Young Bankers Fed Up With 90-Hour Weeks Move to Startups

Re:Young Bankers Fed Up With 90-Hour Weeks Move to Startups by gutnor on Friday May 09, 2014 @10:13AM (#7720933)

Or you do like a friend of mine - you work for 3-4 years like a slave, once you move in the hierarchy you still work 90 hours a week but that now include "networking" activities like golf and extended lunches.

You drag it while you can, buying a new flat cash with the bonus you get each year. At 32, the bank finally noticed, you are fired with a few years salary and you retire in your all-paid luxury flat, enjoy income from your other 5 flats, get kids and enjoy seeing them grow while living in a luxury.

The only problem of that lifestyle is that in the first 3-4 years, you have basically 1 chance in 10 to make it through. After working in such pressure, you are brainwashed, so it takes some serious willpower to first invest your money properly instead of living the high life and then prepare your exit strategy.

edit: the bank finally notice that you are not as eager as the next batch of freshly promoted coworker. So if your department made slightly less profit, you get selected in the next batch of firing that happen generally just before bonus time.

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Re:Young Bankers Fed Up With 90-Hour Weeks Move to Startups by wil421 on Friday May 09, 2014 @10:48AM (#7721129)

So your friend was the 1 in 10. What happens to the other 9?

For me my priorities are providing for my future family and being there with them. I wouldnt want to be gone when my child walks or other small events early in life.

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Re:Young Bankers Fed Up With 90-Hour Weeks Move to Startups by rayiner on Friday May 09, 2014 @11:06AM (#7721246)

I was billing hours while my wife was in labor (it's actually a pretty long and boring process). My kid was almost certainly in daycare when she took her first steps. She won't remember anything that happens before four or five. Whether I'm there for any particular random milestone only has the importance that I assign to it mentally. Obviously kids want your time and you need time with them. The best part of my day is when my daughter toddles up to me when I get home. But kids are usually really flexible. You don't have to be there for artificial milestones just because some parenting magazine hypes them up.

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Re:Young Bankers Fed Up With 90-Hour Weeks Move to Startups by gutnor on Friday May 09, 2014 @11:30AM (#7721388)

The other 9 either try and try again until they are wasted. The other just fall back on regular job, like what happens for developers when they tire of startup.

About the priorities, the problem is the brainwashing and easy money that lead people to try to get always more.

If you have the willpower you are able to retire very early and be with your kids full time while still living a life normal people need 2 good full time salaries to live.

I would not have had the willpower my friend displayed so I have limited regrets. But I still need to put my kid at the nursery in November, need to live in a foreign country far from our family and live in poor area of the city that I hope I will be able to leave before I need to send my kid to school.

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Re:Young Bankers Fed Up With 90-Hour Weeks Move to Startups by Synroc on Friday May 09, 2014 @10:34AM (#7721048)

Wait so the bank fired him for buying new flats every year ?

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Re:Young Bankers Fed Up With 90-Hour Weeks Move to Startups by gutnor on Friday May 09, 2014 @10:50AM (#7721146)

I edited my comment for precision, but what happens is that the bank finally notice that you are not as eager as the next batch of freshly promoted coworker. (i.e. you have a life on the side, you cannot be contacted during the we, you go on holiday, ...)

So if your department made slightly less profit that year, you get selected in the next batch of firing that happen generally just before bonus time.

Note that firing is a regular event for bankers. There is not much stigma attached to it, you just need to have the willpower to use the opportunity to retire.

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