Young Wall street bankers’ confessions: 5 current and former analysts from companies such as Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse

Wall Street is a picture of growing discontent among junior employees. Here you can get the latest information on companies such as Goldman Sachs, Apollo Global Management and Credit Suisse.

“This is something that our management team and I take very seriously,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said in a voice message to employees on Sunday in response to complaints from junior bankers.

Credit Suisse, meanwhile, has announced special bonuses and salary increases for employees, saying it “recognizes and wants to reward the efforts” of its junior bankers.

Insider interviewed five current and recently retired investment banking analysts to understand the prospects of young bankers in the early years of their careers. All of these bankers spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely about their experiences.

Analysts are the youngest employees in an investment bank, usually straight from college. Employees in the first or second year deal with behind-the-scenes work related to concluding transactions, such as creating models for future transactions.

Only one in five analysts interviewed by Insider said they had felt friendship among their team over the past year. Most said that working from home made them work harder than ever and affected their physical and mental well-being.

We asked these five bankers to describe their lives over the past year and how they differ from what they experienced before the pandemic. Here is a selection of their comments.

“95 hours a week, that’s nothing special.”

“I’m currently working on a deal in which some of my colleagues at the bank worked until 5:30 a.m. last night. Ninety-five hours a week, that’s nothing special. For the most part, everyone works so much harder. ”

“It’s nine in the morning until six in the evening when you’re on the phone. During the day is when your MD (managing directors) are actually around. This is the time of day when older people are involved in the equation. ”

“At night, when all the MDs go out and go spend time with their families, then the materials move forward, when people move the notes and presentations and all the things that support the conversations about the days to come. “

“When people stay awake until 3, 4 in the morning, it’s because they are engaged in these client activities during the day, and then at night is when they can actually do their job. You start doing your work at night and if you have a meeting the next day at 9 am, you start working on this presentation at 7 pm the night before. So you will go to bed at 4 in the morning. This is mathematics. “

“It’s just the perfect recipe where there’s no way people can figure out how much work, and every bank has this fake Saturday policy where you can’t work on Saturday.”

• Current Credit Suisse investment-banking analyst in the US

Goldman CEO David Solomon “makes us feel quite interchangeable”

“It really was the beginning of November, December, and so far the workload has really increased, as we lost quite a few analysts from the second year due to the recruitment of PE.”

“And then in January we lost a ton of employees, because then they get their bonuses. I think that in the last two months, everyone in the company, and especially in my group, has been extremely tired. ”

“It’s easier for me than some of my colleagues. I know one of my close friends and co-workers who literally sleeps three hours a night and has resorted to taking medications like ADHD Adderall. ”

“With the latest news that broke out in Bloomberg about David Solomon – I think some of his comments were very hypocritical. The bank cannot have its best quarter and best year without extra work, so the hint that we are bored when it knows full well that everyone is extremely busy is a little offensive to many people. “

“He obviously has the ability to keep a lot of talented people – but he makes us feel more interchangeable and doesn’t really reward hard work. This does not create an environment in which I feel like I want to stay in the company. “

• Current Goldman Sachs investment-banking analyst in the US

“It seemed so important that we doubled our interaction with customers.”

“I think as soon as we went to work from home, it seemed so important that we doubled our interactions with clients, but we were already there by the time we worked really late and really hard.”

“Our hours have definitely increased. Personally, before the pandemic, I slept in the office more than once, trying to meet deadlines for teams. This should be something to be marked in the system, no matter how late at night you have to stay, even if only for a short time. I just couldn’t go home for a few days and no one ever told me anything. “

“I took a bath in the gym, crossed the street to Marshalls, bought a new shirt and came back.”

“If you’re an analyst on the team, it’s pretty lean and you just feel really isolated and really alone and it’s hard to judge if someone else even feels like you. I would probably start work at 9 in the morning and finish work at 3 in the morning. “

“After I got out of there, I feel like I have so many things I can do with my life. I’m still in the financial space, so I don’t work from 9 am to 5 pm, but it’s also not attached to my computer and my phone and I jump when it rings and there may be a kind of split, which is much healthier. “

• Former Goldman Sachs investment-banking analyst in the US who left during the pandemic

“Even when you have a break, you don’t actually have a break”

“When I first came to the desk early before the pandemic, I was confused on the first day with a very important client.”

“I remember the first night I was in the office until 5 in the morning, I was there until 5 in the morning for three months after that, every night.”

“At that moment, my co-worker was on vacation and I was literally alone. I had a vice president who, I think, set alarms every half hour to wake up all night and ask me what was going on. ”

“I left Goldman for several reasons. I think the number one reason is because I was extremely, extremely unhappy. ”

“I think it’s due to several factors. I entered the job very mentally stable, postgraduate degree and left it full of anxiety and worry. “

“With this role, you are always on call.”

“Even when you have a break, you don’t really have a break. The tension just always makes you feel like I’ve never really been able to leave my phone and take a nap and not worry about something coming up. ”

“I had nights on Saturday nights and I was preparing with friends. Something would come up and I would grab someone’s laptop like, “You’re always on call and you’re never able to have that peace of mind, and it’s very exhausting.” “

• Former Goldman Sachs investment-banking analyst in the US who left during the pandemic

“On average, you finish around 11 p.m. at night, which is perfectly normal. “

“I’m probably waking up around 7:30 in the morning.”

“It takes me about 30 to 45 minutes every night or every morning, depending on what my schedule looks like to train. There is a gym in my apartment, so I will just train fast. ”

“I’m probably coming in around 8:30, 8:45, they’re looking at emails. I usually have a few important calls around 9:10, then you have a good idea of ​​what you need to do in the afternoon. “

“On average, you finish around 11 pm, which is perfectly normal.”

“As an analyst, you want to be in the office and you miss that camaraderie, and it’s much easier to just jump to someone’s desk to see how something is being done, but we keep talking back and forth.”

“Employees are always connected and make sure you have a good idea of ​​what you are doing and will be happy to help you.”

• Current investment-banking analyst at BMO Capital Markets in the US