i joined as an analyst expecting the usual “long hours” spiel. after three years i learned the honest patterns: steady 10–12 hour days most weeks, punctuated by 60–90 hour live weeks when deals are closing or a pitch deadline hits. the unpredictability is the real problem — you can plan for a 50–60 hour week and still get slammed. what helped me survive: build reusable templates, force 60–90 minute deep-focus blocks for analysis, and negotiate one concrete buffer per week (even if it’s just an hour to sort your inbox). i’m skeptical of “you’ll always have weekends” promises — they depend on desk, dealflow and your willingness to suck it up. what low-effort time-savers actually worked for you when hours went wild?
you’ll hear the “everyone pulls together” line in recruiting. reality: some groups run like clockwork, most run like a fire sale. expect 9–11hr normal days, and accept you’ll be on-call for live weeks. templates, saved models, and a short list of go-to teammates are lifesavers. also, stop treating your sleep like a negotiable expense — it’ll wreck your judgement on the one deal where you actually matter. good luck surviving without a second brain (read: notes and scripts).
honestly, learning to triage is the only skill that beats hours. if something can be done tomorrow, mark it. if it’s client-facing, drop everything. junior enthusiasm gets eaten by last-minute client asks; don’t be surprised. and yeah, you’ll learn to fake energy in the 11th hour. don’t glamorize it — just build systems so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every all-nighter.
i started with 12–13hr days and thought that was it. then live weeks hit and it was brutal. templates saved me. also, try asking seniors for “must-have vs nice-to-have” before starting tasks — it helped a lot.
any tips on bringing up buffers with senior bankers? felt awkward to ask at first.
When live weeks arrive, leaders often misjudge what juniors can carry. My advice: create a short ‘status + blocker’ note each evening so seniors can triage assignments the next morning. It makes you look proactive and reduces redundant asks that eat time. Also, keep a running log of what tasks took how long—use that data in conversations about realistic timelines and reasonable expectations. Have you tried sending a daily 2–3 line summary to your manager?
my first month i thought 60 hours was the ceiling — then a sale closed on a sunday and i learned ceilings are imaginary. i started keeping a single google doc with snippets: a checklist for comps, a trimmed slide set, and three canned email templates. one friday i used those templates and finished ahead; the senior actually praised my speed the next week. odd how small prep pays off. what tiny prep ritual could you try this week?
i remember a live week where we were down two analysts. i stopped doing anything that didn’t change the slide deck or the model. coffee-fueled triage isn’t glamorous but it’s effective. later, the senior asked who saved time — and my name was mentioned. sometimes survival gets you credit, weirdly.
Across several teams I tracked, baseline weeks averaged 50–65 hours; live weeks clustered at 75–95 hours with a long tail beyond 100 hours for critical closings. The variance correlated strongly with deal stage and client timezones. Practical mitigations that reduced average weekly hours by ~8–10% included standardized templates, prebuilt model modules, and a prioritized task list shared each morning. Cultural factors — e.g., clients expecting weekend touches — accounted for most outliers. What metrics could you start logging to test which fixes actually reduce your hours?
If you track time spent by task type, you often discover 20% of tasks consume 60% of your time. In my sample, reusing analysis modules cut model-building time by nearly half. Track the repeating tasks for two weeks and identify which ones to standardize — the ROI is surprisingly quick. Which recurring task feels most repetitive on your desk?