Is a job/career/stint in the IBD without the possibility of an exit to the buy side within private equity or hedge funds worth it? I look up to and am envious of my IB analyst friends that are slaving away working 100 hour weeks at solid groups with good exit opportunities to the buy side, but question my other friends with lower GPAs or at groups where a legitimate switch to the buy side isn't viable.
The reason I ask this is because I am currently in an industry group in Corporate Banking and attended a top UG business school where I studied finance an graduated with a 2.9 GPA, thus understandably struck out during IB recruiting. However even if where to get an IB job out of college, would it have really been worth it since no buy side shop is going to look at someone with a 2.9GPA? 1 year in Corporate Banking and I have an opportunity to switch to IBD and while the pay bump would be nice, the hours would suck, and I know that a long term career in IBD for me is not sustainable, so I'm wondering what would be the point for me to switch to IBD just to burn out in a couple of years without any solid exit opportunities.
A lot of more senior people and top posters here have said that considering the work/life balance trade off, the money is not worth it, the exit opps are, but the money itself doesn't alone make up for the trade off in happiness. I look up to senior guys on the buy side and the top analysts at the top groups, but I don't necessarily picture myself ever being a senior IBD banker. Now, other division such as sales, PB, of ECM/DCM might be viable long term possibilities, but thats for another post.
I'd welcome some thoughts from anyone on here.