i have a sibling that worked for i-banking since they graduated from undergrad…. And it’s not just Goldman newbies that have really long hours..Every i-bank newbie had long hours, at least for the very first 3-4 years, until you became an associate…Maybe 90+hours/week. The base pay was bad, but the bonus (at the time) was good sometimes 3-4x of base. My sibling commented that they enjoyed what they did, and that they didn’t nearly have as much stress as those guys that were derivatives traders. Usually though, most folks in i-banking are done with before their thirties. Many end up doing something else not quite as grueling: hedge funds, VC’s, etc.
I compared that to my startup days when I was young. I too put in maybe 70-80 hours, to the point that in one startup, we had a bunch of hammocks in there so you didn’t even need to go home and sleep. Back then, it was kinda fun, since aside from work, you had a bunch of friends that just hung out. I didn’t mind working long hours, because back then, it wasn’t a drag, and you ended up spending most of your time with those people outside of work doing other things anyway.
In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the most financially prudent thing to do. Even though stock options was alright, I remember blind dating this one girl that did reasonably well as a headhunter (not enough to retire on), but then spent all her money flipping homes in SF and bay area, and did well…Really well… I thought that was pretty cool, because among of sea of tech workers (male and female), she was one of the few people that was cruising along at her own pace, not really giving a shet about anything else. She was actually a pretty cool girl that was pretty good looking too, except at the time I was too dumb to care about dating. Typical geek, I was.,,,If I saw a talking frog on the street that would of turned into a princess if I kissed it, I would have picked up the frog and kept it as as frog thinking: “cool frog that can talk, I’ve never seen one before…..” HA!
These days, with family and age, I wouldn’t want to do something like that again…though sometimes, work tends to follow me home…
