Finance Bros & Skiing

I don't work in IB, but work in corporate finance. it's an unfortunate reality that you will not be able to ski as often as you'd like.

Doing the grind here in Denver. Moved from NYC. Rent a house up in the mtns all winter. Spend most of my weekends up there / lot of holidays and days off as well. Probably got around 50ish days last year. Can take some random days off in the winter which helps mid week and having a house up there to avoid traffic makes pow days so much better when 70 closes down way before the tunnel or vail pass or whatever. No complaints love it here and content with my skiing amount.

Also have a friend in Tahoe doing something similar...farther drive but wayyy better skiing.

Life is a give/take...want to ski 100 days a year? Dont expect to make the money we make in finance

BenWhitI don't work in IB, but work in corporate finance. it's an unfortunate reality that you will not be able to ski as often as you'd like.

Understandably you cant have your cake and eat it to but looking for stories on people making it 30+ days with finance jobs in Boston, NYC, LA or Denver (think Private Equity, IB, Hedge Fund type roles)

Fuck it, dude. Work your current gig for a little bit, save some money, and then give the seasonal hourly ski resort town worker life a go for a minute next year or whatever. It seems impossible to balance a great high-paying job that probably demands a lot from you and being able to bank 60+ days/year.

id hold off on a career change because there aren't a whole lot of industries that really allow you to ski a bunch. Hospitality is probably the better choice which is really just glorified service industry stuff, but its brutal and most wages are barely livable but youll be skiing so damn much youll eventually get a bit burned out lol.

So yeah either stick with what you got, make a ton of money, don't ski as much but still get to ski

or move to a resort town, work seasonal gigs, ski a bunch, but are baaaarely being able to cover the bottom line.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Fidelity all have offices in SLC

corey12Understandably you cant have your cake and eat it to but looking for stories on people making it 30+ days with finance jobs in Boston, NYC, LA or Denver (think Private Equity, IB, Hedge Fund type roles)

I'm not in finance (I'm a civil engineer dealing with mine waste byproducts) and even 40+ days is easy with just having weekends off. I do live in Denver though and Colorado has a decently long season.

Do you have flextime? How much vacation time do you get? Really if you use your vacation only in the winter I bet it would be easy to get 50+ days provided you have the funds for some lodging which it sounds like you probably do if you work in finance.

Not in Finance, but have heard that pe offers pretty good work life balance.

I work in Boston and when the winter comes around I drive up to NH every Friday night. I'm lucky enough to have family that lives up there that I can stay with otherwise it would be a lot tougher. Although, it does mean i lose touch with most of my friends since i basically disappear all winter...

corey12Understandably you cant have your cake and eat it to but looking for stories on people making it 30+ days with finance jobs in Boston, NYC, LA or Denver (think Private Equity, IB, Hedge Fund type roles)

Yeah, definitely didn’t mean to rain on your parade. I do about half my days each season on trips out west, which helps. Boston is really accessibly in terms of skiing, I have pretty easy access to mt snow or Waterville. Great skiing at Stowe isn’t much further. If I really wanted to get 30 days, I’m sure I could. For me it’s an issue of mixed priorities holding me back.

Do you work for a big bank or boutique firm? That makes a huge difference.

Not quite the field you are in, but I did consulting the last few years, it was pretty easy to get days (30+) in over the last few years and i generally had flexibility for pow days since i busted my ass to get ahead in my work during the winter. I recently got burnt out on heavy work hours with 40% travel. I eventually took a job with a better work life balance but less income potential and loving it. However, i'm glad i went hard at my career early, learned a ton and do not regret any of it.

Just work smarter not harder, and try to maintain your fitness and stress levels. You should be fine for the next few years skiing even with an intense job. Typically the closer you get to management and beyond the more work eats up your life, wages increase with less skiing outside of vacations. There are always exceptions and I've met a few in upper mgmt positions that can handle a crazy workload, start a family, keep in great shape and still get at it hard.

**This post was edited on Dec 13th 2017 at 3:32:21pm

**This post was edited on Dec 13th 2017 at 3:32:46pm

I did it and am still doing it (to an extent), in the PE world (all while hopefully starting up a ski co. as well). I agree with a lot of these guys, I'll tell you first hand its a grind, but stick with it. in the long run you'll probably be better off having the IB background, at least for a little bit. put in enough time and hopefully you'll be able to choose when and where you want ski and not have to report to anyone.

not sure what type of IB your doing, but maybe you can find something that has a connection to ski industry...a tech. connection?.

the way i do it is, you pretty much pack up Thursday night and as soon as the bell rings on Friday try and get out the door. but you're going to get to the VT, NH, Maine area late at night anyway so no real rush, if you can bang out something that's due Monday AM, get it done, it makes monday that much easier.

Also helps if you have a place to stay.

One thing i can say for certain that i learned doing this... days don't matter, it might be cool to say i got X days, but just have fun out there when you can get out.

if you want to chat off-line happy to help.
Joe

Not in finance either, but you moving to a city near major resorts can help immensely so that on your days off you can ski. SLC is my vote since it's large and so close to mountains. Denver would be second. Also consider that people living in these cities might be more understanding of your need to ski more, as they may do the same- in sharp contrast to NYC where money is everything. When searching for a new job and bargaining salary and benefits, ask for more vacation over pay; companies are more likely to give out extra vacation time versus an extra $5-10k in salary. Plus your mind will thank you too for that time off. What about business trips to ski resorts? Isn't that what you rich bankers do anyway and call it a meeting?

In the end though, follow your heart. It's not worth working a job you hate. Do what makes you happy, whether or not that involves skiing or a high paying job.

gr4Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Fidelity all have offices in SLC

Doesn't snow here

But I'm on same type deal as original dude. I ski weekends and holidays. When it's good. Where I want, backcountry. I don't have a pass.