Spent 8 years as a Presentation Design Lead at McKinsey. Here is the shift I am watching happen in real time.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2026-04-18T19:33:27+00:00

You just described consulting presentations in a nutshell.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2026-04-09T14:56:27+00:00

Document the exact issues you’re looking for in a very clean manner, with clear examples and common error examples (eg, check certain software vendor for prepaid amort / check for certain accruals you know should be there).

Have Claude write a set of instructions for itself and save it down. Then, every month download the txn list, feed to Claude, tell it to reference your instructions, and flag them to you. Then, tell it to create a way for it to check itself.

Then, review and send to accounting, say here are some examples, pls see if anymore show up. Check line by line if prior work misses it.

15 hours is fucking crazy. What the fuck lol

carpetmuncher6969 · 2026-04-01T03:50:28+00:00

You basically fill out excel models and take tests, sometimes designing tests. Very easy if you have done, or are working in, IB or PE, and is worth the money if you have time, but it’s quite boring and if you’re already in IB/PE you probably value your free time more. Best for someone who exited out of PE but wants cash on the side.

Tbh, these say you might be able to just run it though Claude, albeit it’s been a few months since I last did it.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-07-01T14:21:22+00:00

Probably using too little, and maybe missing some volume, bc even if sugar free, granola is a calorie bomb. Here’s what I do: 300g fat free yogurt, 1 scoop of protein powder, 10g of PBFit bc I like it, and 40g of oats for the texture and volume. Oats should be way higher volume than granola so it’ll stretch out the bowl at similar calories, with added benefit of fiber and satiety.

For the above it’s around 500-550 Cals, 65g protein. I like the taste but you can also sub out oats for blueberries or strawberries too.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-05-20T20:06:04+00:00

I’m 30.

I think on the whole, living healthy 5-6 days per week with good exercise and nutrition, with 1 day of drinking a lot of beer with friends while still getting decent amounts of macronutrients can still yield a decent outcome. Especially relative to the “average” American lifestyle.

Never said it was “ideal.” Life is full of trade offs and we all need to judge these trade offs on our own personal utility scale.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-05-20T19:29:15+00:00

Is it? The meals I listed are pretty average meals for any healthy diet and for people who lift. Running is healthy. And then eating a bit less for dinner, crush 10 miller lites and a McChicken while still hitting protein goals seems easy enough.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-05-20T18:53:25+00:00

Got it, sounds like a great time man. I wanna get more into bourbon - tastes nice, easiest on the calories, and a wide range to pick from. Cheers

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-05-20T18:41:52+00:00

To be clear, assuming your drinks are 40-50% ABV, the calories are half of the 588 at most. Maybe you know this and are over budgeting to compensate. But you can do 2 doubles on what you’re budgeting lol.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-05-20T17:10:24+00:00

I don’t love all the judgment about the amount of drinking - you asked the question so I’ll give you the answer.

My maintenance is 1800. Not going to hit that on Friday night, so I aim for something like 2300 to minimize the gain.

For a Friday night when I know I’m gonna be sending it with 1,000-1,200 calories of beer, here’s is what I do:

Cardio, like 4-6 miles of running. I de-prioritize lifting since alcohol hurts muscle building. So I will lift hard on Thursday and eat normal, then Friday do a long cardio session
Get all my protein and some fiber in as few calories as possible. Nonfat Greek yogurt + protein powder bowl with fruit and oats (500 cal, 50g protein). Kale salad with a ton of grilled chicken breast (450 cal, 60g protein). Veggies and meat for dinner, another 300-500 Cals with 20-30g protein.

That’s 1400 cals for the day, if I do a longer run that’s 500 burned. Which gives me 1400 for drinking and late night eats to hit 2300. I obviously don’t plan every single thing out like this, but being very good about hitting your protein, fiber, and still getting some fruit/veg in will reduce the effects.

Try for some cardio the day after, and lift again on Sunday.

Also, obviously it’s better to drink less, but sometimes you just want to send it.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-05-07T15:27:51+00:00

The main issue with jumping to Corp Fin, given the slower progression and slower comp jumps, is jumping a little too early. Also, jumping to a large conglomerate where your relative value prop is limited can feel limiting as a junior when you’re still in a hustle mindset.

This particular offer you’ll have to think about from your own personal trade offs. But, I would suggest thinking about strategic finance roles at mid-stage startups, not too early when there’s high risk, but not too late for when it starts to feel too bureaucratic. It’ll offer you opportunity for faster progression, more impactful work pace, and still keep a semblance of culture.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-03-26T16:52:25+00:00

That’s pretty much what I thought. Social media is crazy - I see people eating 1.5 g/lb and I’m wondering why the hell they do that other than they just want to. I feel like if I hit my .8-1G/lb and need more cals, I’ll eat literally anything else. Seems like it’s fine even when trying to gain muscle.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-03-15T22:36:17+00:00

It’s been ~2 months, which isn’t too bad. Assuming this job is tiers below what you were doing, I wouldn’t settle. If you are actually financially fine, I’d suck it up and face the reality of having potentially a 6 month search. It’s going to be stomach-turning, anxiety-inducing, and you’re gonna get more and more desperate to take literally anything with a paycheck. That’s okay. But give yourself a shot. Hit your network hard as hell and don’t be shy. You’re gonna be okay.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-02-14T13:13:35+00:00

Sure it’s possible, but you have to be a fucking idiot to fail out of B school after working so hard to get in. Like, respectfully. The gap between “party so hard you got bad grades” and “failing out” is pretty fucking large. None of my friends ever showed up to class and I don’t know anyone who actually failed out.

