Investment banking hours vs. BigLaw hours Forum

[Frayed Knot]

So, my understanding is that TLS collective wisdom holds two statements to be true:

1. NY BigLaw hours are so bad that you don't have time for much beyond work and sleep/exercise/food/basic life stuff. For example, a lot of threads talk about how to minimize commuting time/pay to save time.
2. Investment banking hours are significantly worse than BigLaw hours. Here's a thread making that claim, but there are a bunch of others out there

So, my question is how those two fit together. Does TLS exaggerate how bad BigLaw hours are, so that it's humanly possible to work a lot more in banking? Are banking hours really not that much worse that BigLaw hours? Or are BigLaw hours really about as bad as most people can take and banking hours really are worse—so the only people who can take the hours in banking are gifted with minimal need for sleep (or achieve something similar medically)?

[patogordo]

both groups work a lot /thread

[KMart]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/1 ... 81016.html

[thesealocust]

The issue is consistency of bad hours, not just their existence, and it has a million variables: your market, your firm, your practice group, your reputation, how well staffed your firm is, how well staffed your firm intends to be, how busy the market is generally, etc.

Biglaw can absolutely be disgustingly bad, but it's so variable that making comparisons even between two people at the same firm is hard, much less between practice groups, between firms, or like you're asking - between industries.

Many people in biglaw will wind up working nights, weekends, and mornings - and often for long stretches or without notice - but it also won't be all the time. Similar tales come from investment banking, but it's not that meaningful to take the comparison deeper.

[Anonymous User]

I know someone who worked at a V5 notorious for being a sweatshop (NY) for a couple years before going into IB

He told me the greatest thing he missed about working at a law firm was the hours..

[Frayed Knot]

Biglaw can absolutely be disgustingly bad, but it's so variable that making comparisons even between two people at the same firm is hard, much less between practice groups, between firms, or like you're asking - between industries.

That's fair. I absolutely get that it's variable and hard to make generalizations. But I guess I still wonder how people do it in investment banking, if the hours are as bad as they say. I mean, I was a SA at a firm with hours that seem middle-of-the-road for top NY BigLaw, and people already seemed pretty haggard/low on sleep. I had a conversation with someone from one of the notorious sweatshops where she said "Yeah, [sweatshop_firm] years are like dog years—each one ages you seven regular years." I just don't know how much more people can work, so I was curious about banking. But maybe I underestimate people's endurance.

Also, thesealocust, glad to see you're back in Legal Employment. You always have something good to say.

[Desert Fox]

Banking hours are just absurd. But I've been told by some people who work insane hours that it gets somewhat easier when your entire life just is work.

[dixiecupdrinking]

In my experience, biglaw hours are on the bad end of tolerable for most people most of the time, with occasional spurts where they're intolerable.

Banking sounds consistently intolerable.

[iamgeorgebush]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/1 ... 81016.html

http://abovethelaw.com/2011/06/in-re-th ... associate/