I don’t work in a traditional finance role, and, honestly am ignorant to work in the industry. I was curious as to what (respectable) roles in finance traditionally have a good work-life balance. In the sense of a good work-life balance, I suppose I would be talking about roles that tend to be less than 50 hours/week, decent amounts of vacation, etc… I know this probably depends a lot on the firm one works for, though, which is why I said ‘traditionally’.
It’s my understanding that ER analysts tend to work 10-12 hour days, and even moreso during the earnings season.
Everybody wants to get paid, but does everyone really want to sell their soul to work?
Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to reap the rewards. Not everyone is willing to crank out the hours. You have to love what you’re doing and realize that short term sacrifice leads to long term gains. Moreover, it takes a certain type of person to succeed in a fast paced, dynamic, and constantly changing environment. Most of the lucrative professions in finance and within the investment community require individuals to operate in these environments, which require lengthy hours at times. In short, you won’t find many, if any, good careers with less than 50 hours/week. Unless, maybe you own a boutique firm or you’re part of senior management.
^ Agree. In most cases in finance (specially in some of the typical investment related roles) it is more of a “Work-Life Compromise” rather than “Work-Life Balance”. More the seniority and responsibilities (in terms of accountability) worse it is, though to many it may not seem so due to attractive frills of the senior posts and their visible (apparent) life style.
Asset management (or wealth management) generally is good. Investor relations is a good one too although often requires a lot of travel which can become an issue if you have young kids.
You bust your ass at the early stages of your career, but once you have built your book of clients (or, if you are lucky, you inherit one from a colleague who leaves the company or retires) you have plenty of time to spend with your family or playing golf with your clients…
Agree. I’m in performance measurement and the guys we support on the private WM side are 9 to 5-ers at best. Obviously it takes a certain skillset to be able to build your book, especially in the high net worth arena, but once you do, it’s really not a rigourous job on the hours side.
I agree with the traders having the best setup hours wise, and stress wise really if you can detach from the game (or us corporate guys, we’ve got it good too). Most of the traders I worked with when I was running the treasury show were in the office at 7am EST and done by 4pm EST. And they all made good coin (at least their cars + lifestyle indicated they did, but perhaps they didn’t). No weekends. Solid vacation as they have guys that rotate through to cover off your desk.
I actually considered it as a career move and had the opportunity offered to me to trade bonds from Vancouver at one point. But I hate Vancouver as a live in city and the hours there are absurd (3 to 4am starts on the west coast). The fact I (as someone that hates the idea of working more than 40 hours or having less than 6 weeks vacation) considered it means it must have decent balance.
I’ve been curious about those West Coast jobs pegged to Wall Street hours. I know people are supposed to get into PIMCO at an ungodly hour, but how early can they cut out? I actually like the idea of getting to a job at 4am then being done by early afternoon. Easy commute both ways, nice and quiet in the morning, and you can get nonsense done during the week that otherwise would have to wait for the weekend (like a haircut, say).
I suspect at a place like PIMCO though you get in early and leave late. So worst of both worlds.
I worked 6-3pm in MST when I was in corporate treasury and trading stuff daily. I think generally the traders bail out when the markets close, which is 1pm on the west coast. Probably stick around an hour or two after to clean up odds and ends, but I can’t see them being there beyond 3pm many days.
I would absolutely disagree with the idea that there are no good careers where you work less than 50 hours a week. I’ve yet to work 200 hours in a month since graduating from college and have had very rewarding and challenging positions. I’ve worked in valuation and investment research, for a small private company and a large fortune 500 firm. I would imagine this has a lot to do with living in the midwest as opposed to NYC. I also imagine this has a lot to do with an individual’s motives at work. Those that want to make 250K, sure you better work your butt off to earn those promotions quickly, I personally don’t need that much money.
What I’m getting at is that I see plenty of positions with great work/life balance that allow you to make good money. You can be home for dinner every night and spend your weekends freely, it’s not the 80 hour per week death march that I feared in college.
^I, too, work in the midwest. I work in a small (30 person) consulting firm. I started out as an analyst, and very quickly got promoted to a consultant. Each of our managing principals have their own specialization, and I’m in line and on a fast track to become a managing principal (about 10 yrs from now with a few promotions inbetween). Right now, work hours fluxuate, but are mostly 40 hour weeks for me. However, with promotions comes the obligation to work more (billable) hours. For instance, we have MPs here that billed approximately 3000 hours last year. Those guys are here at least 6 days a week and work between 9 to 12 hour days… they even work a ton while they are on their vacations. Their base salary is approximately $250k pre-bonus… bonuses for them are typically 20%-30%… However, vacation sucks… you don’t reach 4 weeks vacation until after 15 years of service (I’ll be at 4 years in January). I don’t know if I want to try and change careers now, or, stick around and make a ton of money while living in my office. I really enjoy working here, I love working at a small firm versus a big corp., and I enjoy the work that I get to do.