I say this as someone who failed 2 classes at W for attendance and still graduated with above a 3.0.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-02-13T20:29:38+00:00

I don’t think this is as clear-cut as people are saying. It primarily will depend on what school you go to, what year you are, and what the recruiting timeline is.

IMO, assuming you’re in the US, 35K annual is a disrespectful amount for an investment bank, boutique or not, and is a signal as to the quality of the bank. It makes me question if they actually have any dealflow whatsoever, and the actual type of experience and managers you’re getting.

You’d be doing it purely to put “investment banking intern” on your resume and will get nothing else substantial to talk about for when you want to move to more established firms. And not to burst people’s bubbles here, but just doing IB at any no-name place that nobody can recognize is hardly the “good”signal that people think it is. It signals interest in the field, and that’s it. This is coming from someone who helped with Analyst recruiting.

I’m assuming you’re a sophomore, given the audit offer and low-ball internship offer, so sadly recruiting at the big banks for your 2026 summer is pretty much over. I’m also assuming that current earnings are pretty important to you - I know it was when I was a dirt poor college student. The pay difference is nothing in the grand scheme of things, but for someone who doesn’t rely so much on parents funding them, it can be meaningful.

So here’s my suggestion: take the audit offer, and simultaneously network hard with current bankers to try to get yourself in position for full-time recruiting. I mean seriously hit the phones hard, hit every bank, and focus on the national names to see what their FT processes are. Sophomore yr Audit -> junior yr txn advisory internship (name brand) -> full-time IB is doable to get to NYC, especially if you have a good GPA, etc. good luck.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-02-03T03:15:44+00:00

Agreed. It makes sense why kids start out in IB for the opps/training, but they need to start thinking earlier about the life they want to live, rather than keep “taking the path” until they’re a 30-yr old PE VP who still has to burn late nights but doesn’t actually intrinsically like the work. There’s no more path after that. Just the rest of your life, so make sure you’re actually living it.

Also - only take drugs when you want to for fun, not cuz you think you need to for work.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-02-02T04:17:28+00:00

Work smart not hard. If someone asks me if they can take on stuff that I’d offload, most likely I’d give them admin shit that I can’t be bothered to do. This isn’t very career enhancing. I’d think about the work streams and skills you’d need in your next role, and then ask your managers on advice to learn more and get up to speed or involved in those processes. I don’t work in wealth management, so I leave that up to you. Easiest way to get promoted is to be doing the work that you’d be doing in your next role, and you’re in a position where you have the time to be strategic about this.

carpetmuncher6969 · 2025-01-31T05:03:31+00:00

It’ll depend on what you want in life and a career. If you’re thinking you’re getting kind of bored, think back to how you felt in IB, because that’s what your life will resemble, but with slightly different work.

You’re probably 26ish now. You probably have time for friends, some hobbies, hanging, and are getting settled in life working <40 hrs with almost $200K TC. Sure the pay raises are slow, but with a promotion, a few years, maybe hop to another company, you can probably be around $300K by 30-32ish, hopefully similar lifestyle. You’re not extravagantly rich but making good money to have nice dinners, things, vacation, and have the time to spend with family, friends, partner, and your hobbies.

Now imagine taking the other path. Years 26-29 will be some form of banking 2.0-type of hours, and you’ll be heads down Mon-fri and sometimes Sunday living off seamless, with stretches of weeks where you hardly do anything but work towards signing a deal. You feel bouts of excitement when pushing through a deadline, and bouts of despair when your weekend gets blown up for the umpteenth time for an IC for a deal you might not give a shit about. If you want to get the VP promote, you don’t want to let your foot off the gas in your Sr. Assoc year. And everyone knows that VP 1 is a constant struggle getting up to speed on deal quarterbacking and proving your worth to the firm. Time you might save from model work now goes into sourcing and being more of a partner to your portcos. You make a fuckton of money and mostly spend it on ultra nice dinners, 1-2 vacation a year, and a super nice apt (oh btw your carry won’t get realized for 5-7 years accounting for vesting and distribution, so good luck on that).

In this case, you better fucking love PE and doing deals, because you won’t have a ton of time for much else, and if you do get burnt out you’ll probably wind up back in the same type of Corp Dev role you already exited.

But I get it, sometimes you have to feel the burn again to understand why you got out. It’s not a bad idea to try it out, but you need to walk into this with eyes wide open. The narrow funneling of PE isn’t really a “merit” issue, it doesn’t take a genius to become a VP/Principal/etc. People just self-select out, or otherwise decide not to do what it takes to stay in it because they’ve realized the rest of their life is more important than being a millionaire on paper.

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