How to find what career path you like and if you're good at it.

As all of you know Finance is has such a wide variety of roles which are extremely diverse in their day to day functions. Someone could be rubbish at AM but be awesome at Consulting.

I'm in my freshman year at university and not sure what I want to do in finance, pretty normal for my age but its hard to motivate myself even more as many of you know having an end goal career wise really gives you a pick up in motivation and drive. Having certainty about what you want to do long term wise does good for your mental health as well. Its not fun thinking one minute I want to go into IB and then PE and then the next thinking about doing management consulting. I hate being that guy who is light weight with what he wants to do career wise. When I was 16-17 I wanted to go into HF, then it slowly turned into IB/PE but now I don't know anymore.

My question to WSO is how do you figure out what you're good at and what you like?

 

Just talked about this with a younger friend who's still in college so it's fresh on my mind:

Most people don't find their one true calling. My PMs are in their 50s and still tell me if they were fully honest they don't know if they made the right decision doing the whole HF thing. Younger students and fresh graduates can put on a front and talk with bravado about how they want to do this and that but I question how much of that is parroting what everyone else is doing. Don't get caught up thinking you need to have your life plan locked in at 18.

Part of growing up is making decisions without absolute color. You never completely know if you're going to like or even be good at something, but you need to pick one and spend enough time with it to the point where you can make an informed decision (don't quit right away). This applies to everything - your job, the school you go to, the friends you hang out with, people you date, city you live in, etc. Choose one that makes sense for you and see where it goes.

Finally, things aren't always good or bad. The idea that there's this dream job/SO/friend circle/apartment that will make your life magical is toxic and unrealistic. Recognize the grass is always greener, everything has its pros and cons. At the end of the day (or your life) your job is just a job, friends come and go, material things lose their luster and nothing really fills a deeper need for honesty/peace/good relationship with your family/whatever you need at heart unless you recognize your true desires and spend time and effort cultivating that.

 

In all reality - you're a freshman in college. You don't need to have it 100% on lock what you want to do. What you should be doing is spending your time reading about the positions your interested in. Read job descriptions, read relevant books, and then start doing tasks in line with the things that you might be interested - IE if you think you want to be a hedge fund manager read some books about famous hedge fund managers and strategies and start trading your own money (paper or real) and track your performance. If you freaking love that - then trading might be great for you... if not - you can move on.

Same thing with banking (which bear in mind - most people who go in at the junior level don't stick around), learn some basic modeling and try to build a quick and dirty operating model and M&A model if you are feeling ambitious. If you like going through this process you might like banking. If you like reading dealbook in the NYT you might like banking... etc etc you see where I'm going with this.

This will help you think through your first step in your career but as lebron said - you don't need to have your life plan locked in.

 
AsianMonky:

You're in a decent spot. Go into Big 4 for few years and then lateral to F500. Corp fin has tons of positions where you assess investment decisions and etc. Not saying that it's easy to get those positions, but with Big 4 credentials and some networking, you should be able to get into your desired role.

Hi,

Thanks for the response (and thanks to everyone else as well). I'm glad that I'm not too far off from my goal and that the Big 4 can help me get there. One thing I wanted to ask was what groups within corporate finance do the type of work I mentioned? I've heard that corporate finance can often just be accounting work and involve monthly closes without really doing any NPV/Financial Analysis. Are the jobs I mentioned limited to just the corp dev department, or do they mostly only focus on the big picture/acquisition stuff? I'm just worried that coming from the Big 4, I'd be stuck with compliance/reporting jobs when I want to do the more analysis-oriented work within the firm.

Additionally, I have a question about the Big 4. The school I am at has said that they are a feeder into places like New York, DC, etc. and that kids are able to land jobs in other major cities like SF, Houston, etc. if they have a good reason for applying there, but I was wondering if I could hurt my career by starting off in a smaller, mid-tier city versus going to the NYC, DC, Chicago, Boston, etc. office? My school is the flagship in it's state and therefore, if I applied to the offices in my school's state (one of them is actually has a decent client base and 6+ F500 companies, so it's not some podunk city either) I would be in perfect shape almost to land a job while going for a bigger office would be riskier. Would going to a smaller city hurt my exit opportunities greatly or does it not really matter once I have Big 4 experience and a client that is a major public company? I'm still leaning towards a megacity just because I feel it'd be more fun when I'm young, but I thought I'd check.

