"You think life will get easier the longer you stay in banking. It doesn't"

I'm a vice president at a major investment bank in London, and I am seriously thinking of leaving after my next bonus. 

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Being a VP is the worst banking job I have done so far. As an analyst, you think life is bad because you are working long hours on models and pitchbooks. As an associate, you think life is bad because you are having to manage the analysts. But as a VP it is worse again. 

I am still working very long hours, usually more than 80 hours a week, but I now have the added burden of internal politics. My role is now about managing the people more senior than me, managing the people more junior than me, and starting to meet clients. It's less technical and more subjective. Because of this, my performance assessments now are all about how I work with the team. This leads to a lot of emphasis on internal self-promotion.

This seems to get worse the more senior you become. My managing director easily works 90 hours a week. He has no time for his family and boasts that he "schedules" his two children in for a few hours before work. He spends huge amounts of time in internal meetings and self-promotion. And when he's not doing that, he's travelling to meet clients.

I'm not sure that I want that life.  There are plenty of other things I could do. I'm thinking of going into corporate development. A lot of my friends have started their own businesses or have begun search funds, so maybe I'll do that. Alternatively, I could become a freelancer advising start-ups. I'm not sure which I'll choose, but this no longer seems like my best life option.

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