<p>So, I've been looking around the ibanking forum, and one stat really stands out to me. 100 hour work weeks. That seems incredible to me, and I think I am a pretty hard worker. During debate season, I usually don't get home from school until 8 or 9, but I doubt I ever hit 100 hours. If there are any ibankers on here, what was your schedule like in high school? and what is the structure of your 100 hour week right now?</p>
<p>Bump…!</p>
<p>Sent from my SPH-D700 using CC</p>
<p>100 hour weeks are not the norm, unless you’re at a sweatshop like Moelis or Lazard. Banking hours are highly variable - I would sometimes go a full week with NO work to do at all - would get in at 9:30, watch Netflix all day and leave at 7:30 picking up a comped dinner on the way home. Other times I’d work non-stop from 8-4am. On average I probably worked 80-85 hours a week - typically 9-11 Mon-Thurs, 9-9 Friday and 10-15 hours on the weekend, usually more on Sunday than Saturday. The hours themselves aren’t so bad - it’s the volatility and intensity that burns people out. In school you know your schedule exactly and can plan around stuff. In banking you never know what new staffing you’ll have in the next week/day, so you often have plans broken at the last minute. One guy I worked with had every holiday and vacation ruined - he had Chinese takeout in the office alone on Thanksgiving and had to fly back on Christmas day last year to start work on a new deal.</p>
<p>In summary, you can’t compare hours spent working in school to hours in banking - it’s not an apples-apples comparison. Lots of people can handle long hours. Not many can handle having no control over your schedule.</p>
<p>foreverzero is right. it varies with where you work and what group you’re in. Proper M&A bankers work the dreaded hours. I know guys working in sales/trading making just as much or more and leave 5 or 6pm every day. The M&A life at a bulge bracket firm or a good boutique shop will suck. But the experience is worth it. check out [The</a> ibanker: Adventures in Investment Banking](<a href=“http://www.theibanker.com%5DThe”>http://www.theibanker.com) there’s an article in there about why people join and what too expect.</p>