Interested in Finance
Hey I'm a student trying to find out which area of Finance I would best be suited for. My goal is to help figure out which internships I want to try and land in the sophomore and junior year to make myself more attractive during full time hiring.Here are some things about me:
1. First and foremost I want to say that money isn't an issue. I have family connections to the oil industry that have offered me jobs (work up to 6 digit salary within 4 years tops) but I'm not really passionate about it.
2. I am a very logical thinker and have gotten a 4.0 in every math course so far. I'm not very quick on my feet when it comes to mental math, but I usually will be sure of my answer. When I write tests I am usually accurate within 5% of what I scored because I'm really confident in what I know, and I can easily tell which questions I'm not 100% sure about. (I hope that makes sense)
3. I am sort of slow at reading. Reading books is painful especially when I don't care about the story. I like to read as much as I can about things that I am interested in (right now its career choices out of undergrad).
4. I've been running a fashion blog for close to 3 years now that has a 5 digit subscriber count.
5. My current job requires me to work 12 hour days (+1 hour paid travel) and I feel like if needed, I could handle more.
As far as my "stats" are:
3.5 GPA (Freshman year): I'm looking to improve this year by actually studying. I have a nice little studio apartment with no room mates so I can actually focus instead of being in a dorm where I partied at any chance I had.
Resume: I worked as a cold caller (would eventually meet clients in person too) and a sales associate in high school. For my freshman summer (currently) I am working at the oil company with payroll and our cost analysts (first summer student to ever help out, actually networked my way in during July).
I'm not sure what else to include but I'll answer any questions.
From what I can tell, I have a pretty good set up to be in PWM. I have plenty of friends that are making 100k-300k a year, as well as their parents who have been in the business for years.
Take the oil career.
I have it as a backup if I don't land any FT offers after graduation, but honestly I only want to do that as a last resort.
Follow the money and in your case that is oil. Everything else looks great because you haven't seen the inside of it yet. Making 6 figures by your mid 20s is great, especially for an MBA if you decide you really do want to switch. How long do you think it will take you to get 50-75MM of business in PWM?
a stellar growth rate is 10mm per year in AUM, and if you have one of the higher ROAs in the business (70bps+) and work at a wirehouse, you'll need about 100mm in AUM to get ~300k in income (assuming 0% growth in market net net)
100mm * 70bps ROA = 700k gross revenue *55% haircut from firm = 315k income
so by my math, that's 10 years, and while lots of people do it faster, I have 10+ year vets in my office who still haven't gotten there.
expect to make under 100k for your first 5 years in PWM and not have a social life
read my blog on PWM for more detail, but I'd steer clear of PWM. it doesn't sound like you want to sell, and that's what PWM is (at the 300k income level you alluded to). I also say this because PWM is not logical at all. investing is an art, not a science, and humans are anything but logical when it comes to their money, so rather than being logical, I feel like a therapist/parent/guidance counselor/lifeguard more often than I feel like a portfolio manager.
ask yourself what you want out of your work more than tell us what you're good & bad at. things like the myers briggs personality type can help steer you in the right direction. you may be the type of person who gets terrified by the thought of having to "sell," or you may love being in the room but feel like a caged lion if you're in an office all day.
the thing is dude, all jobs you get at graduation will look relatively the same: you will work a lot, a lot of it will seem pointless, you will have to learn an immense amount, and you will probably spend a lot of your free time trying to get to the next job.
what I'd do if I were in your shoes:
read the top threads of all time
read the WSO FAQs
hold a shitload of informational interviews and ask about the work, daily skills used, best personality fit, who has failed at the job & why (could clue you in to bad personality matches), and advice on where to learn more
get over your hatred of reading, most jobs require lots of reading, and most of it is not interesting. pick a few companies you like and read their annual reports
try to find out exactly what it is about this oil company that you find uninteresting. if the work is significantly worse than what you imagine your alternatives are, then I'd say pass. HOWEVER, you will be 22 when you graduate (I assume), if you can get a 6 figure job that would look good on a resume if you ever left, then I say why the hell not do it?
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