BSchoolorBust wrote:
Hey Sarzan,
I agree with you that there is a lot of exaggeration going on. In fact, I was reading some student profiles last week and a few seemed a bit unbelievable to me. For example:
- Former analyst investment banker at a bulge bracket firm found time to assist a volunteer group building shelters for homeless people
- Another former analyst investment banker started a tutoring service for disadvantaged kids in his community
- And other similar stories ...
Now, not to be a cynic or anything, but my brother used to work as a consultant. He worked in Australia, where the hours are significantly better than those in the US, and he still put in around 60 hours a week. He had practically no spare time and had absolutely no time for any community service whatsoever. Hell, he didn't even have time to spend with his younger bro (my shameless attempt for sympathy). Any spare time he had, he spent it in bed sleeping. Seeing what he went through, I find it really hard to believe that an investment banker in the US (who works longer hours) would have time to do so much community service.
I dunno, maybe I'm just a cynic, and maybe there are guys out there who can get away with four hours sleep a night indefinitely. What do you guys think?
I can only speak for myself... I work (on average) about 60 hours a week at my new job (some weeks more), and I do find some spare time to help out. I'm also still studying for the GMAT, so that takes up a lot of my free time.
But at my previous job, with traveling about 100-110 days of the year (about 10-15 trips), which were mostly all scheduled at the last minute, my life was on call ALL the time. I couldn't plan anything with any of my friends or family. During those trips, I would work over 80 hours a week easy, without factoring in travel time and commuting time. And when I would be back at the office, exhausted, I would still put in about 50 hours a week. So with that work schedule, the only community service I would do when I was back was rest so as to not flip out on anyone! Its one of the reasons I switched jobs - not so much for the hours of work, but for the unpredictability of my schedule. I literally couldn't plan anything, like even scheduling the cable guy to come in.
Now my schedule is: work 12 hours a day, study for the GMAT during the week. And on weekends I help out and also study for the GMAT and work on my essays. what a life!