"I worked 110 hours a week as a junior banker in London and then quit"
This is a quick post to let anyone working crazy hours in banking this summer know that there is a life beyond. It takes a while to build, but it's possible.
I was an analyst at a top US investment bank in London five years ago. There was a period when I worked 110 hours a week for three or four weeks running. I was sitting, exhausted, at my desk and I suddenly got a call from the head of M&A asking if I was ok. I suppose it must have triggered an alert or something. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say. I assured him that I was fine, even though I really wasn't.
Maybe it's easier nowadays to explain that you're not coping at work. Five years ago, it would have been perceived as weakness. I still see people leaving abruptly because they can't do it any more, though.
Most people in banking vote with their feet. The industry attracts hardworking, talented people and almost everyone leaves for private equity or venture capital within a few years of joining. I lasted 18 months and decided I couldn't do it any longer. It wasn't easy to leave - I'd been through all the brutal internship interviews, achieved the internship, converted the internship, and it seemed a shame to walk away. But I knew it had to be done.
My life has been very different since. I'm not going to say exactly what I've been doing because I don't want to give away my identity (Henry Bratland is a pseudonym). Suffice to say that I've been doing something completely different. It's been a long term build, but it's worked out. You don't have to spend your youth in banking. You don't even have to leave for PE. There are always other options.
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