Being Successful as a Late Starter

What were you doing that made you get your Bachelors 10 years late?

tbh i dont think your age will be a problem for anyone other than you- you might have a bit of a difficult time fitting in, but you'll be considered just like anybody else, and tbh, careers on the street are short as it is.. i think 22-32 is just as fine as 33-43 and so on

Whether advanced age is a hindrance would depend on firm culture. If the culture acutely disfavored oldsters, probably you just wouldn't be hired in the first place.

I started in finance at age 41 (not counting 2 yrs. with the WSJ). IDK if I'd meet your criterion of "really successful" since I'm getting paid like an IB associate, at age 55. But I'm very happy with the finance part of my career. My extra work & life experience relative to 25-year-olds has been a great help.

In my experience, some of the best analysts/associates have been older (i.e. 29-35). The biggest issue I have seen with these individuals is NOT the firm worrying about their age, but rather, them getting discouraged after working for a year and realizing they are 8-10 years behind their peers. If you can get over this, there is no reason you can't succeed as an older analyst or associate.

No big deal, brother. Keep grinding.

I have a problem too! I have Master's degree and years of business managing experience. Since last year i had to move country and start from 0! No money in the bank and trying to start from real dusty ground!

I completely understand how you feel. It sometimes gives you a huge feeling of regret that you waited so long and that you may be stuck never being able to achieve anything significant in your chosen field, specifically finance. I actually thought about going after something completely different instead because I was so self-conscience. I will be finishing up my last year of undergraduate studies at the age of 31 due to issues dealing with an unstable household and my own parents kicking me out at 22. I decided 5 years ago after learning about the markets(trading specifically) that I wanted to get into a BB and eventually land a role at a hedge fund as a PM.

Long story short, I was able to get into a target school from a community college through good grades and subsequently landing two BB S&T offers for this summer. I will tell you that the question of "how did you get here at this age" did come up in every interview for both IB and S&T. I made sure I knew my story solid and could spin it to why my background fits into this role. Banks just want to make sure you have the basic competence to do the job and you like finance(as stated above). I honestly wouldn't worry about the whole "success" part as that is pretty much relative. A kid coming from an ivy at 22, landing a role at MS or EVR then moving to a mega PE fund may consider that a huge success while you may value having a 10+ year career in corporate banking after the age of 33 a certain degree of success. Ultimately for me, I was always told myself if I'm going to be turning 31 anyway I might as well turn 31 doing something I enjoy.

pm me if you have any specific questions

Hi,

first of all thank you for sharing your opinions. Definitely motivates me to further pursue my goals. I did not go furhter into detail for what reason I startet my studies that late. And that is actually my biggest problem as it will be hard to sell well in future interviews. After receiving my A-level I participated in an university program for roughly 5 month and then quitted. Back then my family broke apart and me left on my own thought it would be best to work fulltime and "earn some money" instead of studying. In retrospect obv a very immature reasoning. I ended up working for all those years in a large gastronomy. For most of the years I was in an executive position, but I guess that won't impress nobody. At 29 I quitted my job and finally picked up my studies. Since day one I worked constantly in two jobs. One at a science-oriented department at my university (mechanical engineering with a main focus on process optimization) and another one in a caritative field. That is a chapter I may be able to sell well, but all the years before are tough to justify. What may be the best approach to "kow my story solid". Stick to the truth and hope for an appreciative interviewer or do I have to amplify my story to not disqualify myself.

I think it is easy to get lost and feel discouraged in an environment where a lot of people are 5 years younger than you yet doing so much better financially. As someone who might actually be going into IB late (either late 20s or in my 30s, currently in Sales), this is something that is worrying to me too. Seeing a 22 year old make six figures in NYC while I am left asking myself what I was doing with my life at that age.

The big thing to keep in mind is that you are still going to be doing better than most of the population.

A lot of people just never get it, they don't make that push and would be lucky to make 80k a year because they decided to take another less lucrative path. The thing to keep in mind is better late than never, especially if you want to wrk in such a career.

A brief update (I am adding this here instead of opening another thread, as I have already outlined my background):

I just received my degree an will start an internship in a few weeks from now (Big4 - Valuation). At the moment I am finishing my applications for a MSc Finance in the UK and, although this is somewhat a topic that has been discussed over and over again, I would be thankful for a second meaning (as my case is a little uncommon). Do you guys think I should consider one of the top MSc Finance programs in the UK (assuming I would get in)? On the one hand I am really unsure if it's worth the ~60k (including living-costs) for Universities like LSE. On the other hand, many of the cheaper ones seem to be heavily overpriced. Do you think with an unfortunate cv like mine it would make any difference at all? A simplified categorization of my options would be as follows (tuition fees only):

LSE: ~39000€ University of Edinburgh: ~24000€ Strathclyde Business School: ~14000€

When I read statements like "as soon as you're in an interview, your cv goes out of the window..." I feel like "just go for Strathclyde and do one or two internships alongside". But then I scroll through LinkedIn and see such a high ratio of LSE alumni getting into Analyst positions at BB right away. As I said - would be very thankful for sharing your view on this.