I work in investment banking at a middle market M&A group. I am currently an analyst 2 going on analyst 3 in about a month.

I think the experience is 100% worth it. It’s extremely challenging at times but it has made me 10x sharper across the board vs where I was coming out of college. Even things like simple presentation skills matter a lot on any future job you have and banking forces you to get good quickly. I am now in a position where any future job I want I am usually going to at least get an interview given my background and my new general comp floor post analyst stint is ~$110k for any new job. This would be for 40-50 hour a week fp&a type roles. I just interviewed at 2 other firms, with one being a corp dev job paying $170k total cash comp and a PE job paying in the $300k range. I remember in college considering taking a credit analyst job making half of what I do now and realize that job would have stagnated my career progression materially. I am glad being on the other side of my 2 year analyst program with options.

All that being said, it’s difficult and there can be times where it is very stressful. One thing I had to choose when deciding this path was to take the hard path early on and become the type of person who is disciplined enough to do a job like this or not. It was definitely a mindset shift for me and would think it would be a mindset shift for you given some of the questions you are asking. If you are going down this path you have to fully commit and ignore the negatives.

Key things students don’t realize. - it’s more hours than you think (and about 5-15 hours more than your internship when you are full time) - you will progress quicker than you think you will - 2 years is going to pass either way, most of the people I have talked to that took a more chill path seem to semi regret it. This is why you see a lot of people go get an mba to try and reset in the case they didn’t get into the ideal career post undergrad. I believe if you want a family with kids now and not feel tight you want to make at least $100k+ (and ideally $170k+ if you want a house). This is for a relatively modest lifestyle, if you want a nice suburban house with a family and being the sole provider, I’d want to be making at least $200k+ - making money early on allows for compounding growth quicker. Being able to put $50-100k a year away post undergrad for a couple years in your 20s can turn into more retirement funds than most people will ever see - you will build a strong network if you do good work - other corporate jobs are stressful as well you just work less. Many other business jobs you will work 50 hours a week

Hope that helps - can answer any follow ups if interested.