[JackFr]

I've worked for banks to 15 years or so, but always on the sales and trading side, rather than the investment banking side. In general, I like the industry. However, I've come to believe that the 90 hour analyst work week is hazing, pure and simple. It doesn't really matter what they're doing. Being a banker is a pretty plum job and it simply weeds out people who don't really want the job that badly. The other aspect is to gauge your personality & fit under adverse conditions, though the adverse conditions are artificial and arbitrary.

On trading desk the analyst/junior guys typically will work like 6:30 through 7:30, which is not that much more than anyone else. They will be required to get lunches, coffee and other assorted errands. Again, this too is a form of hazing.

[ceras]

My friends in finance definitely make it sound like hazing to me, just like you said. I have a friend whose boss had to talk to him about going too easy on the new analyst, so he had to toughen up and make the analyst's life harder just because.

[mercer]

In some ways it baffles me that anyone would voluntarily choose such a lifestyle for a payoff that doesn't seem worth losing so much of your youth over.

On the other hand, it amazes me how humans can do things that other humans consider insane. We're a flexible species, which I guess can be both good and bad!