Thanks again!

 

It's good that you know what you want. Most people on here have no clue. The problem with consulting is that most large, successful firms tend to recruit from IB. I think your best bet is financial analysis or strategy at a F500. There's nothing wrong with either path.

 
amj07:

It's good that you know what you want. Most people on here have no clue. The problem with consulting is that most large, successful firms tend to recruit from IB. I think your best bet is financial analysis or strategy at a F500. There's nothing wrong with either path.

You're probably right that that's the best path, my problem is wondering how to get there and whether or not I can get the work I want from an audit background. So many people here make it seem like I won't be doing anything cool after doing audit, so that's kind of got me worried. It's hard to figure out what is nonsense spouted by college kids and what is real life on this board sometimes.

 

I hate to bump an old thread, but I have an update on my situation. I'm still interested in the areas I mentioned, but aside from Big 4 audit, I also have an offer with an FLDP at a F150 company. Although the company I have an offer with is not in my favorite industry, it would likely give me some exposure to finance and accounting as I rotate. Would I be better off taking the FLDP or doing Big 4 audit if I want to attain my goals (let's assume, although things will change, that I eventually want to leave the FLDP firm that offered me).

 

5 years later but your comment resonated with me too much. I enjoy the EXACT same type of work. Currently a fresh analyst in IB and hating it so far. Could you talk about whether you were able to find the role you wanted?

 

"Research is one of my fortes" yet wont do the research to find a career that matches your skill set?

"There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can't do business from there." - Colonel Sanders
 

I have done and am still doing a lot of research. but studying about a field and hearing what its like from people who are actually in the field are two completely different things... I rather hear about it from people who are in it, what it took to get there and what qualities and traits excel in that environment. Thanks for your input though, very inspiring.

 

The net you're casting is too large, and quite frankly, your post is unlikely to receive any kind of meaningful response. I suggest narrowing your search and reading through M&I.com, then come back when you have more specific questions.

"There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can't do business from there." - Colonel Sanders
 

He doesn't sound very motivated if he's making 25k at an admin job. You can literally make more than that being a terrible car salesman.

Engineering Masters are typically forgiving and work is 40/hr weeks and pay is fairly good. You also don't really need a top school. It's also very easy to be a mediocre engineer and pass under the radar at a big company.

Seems best in this case.

If he was motivated there's a lot more options.

 

If he's not very motivated (and let's be honest - he isn't), there's honestly not much you can do. Still probably worth it to sit down with him/set up a call with him to hear him out on what he wants out of life and offer any input you might have. You should note there is some chance he might be depressed and need some help there.

As far as career ideas, I've heard that coding bootcamps could be a good option. I don't know too much about them but I had a friend who did some course over a few months and now has a decent paying job at some analytics company, probably making $50-70k I would guess.

 

Thanks guys, these are helpful suggestions that weren't on my radar. My mom won't rest until she has a suitable plan for him so my priority is to give her one. Motivating him is a whole other psychological beast I'm not sure I understand. I've tried a lot of different approaches and failed: you'll be happier, you'll feel accomplished, you'll get girls.. anything i can think of!

I'm gonna try to talk to him and hear him out and once he's ready, present him with some of these options and any more that may come.

 

Tell your aunt to stop fucking babying him and to stop harassing you. He can't be helped if he isn't ready to help himself. And if he was ready to help himself, then he would have approached you. Not his mommy.

“Elections are a futures market for stolen property”
 

well, if you are considering trading comnmodities, maybe apply for a bitch logistics role at a physical commodities firm

from my experience they are a lot less interested in your gpa as much as passion and willinnessg to put in two years bitch work in logistics -where you have to prove your commmercial acumen-- before going to the trading desk

word of warning though, at my firm, maybe one in five traffic people get given shots at trading after a year or two; its up to you to show that you can spot interesting oppirtunities etc. its not like IBD where after two years you become an associate. its more like, if you show you have the creativity to trade, and the attention to detail to handle traffic, THEN you get an opp at the desk

forgive my spelling, i just came home from a night out

 

You might as well become a hooker if it's money that you need.

I heard hedge fund managers pay their hookers well. Especially the male ones

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.
 
eriginal:
Sluts.

Words can hurt. Don't call him a slut.

While I can suggest that he becomes a hooker, I would never call him a hooker.

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.
 

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