A question I've always pondered is why do people even decide to joing IBD if they're just going to leave after 2 or so years? The answer to that is likely the fact that it's a stepping stone to other careers or they've gotten sick of the hours (In addition to prestige, compensation, and all that other stuff). But if that's the case, why don't you just go to that other job in the first place? There's plenty of buy-side gigs available straight out of college and other finance-related jobs that don't require 80-100 hour work weeks. Why go through the trouble of doing IBD first and just pissing off a lot of people by leaving?
Case in point: I've been working at a BB for about a year now. In the past 3 months, we had 7 people in our group leave (Our group is only a little over 20 people so 7 is a lot especially in that short a time) and none of them have been in the firm for more than 2 years, a few even only ~7 months. We all put up a happy face as we bid them farewell, but these bittersweet moments to me were really just bitter.
I understand career goals and interests change over time, but this change should be a lengthy process that takes years. I'm not saying you should be able to predict your future, but being able to think 5 years ahead isn't difficult. Leaving your analysts stints after about 2 years is frustrating for the rest of us but still okay, because that's still some time [presumably] spent for thinking about career goals and interests. But to leave before even one year; that's just ridiculous and beyond frustrating. That shows you probably never liked IBD in the first place and probably looking for a new job on Day 1 (Which I learned isnt uncommon at all). Plus it shows you haven't given your career much careful thought, so how do you know you won't also just leave your next job after 7 months? Leaving any job in that short a time shows lack of commitment, making hiring you for any subsequent job very risky.
In addition to that, there's the work allocation. You might feel good about yourself for being able to secure another job, but in the meantime, there's work to be done; the same work that YOU for hired to do. And guess that happens to that work allocation when you decide to leave prematurely? That's right, the rest of us: your teammates whom you claimed to consider as a "second family" in your farewell emails (and borrowed money from and never paid back, but I'll let that slide). Now, almost every group is prepared for turnovers, but that doesn't mean they welcome it. In addition to increased work allocation for the rest of us, there's additional time spent just trying to figure out that allocation. This process is worst when people leave unexpectedly. If you do decide to ditch the people you've thought of "as family" at least be courteous and give a heads-up (Preferably a month in advance); one analyst in my group suddenly left one morning and didn't say a word (Our VP notified us over email about his departure). The re-allocation from this analyst's departure was by far the worst our whole group had experienced. This was already ridiculous those people were taking very inconveniently-timed "doctor's appointments" but to completely leave and ditch us with your work allocation, often times right in the middle of a major deal...is there a word for "empathy" in your native language?
I'm sorry for my rant, but I've just been supremely frustrated and tired lately. Even with new analysts who have joined, we're still dealing with re-allocations.