the head of the team. Threatened health crises make people take note. “Like what do you want me to do, to not have sleep in 10 days and die?,” Fred reflected. Others advised prearranging specific activities and strongly flagging that you won’t be available in advance. “- It’s never going to be perfect; it’s never going to go according to your plans, but you can do something about it.”
Ultimately, though, many bankers in Bucur’s study either left the industry or learned to relish the big money and the big hours. Banking jobs are never normal. While analysts at the bottom of the hierarchy are available to managers 24/7, managing directors at the top are available to clients on the same basis. “The more senior you got, it did not mean less hard you work,” one ex-MD told Bucur. “It may be that you have didn’t do the all-nighters in quite the same way. But you certainly had the additional responsibilities, the dinners….it was just a different form of working hard.”
Contrary to some reports, Bucur suggested that VP jobs in banking might be the “sweetspot.” At this level, you run projects and have more control of your time. One female VP told Bucur, you have “a very comfortable type of lifestyle where you can…basically afford nice things.”
A notch up, directors are responsible for the complex and exhausting “pastoral” needs of the team. And MDs have the stress of originating deals and generating fees. At this point, you’re probably in too deep to get out of banking easily anyway. “I have the financial pressure, like my kids go to private school, because I have this job” Agatha explained.
*A career perspective on extreme jobs: choice, constraint, and trade-off in pursuing an investment banking career
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