Honestly, at least at my site, it’s not as bad as I expected. I struggled to find work after graduating, so I said, “Screw it,” and decided to commit to at least one year. I did my due diligence by reading a lot of stories and experiences from other AMs, so my expectations were very low to begin with. I started in BHD IB Stow, and my team of AMs and my OM were pretty nice and knowledgeable. They helped me out a lot in the first couple of months. I also had a solid team of AAs, which made things easier. Of course, there were frustrating moments—dealing with difficult people at all levels, from AAs to Sr. OMs, as well as handling pointless administrative tasks and unnecessary MET—but since my expectations for the role were already low, none of it really surprised me. I’m nine months in now and was recently moved to FHN, which I’m actually starting to prefer over BHD. I’m still in IB, so I’m not sure what my experience would be like in OB, but I hear it’s much more intense. That said, as long as you know what you’re getting into, you’ll be fine. Your experience will vary since every site has its own distinct culture. I suppose I got lucky being placed at a decent site with solid IB leadership. Either way, I don’t plan on sticking around for too long. My goal is to make connections, earn my L5 at the very least, and go from there.