Health effects

<p>I have been really reading into the lives of investment bank analysts and it sounds to me like serious heath risks might be something to consider. Excluding the stress and 100+ hours each week what about the gallons of coffee , lack of excercise, sleep, staggering relationships? Anyone here experienced any health adverse effects?</p>

<p>This is actually a really good question, I've been wondering the same thing. I know places like GS have a lot of programs for employee wellness and stuff like that, so either it's a non-issue because of such programs, or it's an issue which brought rise to these programs. I'd guess it's the latter...</p>

<p>I think generally speaking they get exercise, people go to gyms, play squash, tennis. Sometimes they go to the gym & then come back to work. They find the time.</p>

<p>And, you know, they are young and healthy to start with.</p>

<p>If somebody comes down with something, there (at least used to be) a clinic in the stock exchange building.</p>

<p>I did have one kid tell me at an interview, after we'd done some 'splaining, that it didn't seem like a match, as he required regular hours and a good night's sleep. Good to know yourself, that way, and be candid about it. He was right, it was not a match.</p>

<p>(Not that we were necessarily going to take him anyway,...)</p>

<p>For a 2 year stint, with young and healthy people, I can't recall any of the analysts having any significant health incidents relating to the job.</p>

<p>But they did work their butts off.</p>

<p>
[quote]

Excluding the stress and 100+ hours each week what about the gallons of coffee , lack of excercise, sleep, staggering relationships? Anyone here experienced any health adverse effects?

[/quote]

The lucky thing is that they are young and in the best shape of their life (which really doesn't say much when you take a look at the vast majority of the people out there).</p>

<p>Eventually, something like this takes it's toll but always remember that there could be things that are far worse and someone always has it worse than you do. That's the way I would think when I had to endure long periods of stress. It all ends eventually.</p>

<p>Imagine all those soldiers and officers that have gone through Ranger School for 8 weeks. They "may" get to sleep 24 hours a week on a good week for 8 straight weeks, they are fed two meals a day or less, and constantly exhausted. They operate in an extremely harsh environment and they still have to lead with a clear mind. Again, there are far more stressful situations that ibanking. Eveything is a matter of perspective.</p>

<p>You just have to be mentally and physically prepared to accomplish the task at hand.</p>

<p>So what would be the typical daily hours of a banker? I know it's no 9-5 but how bad is it? 7-10?</p>

<p>It gets much worse than that. Lots of people stay after 10PM from what I have heard. It depends on the geographical region, but generally speaking, the hours are even longer than you probably would expect.</p>

<p>I would say the average day for me as an analyst was 14 hours (9AM-11PM). However, I would say that 14 hours was the average day more because there were about an equal number of 9AM-9PM days as there were 9AM-1AM days. I also probably had it easier than ~ 75% of my analyst class.</p>

<p>Typical hours of bankers are different now. If you're in M&A, levfin or FSG, particularly, things have slowed down a lot. Unless you're doing mindless pitching, your hours will be more like 70-75 per week as opposed to the 100+ we saw when financing was still readily available for deals. Restructuring of course is another story.</p>