It seems like there has been a recent slew of existentialist posts these days- "what is your saga", "life goes on", etc. I figured I would add my contribution as well.
Like others, I might be doing banking for the wrong reasons- not really for the status, money, and certainly because of the accounting I've had to learn, but because, for some strange, bizarre reason, I really enjoy "hustling" my way into the industry from a complete non-target. I enjoy aggressively sending cold-emails, cold-calling firms and tracking down bankers, and practicing my "elevator pitch". I've really enjoyed the interview process, and I think I was actually happier before I landed my IBD SA rather than after. Simply put, I enjoyed the process of breaking into banking more than actually doing banking.
I realized this when I started my internship and talked to the others about their experiences. To be frank, the stories I heard were fairly boring- mostly finance majors that had taken an accounting class and dropped their resumes online. A lot of them actually enjoyed accounting more than cold-calling, hustling, or interviewing. The networking I've done is hardly analytical or intellectual in the normative sense, but it's been a hell of a ride. The problem is, it appears that the ride ends once you actually break into the industry and must work on pitchbooks and run models.
Look, I'm not judging bankers at all and in some respects, some of them are a lot smarter/hard-worker/more mature than me. But if "I" am not "them", should I just stop chasing banking and go into some sort of sales or relationship-based industry? Hedge fund sales? Salesforce? Bartending? Fundraising for the local neighborhood church? Or is there a need for me to develop an analytical/technical base before I start selling stuff?
And fuck bartending, I did it for a decade. Don't do it unless you have to.....that is, unless you enjoy making a living off of the change that drunk assholes leave you, being up until 3AM+ every day, potentially becoming an alcoholic, and dealing with every fucking scumbag, hooker, dealer, biker, mafia asshole, hysterical single chick, drunk, addict, crooked cop, and retarded local politician for miles around.
this is true it is a thrill only a few enjoy and/or miss
I work for the gov. and make a decent amount of money but I still deceided to get a second job part time downtown at a restaurant for 3 reasons:
i'm addicted to the thrill i get and it is a real charge whenever I have a meaningful conversation with some on in consulting or finance.
But my answer is that I do not think sales is a "skill" that you should rely on. It is bullshit. You may be good at it, but that kind of fluff does not come into play until you are experienced. I suppose one alternative is that you could go into institutional sales and more quickly have the opportunity to get out there and sell than in other depts, but as has been discussed here many times, it is ALL about sales at the senior level for any desk or product type.
But hey - if you wanna be a used car salesman or raise money for some church, be my guest . Less competition for the rest of us.
Networking is definitely a skill. I got a lot better at it over the years. I even had a chance to go to a certain annual industry event, and calculate how much I improved in terms of getting contacts/follow up response rate from 4 years ago. It was a huge improvement in both.
Now for the related job that involves a lot of hustling/networking - go do business development. It's all about networking and hustling, and not that much about modeling (even though you still build models time-to-time).
One thing that you might want to look into after your IB stint is doing the marketing for a hedge fund. It's not marketing in the classic sense of the word, as it involves the process of capital raising rather than pure marketing. i.e. you'd be meeting with potential investors, institutions etc to try and raise capital and get the fund's name out there...while getting paid very well. But for you, it would likely be that continued "hustle" that you enjoy, since all small/startup hedge funds are essentially "nontargets" for investors
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