"I am a junior investment banker. When I am not working, I am looking for a different job"
I am a junior investment banker working in the technology, media and telecommunications team (TMT) at a European bank in London. I read this article about the difficult life of a TMT banker and I suspect it was written by one of my colleagues.
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Life here is tough. The culture at the bank I work for leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe this is the case at all European investment banks. People don't stay in this team. No one seems inclined to stay more than two years and many people leave after one.
I want to leave too. I spend most of my time working but during the times that I'm not working, I'm looking for other opportunities. It's a gruelling existence and leaves me with little time to myself.
It seems strange that the bank is unwilling to examine the reasons for all the departures. The problem here lies in the way that certain senior bankers manage the team and the effect that this has on junior staff. This is why juniors keep leaving. Management and HR are very aware that there are retention issues, but seem unbothered. Instead of examining the problem, they just keep hiring more managing directors (MDs) and vice presidents (VPs).
This will become a problem. At some point, they will not have enough good juniors to do the work. Maybe they think that AI will compensate.
For now, people continue to vote with their feet. I can only hope my next employer will be rather better and that it's not like this everywhere in banking.
Elias Pennington is a pseudonym
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