I live in NYC and work a high pressure corporate job. I’ve had a variety of different jobs in my life and this has been by far the hardest. I’ve been here since the summer of last year after graduation, and heard no shortage of horror stories concerning the industry, but decided to proceed anyway given the fantastic experience and prestigious firm.

It’s been just as bad as advertised. In February I billed 230 hours. March was 260, April has shown no signs of slowing down. I have worked the last five weekends in a row on both Saturday and Sunday and will have to work this weekend as well, likely the next too assuming this deal I’m working on continues. Last night I had a partner scream f bombs at me on the phone at 1 AM over a really unimportant mistake I made while sending out emails to clients completely exhausted at midnight.

I’ve realized I’m definitely not cut out for this lifestyle. I’m totally fine with that, but I need to stick this out for a few years in order to have the experience needed for a better work life balance job. I’m all good with paying dues in this industry, but any tips on how to make this a little more bearable?