I'm sorry but there is no work that's worth this. If you think it is you really need to think hard about you goals in life.
How long can you work 100 hour weeks before it get unhealthy
- Thread starter Cheezdoodles
- Start date
Sorry to burst your bubble, but investment bankers play no significant part in actual nation building. They're vampires, feeding on the economy, not contributing to it.
Speaking in general, present company excepted of course.
Traditional banks serve a purpose, the whole leveraged investment scene does not ... we were doing fine before the explosion of the financial industry in the 80s.
Any way, how important are you to your boss? Is it really impossible for you to say you want to cut back on the hours without getting fired? Either that or start working one week on, one week off ... that's the only way you're going to survive.
LOL, yeah, there was no significant economy before investment banking! Oh wait, there was. It just wasn't that magical make money without making anything at all kind.
hoho said:
I think this might be one of the problems. While I have many goals, they all boil down to making a shitload of money..
I need to rethink this...
Grall said:Sorry to burst your bubble, but investment bankers play no significant part in actual nation building. They're vampires, feeding on the economy, not contributing to it.
Speaking in general, present company excepted of course.
Meh, we help the allocation of capital be more efficient. Allowing good ideas to be invested in..... (if you tell yourself this over and over again, taking 2% fee on a a yard usd convertible issue that amounted to 4 weeks work seems just)
Yes, money is nice but I find that having time to actually do stuff I enjoy is better than more money.
If you don't mind me asking, about how much do you earn per month pulling those 100h weeks? How much more is it than from some 40h job that you could get?
I personally wouldn't even consider pulling 2.5x more hours unless I get at minimum 10x the pay and even then I wouldn't do it for longer than maybe a month or so. There is no point to that.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Would you mind telling is what goals?
To live happily ever after?
Though I would say if he doesn't die before then he'll be spending most of the time trying to get back to health instead of enjoying life.
Money doesn't inherently make anyone happy. While it can be an enabler, true happiness doesn't spring out of money, especially not if you;
A - destroy your relationship with real-world people by being tired and grouchy, and never having time to be with your friends and family, and;
B - burn yourself out physically and/or mentally by working and stressing so much. Very high levels of prolonged stress is really dangerous, you'll fuck up your body's hormone system and risk inducing a chronic state of tiredness, you may also risk heart disease and lots of other stuff as well.
Seriously, working 100 hours/week just to make lots of money sounds like the mother of bad ideas.
hoho said:
Hard to compare, first year salary is pretty bad taking into account the hours. Maybe around 100k USD + bonus ( which can be 0-12 months pay). ( I get less cuz I'm on a trainee contract which apparently makes me special but returns lower wage the first year- I do get to try loads of departments though)
In good years and with a couple years experience you can start pulling a million usd ++
How many people have reached that far while constantly pulling those 100h weeks? How many are still doing it for the small payment even after having done it for a few years? How many have died/got sick/left for other jobs etc?
A million bucks a year doesn't sound all that nice when you need to spend most of it fixing yourself up. Not to mention I highly doubt you'd want to quit the job for quite a while even if you do manage to start pulling those numbers and by the time you do you'll be too old/tired/sick to do anything useful with the money anyway
hoho said:How many people have reached that far while constantly pulling those 100h weeks? How many are still doing it for the small payment even after having done it for a few years? How many have died/got sick/left for other jobs etc?
A million bucks a year doesn't sound all that nice when you need to spend most of it fixing yourself up. Not to mention I highly doubt you'd want to quit the job for quite a while even if you do manage to start pulling those numbers and by the time you do you'll be too old/tired/sick to do anything useful with the money anyway
Most experienced analyst has been there for 4.years, but earning like 300k pre bonus
Also note that the more senior you are the less you work. Most senior people do like 40-50 hour weeks. These guys can pull up to 10 million in a good year
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
So the guy that works there for 4 years can work ~50 hours a week? If you can climb up that fast, why not just take a couple of years extra to get there and work a bit more managable hours? 2 or 3 years more isn't going to make a difference with those amounts of money and you won't screw yourself up.
Again, how many people like you that start with 100h weeks actually survive long enough either literally or figuratively to get to that point?
Also, I personally I can't even imagine working >40h a week once I have a family. Even now without one 40h leaves me just enough time to do most things I want to.
tongue_of_colicab said:
Nah, he does maybe 80 hours
hoho said:
I don't know what percentage, I assume a lot of people break down and leave. One girl fainted a couple months ago
Considering you are already seeing some effects do you think you can survive long enough that at some distant future you can drop down to "only" 80h, survive some 5-10 more years like that and then get to "just" 50h? How old will you be by then?
What if you don't make it until you earn 10M/year and burn out at 300k/y? Will you be able to recover with the money you've saved by then? Also, what makes you think your money will actually be worth anything in the future?
100 hrs/week for $300k/year is $120k/year for someone who works 40 hrs/week with weekends, holidays and a life. I assume if you're an investment banker you live in a very high cost of living locale (New York, SF, LA, etc.) and you live the expensive style (restaurants no time to cook etc.) so *your* $300k is probably more like many people's $150k.
Then there's that $10 million/year carrot. What percentage actually ever get close to that? How many $300k/year grunts are there for every one $10 million/year elite? Sounds like a ponzi scheme to me.
I feel sorry for you, but wish you good luck with that nonetheless.
Last week I took my kids on different days to the dentist, waxed my convertible, walked my dogs around the nearby lake three times, cooked breakfast for the whole family every morning and dinner 4 of the nights (my wife cooked the other 3), quizzed my son for his science test, drove my daughter to and from her SAT test and put in a good 10+ hours of PC gaming all while getting good sleep...right now I just got up from napping in the sun on the deck with my wife and I'm going to fill my iced tea and head back out.
Life is today.
Then there's that $10 million/year carrot. What percentage actually ever get close to that? How many $300k/year grunts are there for every one $10 million/year elite? Sounds like a ponzi scheme to me.
I feel sorry for you, but wish you good luck with that nonetheless.
Last week I took my kids on different days to the dentist, waxed my convertible, walked my dogs around the nearby lake three times, cooked breakfast for the whole family every morning and dinner 4 of the nights (my wife cooked the other 3), quizzed my son for his science test, drove my daughter to and from her SAT test and put in a good 10+ hours of PC gaming all while getting good sleep...right now I just got up from napping in the sun on the deck with my wife and I'm going to fill my iced tea and head back out.
Life is today.