Man, my GF works so much... can you beat her hours?

[mmntech]

I work 10.5hr days. It's exhausting, but I do a lot of running around. They've been trying to make me the "go to guy" but I don't do overtime. Made that clear, even though they don't like it. Job pays too little and is basically dead end. I put my free time into career building. I'll gladly work 12hr days if I'm behind a television camera, but not cleaning cars and shuttling ungrateful douche-bags around.

 

[SSSnail]

LOL, you couldn't pay me enough to work for big 4.

 

[Audit]

so what are hours like for other white collar jobs in NYC that's not in public accounting? IT?

 

[BoomerD]

I work 10.5hr days. It's exhausting, but I do a lot of running around. They've been trying to make me the "go to guy" but I don't do overtime. Made that clear, even though they don't like it. Job pays too little and is basically dead end. I put my free time into career building. I'll gladly work 12hr days if I'm behind a television camera, but not cleaning cars and shuttling ungrateful douche-bags around.

What do you mean?

I work 10.5hr days. <snip> but I don't do overtime.

That's 2.5 hours of overtime every day...anything after 8 hours is overtime...

 

[alkemyst]

Yeah dude she is either cheating on you, not worth her money, easily coerced or making a killing.

If the latter I doubt you'd be posting.

 

[PrinceofWands]

It was only for a couple months, but worked without a day off, 16 1/2 hours every day. We were down so many people it was the only way to keep the contract. I was getting 231 hour paychecks every two weeks. Would have been nice if I'd been earning more than a few cents over minimum wage.

 

[Ben90]

She beat me on her hours.

 

[GoofyGoofT]

I'd love to have 4 day work week. I had an interview with such place.. Didn't get it.

that is a shame, sorry to hear that!

 

[DrPizza]

She just got her CPA actually.

In NJ, she had to necessary hours (or something) to get CPA (already passed test).

But since we moved to NYC, NYC doesn't require the hours. So she received her cool crisp certificate in mail few weeks ago. She's been with PwC for less than a year.

Okay, no more revealing about our personal life. :\ Gaining nothing.

If she's working 16 hour days, she doesn't have a personal life.

 

[Mo0o]

That seems pretty tame compared to entry level analysts at bulge brackets that work those hours all year round.

Years ago medical residents use to work 100+ hours a week on a regular basis. Now only the neurosurgery and ortho residents push 100/week with the official legal limit being 80/week for all residents in training.

During my general surgery rotation my regular hours were 5:00AM to 7PM 6 times a week with ever 4th day being on call (meaning you stay up the entire night)

 

[illusion88]

I worked a summer job putting fish in a box in AK. 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. That's 105 hours a week. Every hour after 8 in a day was OT and every hour after 40 in a week was OT. Made decent money when there was fish to put in a box. When the fish werent there, life sucked balls.

 

[Soccerman06]

That seems pretty tame compared to entry level analysts at bulge brackets that work those hours all year round.

Years ago medical residents use to work 100+ hours a week on a regular basis. Now only the neurosurgery and ortho residents push 100/week with the official legal limit being 80/week for all residents in training.

During my general surgery rotation my regular hours were 5:00AM to 7PM 6 times a week with ever 4th day being on call (meaning you stay up the entire night)

I recall talking to a doctor a little while ago, and he said theres a push for 60hr/week residency. 30 hours on 30 hours off, and so on. This was at the Mayo Clinic, so who knows if it will spread.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Props to her. I have a few female friends in Big 4. PwC, KPMG, and E&Y. The friend at KPMG quit to do finance stuff elsewhere, but dang.... I don't think I could deal with it.

TBH, depending where you get put, it can be an average job. You just get that busy week on a monthly basis typically... Iono. For some people it's not bad. I have guy friends there too, and some are doing just fine.

 

[timosyy]

Granted I'm in IT, but this thread makes me kind of glad I didn't accept any of the Big 4 offers coming out of college (last year).

I had a comparable/better starting salary, work 7.75 hours a day, and get paid overtime (non-exempt). Bonuses/raises are lower though.

Every now and then I still do wonder if I didn't shoot myself in the foot by not going the Big 4 route. The work I do right now is something I could probably teach a high-schooler to do, and I worry about what will happen 3-5 years down the line when I'm looking for a new job (very likely). Big 4 works you to the bone but it seems to be easy to jump ship when the time comes.

 

[SP33Demon]

If she's working 16 hour days, she doesn't have a personal life.

Or she's got a personal life with a coworker. Very common in stressful jobs with long hours where you are spending most of your time with coworkers vice significant others.

 

[JS80]

Granted I'm in IT, but this thread makes me kind of glad I didn't accept any of the Big 4 offers coming out of college (last year).

I had a comparable/better starting salary, work 7.75 hours a day, and get paid overtime (non-exempt). Bonuses/raises are lower though.

Every now and then I still do wonder if I didn't shoot myself in the foot by not going the Big 4 route. The work I do right now is something I could probably teach a high-schooler to do, and I worry about what will happen 3-5 years down the line when I'm looking for a new job (very likely). Big 4 works you to the bone but it seems to be easy to jump ship when the time comes.

What do you do now?

 

[Evadman]

My current record for 1 paycheck is 91 hours the first week, 96 the 2nd week. Then, I said fvck this, I'm going on vacation for week 3.

 

[krunchykrome]

That's what public accounting is. I've worked public accounting; luckily I work in corporate now. When I was in public accounting, 60-70hr work weeks was the norm.

You have to pay your dues; IMO, all accountants should spend some time in public accounting.

 

[Connoisseur]

Been working in my company for almost 6 years in NYC; joined right out of college. We do comparable/competing work to the Big 4 (forensic accounting, financial investigations, restructuring, corporate finance, litigation support, PR). I'm in the litigation support/e-discovery group. When I first joined I was pulling 12-14 hour days and weekends very regularly. Everyone in my group was doing on average ~70-90 hour weeks; this went on for about two years. However, i've become a manager in my group and it's gotten a lot easier now that I can delegate the work. On average, I have 40-50 hour weeks; I only work at most ~60-65 hour weeks for a month or two if a tight-deadline case comes through and even that's getting stressful. It's not the job I love but I get paid fairly well and the hours are fairly normal.

I'm with others on the board. If you don't have a passion for the job or the job isn't going to get you to that position you are passionate about, working crazy hours isn't going to help you move up in the world. You'll only burn yourself out and end back in square one.

The other groups in my company (forensic accounting, corporate finance etc.) still work 70-80 hour weeks. God bless em. They run on a much more Big-4 like model.