How many hours do entry level investment bankers work?
It's not unusual for investment banking analysts or associates to put in 80 to 100 hours of work a week.
Investment bankers work notoriously long hours, with the typical work week filling in 60-80 hours per week, and the occasional high-intensity work week that can push a banker to 100+ hours.
Careers in banking involve a variety of work schedules. Many careers include a standard Monday through Friday schedule, and some banks may require working short hours on Saturdays. While many of these careers operate on a 9-to-5 or similar schedule, some high-powered banking jobs may require working longer hours.
VPs have marginally better lives than Associates and significantly better lives than Analysts, but they still work a lot. The average is probably 55-70 hours per week, which translates into 12-hour days in the office on weekdays, followed by a bit of extra work from home.
Investment Banking MD Hours
On paper, Managing Directors have the best hours of any banker, with a likely range of 50-60 hours per week. Just one small problem: those hours also include travel, and there's a lot of it at this level. The percentage depends on the bank size, the group (industry vs.
Have you ever heard of Goldman Sachs' 15-minute rule at Goldman Sachs? It means you have to respond to an email in 15 minutes or less no matter what. It doesn't matter if you: - showering - hiking in the mountains - attending your son's wedding - saving someone from a drowning vehicle Unreasonable?
You're probably losing 1-2 hours of pure free time a day and you'll have to do a little bit of work on the weekend. At 60 hours per week, you can still celebrate a glorious work-free Friday night. You can get off around 5-6 pm and not touch your laptop until Sunday.
Age Range: It's nearly impossible to reach this level before your early 30's, so we'll say 35-50 for the range. Few MDs continue working until the official retirement age (65-70); it's a stressful, high-pressure job, and past a certain net worth, it's just not worth it.
Essential Qualities for an Investment Banker
Aside from a high tolerance for stress, you also need to have an aptitude for math and a keen interest in the financial markets.
Goldman Sachs came out on top for the second year in a row in forum site Wall Street Oasis' industry report of bank working hours, averaging nearly 90 hours a week, the same as last year. It's a lot – but the infamous 100-hour weeks complained about by Goldman Sachs juniors might, luckily, be a thing of the past.
Do IB hours get better?
In general, the hours tend to improve as you move up the ladder (though, again, work-from-home has upset this rule). Investment Banking Associates will work a bit less than Analysts, VPs will work a bit less than Associates, and MDs even less.
| City | Annual Salary | Hourly Wage |
|---|---|---|
| Daly City, CA | $69,973 | $33.64 |
| Berkeley, CA | $69,626 | $33.47 |
| Juneau, AK | $69,345 | $33.34 |
| Renton, WA | $69,304 | $33.32 |
At the VP level, the base compensation is typically between $250,000 and $300,000. Regarding the variable bonus portion, on average, bonuses range from $200,000 to $400,000 at bulge bracket investment banks and elite boutiques.
In financial institutions, the high number of clients demands critical attention to every detail. This is why a higher number of VP's and SVP's are available in most financial institutions.
The estimated total pay range for a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs is $553K–$962K per year, which includes base salary and additional pay. The average Managing Director base salary at Goldman Sachs is $365K per year.
| Annual Salary | Monthly Pay | |
|---|---|---|
| Top Earners | $185,500 | $15,458 |
| 75th Percentile | $165,500 | $13,791 |
| Average | $137,917 | $11,493 |
| 25th Percentile | $110,000 | $9,166 |
Companies Considered Too Big to Fail
Bank of America Corp. The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. Citigroup Inc. The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Goldman Sachs is the premier investment bank in the world. With an acceptance rate of roughly 4%, it's harder to get into Goldman than it is to get into Harvard or Yale. Let me share how to get a job at Goldman Sachs from someone who did.
The group generally requires its clients to have at least $10 million invested with Goldman Sachs.
The lucrative and fast-paced career of an investment banker is a highly competitive one. For instance, in a recent year, 236,000 applicants competed for roughly 3,500 internships at Goldman Sachs. This is common across the industry where acceptance rates for programs are typically less than 2%.
What does a first year investment banker do?
Principal responsibilities include producing supporting materials and analyses to pitch new business to clients and executing deals. First-year investment banking analysts have the opportunity to work in the heart of the financial services industry and learn about a broad range of financial instruments.
Average number of hours slept by financial services professionals by age, 2024. Table with 2 columns and 7 rows. Bankers, generally speaking, are not sleeping well. Across all respondents to our survey, people working in finance got an average of 6.72 hours of sleep a night.
Ways to make a lot of money in this world
Sure, anybody can make a good living being a doctor or a lawyer or an investment banker where you can make ~$200-500K per year a few years after you finish with your studies, but you hit a ceiling very quickly unless you start your own practice (aka start your own business).
Retiring at age 40 is entirely feasible if you have accumulated $5 million by that age. If the long-term future is much like the long-term past, you will be able to withdraw $200,000 the first year for living expenses and adjust that number up for inflation every year more or less forever without running out of money.
Even this can be tough if you're post-30, according to the M&A headhunter we spoke to (most banks focus MBA hiring on their M&A and capital markets divisions). "You do get some first-year associates who are aged 32+, but it's very rare," he says.
