<p>Or do the 70-100+ hour weeks remain so throughout the career?</p>
<p>If you become self employed they stay the same. But you love you job so it’s not really work. It’s just you being you. I’m self employed and I do about 12 hours a day. Lunch is for wimps. Sleep is over rated.</p>
<p>Yes the hours decrease as you move up the ladder, but you still work a lot (relative to the general population) even at the higher levels.</p>
<p>thanks for the replies
so by mid-career, what would average hours look like? 60?</p>
<p>do the hours really approach 100 or are people just exaggerating? thats more than 15hr/day for 6 days. Does lunch count?</p>
<p>How do people survive this? Why cant they hire 2 people and make them work 50 hours and pay them half?</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>[Why</a> You Actually Work So Much As an Investment Banker (Yes, Even in a Recession) | Mergers & Inquisitions](<a href=“http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/why-you-actually-work-so-much-as-an-investment-banker-yes-even-in-a-recession/]Why”>Investment Banking Hours: What to Expect and Why You Work So Much)</p>
<p>Yes, the hours really do approach 90-100+ at times - depending on deal flow, staffing needs and firedrills (sudden deal items that NEED to be done immediately). </p>
<p>No, 90-100+ hours per week is not the norm, although just a few weeks like that in a row can feel like the norm and burn you out. </p>
<p>You can’t just hire 2 people to do the job of 1 unless you hire 2 people to do the job of every 1 person and essentially double up on everyone and make them think exactly alike - essentially clone them…etc. In short, there is a chain of work - senior banker, to secondary senior banker, to associate to analyst (give or take 1 banker in the chain depending on the deal plus other deal teams as needed). Therefore, the analyst might work 80 hours 1 week because he/she is on 2 live deals and changes to models, pitches and Info Memos filter down the chain and then back up the chain. Then new changes come down the chain and back up the chain - repeat and repeat. </p>
<p>As you go up the chain in IB, the hours do decrease - on average. That said, senior bankers are caught around at midnight sometimes when they need to be - it’s just not as common. If on an average night an analyst gets out at around 11pmish, the associate it out by about 9-10pm and the senior bankers between 6 and 8pm although many times the senior bankers are in an hour or so before the junior guys file in. Additionally, while senior bankers have less hours in general, they also have far more travel time (at least coverage/industry bankers) and travel time is not glamorous nor exciting (traveling is only a lot of fun when you aren’t required by work to do it and have more than a 5-hour meeting to look forward to). </p>
<p>PM me if you have any other questions as this is just a really high level. </p>
<p>IBanker</p>