Hi guys,I am writing here because I feel quite disoriented and could use some random advice. I have been working for one year in one of the MBB firms, having done a science PhD before. My performance reviews have been quite good and I'm on track for getting promoted, so it looks like everything's fine. However, I am not happy. From monday to friday I only work, and those days when I manage to leave earlier (such as today) I can't plan anything on advance. I used to have a huge social life before joining this company, and now I totally lost it. Comparing myself to some of my colleagues, I guess I'm lucky enough not having had to work on weekends - but I can't avoid thinking I'm working too much.If it weren't for work-life balance I would think this is a really good job. However, working so much makes me a bit depressed and wondering what life is about, and I would totally exchange a slower career path for a better lifestyle. So this is my question for you guys: Considering I am happy in a consulting job but would like to improve dramatically my lifestyle (I would totally settle for a 9-to-7 job) - which kinds of jobs would you recommend me to look for? Thanks a lot!

Welcome to the reality of the glamourous world of tier 1 strat houses. Not as glamourous as one thought maybe? Several things:1. Stop whinging. Welcome to the jungle. 2. You have only been working 1 year after an extended stint in the relatively comfortable world of academia. Some culture shock is to be expected. We all make the compromise between work/life and do so to get paid for it. It's called 'work'. 3. You are not working too much. MBB probably think you are working just about enough. You think you are working too much. This disambuguation cannot be solved unless one decides to part company with the other. 4. Being happy is a fleeting concept. Do not confuse happiness with contentment. The latter is fundamental to living a life worth living. The former can be gained from incidental experiences and is a hormonal drug. 5. With 1 year at MBB and a PhD under your belt you are still maleable to do ...anything. So what do you want to do? What do you enjoy? If you are passionate about something, working long hours wont seem like a sacrifice.

Mike, Mars is quite right of course and I really do feel for what you're going through right now. I've been in exactly that same position myself. As a junior analyst, I would sit at my desk at 10.00pm at night doing pointless errands at the minute-by-minute whim of some senior associate, dreaming about what it would be like to be one of the admin staff with their family-friendly lifestyles and decent work-life balance. There I was, earning not a lot more, yet working double the hours, doing difficult work, being at the beck and call of overly-ambitious MBAs, and living this dreadful lifestyle that, quite frankly, felt not unlike slavery actually. Being shipped all over the place, never knowing from one day to the next what I would be doing, considering myself extremely lucky and suddenly "free" if I managed to get out of work by 7.00pm one day, and actually fantasising about having a job where the hours were as short as being able to leave the office by 7.00pm every day! Fancy that, a job where you could be out of the office by 7.00pm EVERY DAY! It would have been like working part time.My advice is, get out. Do it as fast as you can. You are extremely employable, despite the effect that receiving constant "feedback" will have had on your self-esteem. You aren't earning much right now, despite all the hype about being a "master of the universe", and you can do pretty much just as well in industry. Look around you. Do you want to be like one of those losers who you currently report to? It's fine for them working these hours, what with their big salaries, but what's in it for you? Certainly not the £50K bonus at the end of the year, that's for sure. So why are you doing it? For career prospects? Well you've got the name on your CV now, so cash it in. As a very highly educated, highly employable person, you don't have to settle for that sort of working atmosphere. Look at what it's doing to you. You know you're not happy. Does it get better? Probably not, if you stay put. Having to go through an "up or out" every year, and being savaged by job-end appraisals? Pfft. You don't need that sort of grief. In fact, you literally don't need it - you're bright enough to have proved yourself already actually. The prospect of more money in the future is always a difficult compromise, but really the tax man takes most of it anyway and the more you have the more you want. There's nothing wrong with settling down in the second or third quartile - in fact, I think that's the best place to be.

BEP + 1Mike it would be a sort of tragedy to watch whoever you are now getting slowly burned out of you.

I kind of agree but why not grit your teeth and do another year, learn more and then leave (when lots of MBB people do/ at the natural point). 1 year looks like you couldn't hack it I think if you've spent 3 years doing a phd it couldn't hurt to get another year's proper work experience under your belt. Yeah you've got the brand name but what else? Unless of course you have an idea of what you would rather being doing, in which case of course go for it ...

[quote]I kind of agree but why not grit your teeth and do another year, learn more and then leave (when lots of MBB people do/ at the natural point). 1 year looks like you couldn't hack it I think if you've spent 3 years doing a phd it couldn't hurt to get another year's proper work experience under your belt. Yeah you've got the brand name but what else? Unless of course you have an idea of what you would rather being doing, in which case of course go for it ... [/quote]Can't argue with your rationale Alexander, but 1 year in MBB doesnt look like you cant hack it. In fact if someone stayed there 2 years when it felt like torture I would be questioning their judgement (or lack of), but then it really depends on what Mike wants to do. And saying someone can't hack it in MBB isnt the same as making that statement about Accenture, Big 4 etc. If someone spends a year in the Royal Marines and leaves does that make them a quitter? Or do we focus on the fact they had what it took to get there in the first place? As for brand - well people leave all manner of places after a year, and if you are going to have 1 year of a brand on you CV, well may as well be MBB..But agree he needs a plan. Dont just leave with no idea where to go next.

For some people, making up your mind about leaving in the next 6/12 months as soon as another occasion comes up is usually enough to actually get the mental strength to keep going those 6/12 months if that makes sense.

I say get the hell out of consulting while you can if you want to have a life. I too had to give up everything in my social life for the past 2 years to go and work whenever and wherever the work may be. I've managed to find a better paid role with just as good benefits but permanently based in an office so actually being able to go back to my actual home at the end of a working day - now there's a novelty! You are highly employable with your skills and qualifications. I don't agree at all that happiness is fleeting. Your work life should come second to your home life, not the other way round or at least be in harmony with it. I once heard someone say that the key to a happy and long term employee is one who has a happy home life with a successful work-life balance.

I once worked for a ghastly company where their view on "work life balance" was "making sure that home doesn't interfere with work". Getting the "right balance" involved staying in hotels so that family couldn't bother you, not taking personal calls during the day, and having regular "leisure time" that consisted of having drinks in the office at 8pm on a friday or alternatively a pizza on saturday lunchtimes inbetween doing some powerpoints.

[quote]I say get the hell out of consulting while you can if you want to have a life. I too had to give up everything in my social life for the past 2 years to go and work whenever and wherever the work may be. I've managed to find a better paid role with just as good benefits but permanently based in an office so actually being able to go back to my actual home at the end of a working day - now there's a novelty! You are highly employable with your skills and qualifications. I don't agree at all that happiness is fleeting. Your work life should come second to your home life, not the other way round or at least be in harmony with it. I once heard someone say that the key to a happy and long term employee is one who has a happy home life with a successful work-life balance. [/quote]Erm, and do you think this new better paid role came about because of your qualifications or because of your time in role at a consulting firm??Somebody with an Oxbridge first is of course highly employable! but let's not forget that there are thousands of them around the place in a highly competitive market.My personal opinion is that telling someone to 'get the hell out of consulting while you still can' is, at best, poor advice?

Trying to pull the various snippets together.....Where does BEP work?Where is Marsday at the moment?

It is a shame to read this story but if you really are not happy then it is neither good for you or your employer. There are options to join consulting firms with a better work life balance and UK travel only with less hours during the day.My advice (and I am a recruiter in this space and a former management consultant) is weigh up the pros and cons. One year at a MBB is good so moving on would not look too bad on your CV.The decision is yours.