Ex-investment banker that worked 16 hour days: "I'm happy I did it because I'm on the other side."
Jonathan Tristan, an ex-bulge bracket investment banker, started a TikTok account in June, focused on providing budgeting and financial advice. He's since used the account to expand on his time in banking, and grown the account to over 125k followers with 5 million likes. He doesn't paint the prettiest of pictures.
Tristan converted an internship, then spent two years in banking, during which he "spent every day working 16/17 hours per day." He left four years ago, however, and currently lives in California.
The hours had serious adverse effects on his mental and physical health; he developed severe insomnia and psoriasis. He also said his hairline got "cooked" by the stress, but noted it had "actually stopped since I left."
The most concerning health issue regarded his heart. He was sent to a cardiologist by the bank when he thought he was having a heart attack, only to discover that his blood pressure was "scarily high." Heart health concerns in banking have been exacerbated by multiple high-profile deaths in recent years, the most famous of which being Bank of America associate Leo Lukenas, who was also alleged to have worked extensive hours.
A viral post from Tristan yesterday, which has already received over 1.3m views, revealed that his bank had two classifications of illness: "sick" and "sick sick". The former is when bankers are ill but still capable of working, the latter is when they actually need to take time off. Naturally, when Tristan said he was sick sick, he was asked if he could work a half day instead. PTO, he said, was similarly hard to get, and analysts were told to only take up to five days off in their first year in his team.
Tristan elaborated on why banks demand those 100-hour weeks. He said that one of the main reasons is that the role is similar to that of an on-call junior doctor: "The reason we’re paid so much is to be available to do whatever they ask you to do whenever they ask you to do it." In reality, "the actual day-to-day work that you do is really not that complicated," (unless you're on a live deal), but you'll always be ready for the next 'pls fix'.
While Tristan attests that banking has a lot of "genuinely good people," he said that banking hours are often exacerbated by people with "this notion that ‘I suffered so you need to suffer too’". Banking is a highly coveted industry, with "100 people in line" to take the job, and Tristan says a minority of people treat you as expendable because of it.
Tristan said that banking didn't just take up two years of his life, but an "eight year commitment before that... to even position myself to get that job." While he said he was happy he'd done it, it was only because he was "on the other side," and wasn't sure if he'd have gone into banking if he knew then what he knows now.
There were good things about banking too. Tristan praised the radical honesty of banking culture, and said finance has "the highest number of straight shooters per capita." He said it's also a great place to make friends, and that he became very close with the person he sat next to on his first day. Then there's the pay: Tristan said he made ~$140k in his first year and $200k in his second.
Tristan didn't respond to a request for comment on which bank he worked for. FINRA's BrokerCheck tool shows that a Jonathan Tristan Finkel worked at Deutsche Bank from 2019 to 2021.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: Telegram: @AlexMcMurray, Signal: @AlexMcMurrayEFC.88 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate.
Image Soure: Envato
