Is investment banking hazardous for your health?

<p>Moritz</a> Erhardt dies: High-flying bank intern who died after working 'crazy hours' had written of huge pressure to succeed | Mail Online</p>

<p>Warning:</a> Banking May Be Hazardous to Your Health - WSJ.com</p>

<p>That student sounds like an intensely motivated one - one who drove himself to succeed even when it was not required of him. This drive is definitely admirable, though taken to extremes is hazardous. But those interns are pretty highly paid, no? $70,000 a year? Entry-level positions don’t get that much in most sectors! </p>

<p>Also, some of this reminds me of the horrors of medical residencies. About how residents work long hours and withstand verbal and sometimes physical abuse from their mentors.</p>

<p>This is such a sad thing. Thoughts and prayers to the family.<br>
However, I dont agree with the above poster who says “one who drove himself to succeed even when it was not required of him”. Well, of course it wasn’t “required”. But it’s understood that you will not get the job offer if you dont go the extra hours and push yourself. Working shifts of 20 hours is unfortunately nothing new. I wonder if there was an underlying medical condition or, again unfortunately, but likely, medicine supplements.</p>

<p>Why is this even allowed? 20 hours? what are those people thinking? kids barely function properly after 8 hours of school, and they’re young! Is it even possible to think properly after 20 hours of hard work?</p>

<p>Yes, it isn’t “required” of people to work all those hours. Presumably, it is “required” in order to advance in the profession. So there are also, presumably, many other people who are advancing in the profession who are working the same hours, if not longer. So, medically, there must be an anomaly here - something that makes one person succumb, but not another. Again, residents after medical school face much of the same-fate - long hours, blurring of the lines between work and life, doing what your superiors want.</p>

<p>^^ Agreed. This intern was not doing what thousands of others have done without dying. Kind of like the occasional HS or college atheletes that die during practice or a game. It is not the norm. </p>

<p>I think something else was a factor. Sometimes these folks work hard and play harder. Maybe this intern did not know when to go call it a night.</p>

<p>I have no idea. Just blowin hot air!?</p>

<ol>
<li>Interns do not get paid 70k… They get an average hourly wage that is nothing special compared to other industries.</li>
<li>Interns often happen to work 80-100 hour weeks, especially during periods with heavy deal flow. They fight against other interns to get the Full time offers.</li>
<li>Again on heavy periods, interns/analysts pull all nighters, some times double all nighters.</li>
<li>Alot of energy drinks/coffees/meds are taken such as redull, adderall(ADHD pill) and other remedies to keep them awake and typing…</li>
</ol>

<p>Not an easy industry, but when wall street is willing to pay 110k+ to a 23 year old fresh out if college, you can expect to be their ***** and do whatever it takes to finish and perfect all tasks that are given to you.</p>

<p>^^A bit extreme.

  1. Interns get paid the equivalent of a 70k/year salary. Of course they do not get paid 70k for the summer. But whatever the weekly pay is for a 70k per yr. job is what they get paid. Usually pretty darn good for a summer job.
  2. Front office jobs work long hours. Bankers more than traders. Interns have to prove themselves to get an offer. No different from any other job/offer that is highly competitive. Doctors, lawyers, athletes, actors, senior year high school students.
  3. Hours can be grueling.
  4. Probably no more or no less than any other job that requires long hours or shifts. Medical interns, fire fighters, etc.</p>

<p>It is not an easy industry. Nor is any highly competitive industry. Why are we surprised or amazed or even angry that a 22 pr 23 year old college graduate can earn 110k+ when an uneducated teen actor, musician or athlete can earn millions?</p>

<p>It’s a good thing that my daughter was in very good health when she first started working. She didn’t have time for her regular check ups, which led to a $5000 root canal. I think in 2 years she has never called in sick. </p>

<p>In the last month she’s had few Euro deals every week, which meant she had to get to work by 2am and stay until 8 or 9pm. I think she almost reached her breaking in the last few weeks. The good news is she is moving up the food chain because they have new analysts to help her out now. She was able to take today off, which hadn’t happened in two years. She is going to make her decision whether she is staying after Feb. </p>

<p>The starting base salary for first year analyst has gone up a bit, but the bonus is not what it used to be, which is making some of the best and brightest to look at Google, FB…</p>

<p>Super old thread, but I just wanted to add: yes, investment banking is almost definitely hazardous to your health. Obviously almost no one dies from it, and this was an unusual case. But no investment banking analysts are able to sleep regularly, and analysts also often miss meals, don’t get regular exercise, etc.</p>

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<p>Definitely not an easy industry, but people could do better elsewhere…</p>

<p>I ended up going into the defense industry as a software engineer. It wasn’t particularly hard to find a job because of the demand in the sector. I graduated with a 2.7 GPA from a public university with a BS Computer Science and I was able to get an offer from a major defense contractor within 30 days without even an in-person interview and no hooks/connections. (Heck I didn’t even start applying until the day I graduated!)</p>

<p>They were paying $80k/year, over 6 weeks of vacation, flex schedule (40 hour work week), unlimited tuition assistance for graduate school, etc. for an entry level software engineer. This was Maryland (National Capital Region) so the cost of living was substantially lower than places like NYC. I would have needed to get an guaranteed offer of at least $160k/year in a place like NYC for it to be even worth it for a comparable standard of living. Also, if extra work was requested by the client, they were willing to pay 2x the rate. Bonuses at the end of the year are laughable in my opinion, I’d rather get paid at the end of the 2 week pay period for work performed than wait until the end of the year to find out if I’m going to be rewarded for busting my @ss.</p>

<p>I’m very wary of giving any employer over a 40-50 hour work week because that lives you little free time to do anything else. It’s like putting all your eggs in one basket and letting someone else decide how your career progresses. I’d rather have the free time to determine how I build/develop my own “hedges”. Because I was rarely working over 50 hours a week, I was able to complete graduate school part time (MS Computer Science) and balance a part-time Army career on top of full time employment. By the time I finished grad school, it was equivalent to 2 years of work experience so you can guarantee a faster rate of progression versus your peers. The Army career nets anywhere from $10-40k/year in additional income as well as stacking a federal retirement benefits on top of regular income and 401k.</p>

<p>If you figure the most pitched path to a career in investment banking is…</p>

<ol>
<li> Bust your butt in high school to get to a name-brand prestigious college which isn’t necessarily inexpensive…</li>
<li> Go through the entire recruitment/selection process of investment banking…</li>
<li> Live in an expensive place like NYC where even those with 6 figure salaries are relatively poor because of the cost of living…</li>
<li> Work in an industry that is very much “up and out” within 3 years…very pyramid like</li>
<li> Possibly need to attend a full-time MBA for career progression and deal with the opportunity cost of not working for 2 years…not to mention debt…</li>
</ol>

<p>… it seems like extremely excessive work/effort for the reward…</p>