Personality just doesn't fit I-Banking/Finance? Is there a Finance "type"?

So, on paper, my freshman year has been going fantastic. I made a GPA over 3.9 at a Top 20 (semi-target) University, made plenty of lifelong friends who also know how to have fun, and found a great balance between maintaining a vibrant social and academic life. There's a lot to be excited for next semester with fraternity rush. My college life has been amazing so far, what I'm concerned about is what comes AFTER...

I'm currently a business/finance major because:
A) It's really flexible and I really don't know what I enjoy/am passionate about with my life B) Need the money to provide for my super poor family

Generally, I've done decently well in my Finance/Accounting courses/clubs but there were times where it did get really dreary and boring and I wasn't thinking " OMG I LOVE THIS I WANT TO DO THIS 60+ HRS A WEEK FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE " .

A lot of the business majors somehow seem to have known since they were fetuses that they were interested in business. I'm afraid that my PERSONALITY really isn't the best fit for prestigious jobs within business/finance.

I'm NOT a very competitive or assertive person, often described as "too nice" of a guy, too "soft". Maybe more of a "nurturing" pre-med type ( been told I could be a good psychiatrist). Not very athletic, not very competitive. Also, I'm a recovering person with a speech impediment so my voice can be quite unassertive/unclear and sometimes it takes me time to warm up to new people. I'm still a very social guy, but to be perfectly honest I can get anxious/intimidated in social situations/new people sometimes (BC stutter). Sometimes I just don't think my personality/social abilities really fit into the stereotypical successful Investment Banker/Consultant/ Corporate Exec. mold. Maybe it's just my lack of confidence as a freshman, but I'm dubious if my personality is really the personality of a business leader. As in, maybe I'll make analyst, but will I thrive, be respected, and really kick ass past the entry-level?

Obviously some of these personality traits can be improved and changed, but a lot of these traits have been conditioned within me my entire life so I'm not confident if I can make a completely 180 by internship/graduation time. I could "fake it", but then, what's the point?

Are the only people who are successful in IB the rah-rah cut-throat ultra-competitive type? I don't think I love math enough to pursue quant/S&T careers

 
StaphyBone:

Wolf of wall street is not real life.

This OP. At that age a lot of students think that working in finance is 80h+ a week, and models and bottles. After a while this will become funny to you. If you stay in finance, depending where you work of course, you'll eventually see interns all suited up, nice ties, shoes shined, with the face of someone who hasn't laughed once in his life. Why so serious? I understand if you're going to work at Goldman Sachs if you had an I'm-going-to-take-over-the-world attitude, but in general it's not that way.

That said, you should always do your best, learn a lot, and be likeable and respectful.

So relax.

At heart I'm a pretty easy going guy who, being true to himself, doesn't want to fuck anyone over. I was talking to someone at a senior position at the bank I used to work at exactly about this. He said it's fine to be a nice guy and there's nothing wrong, but you need to keep your eyes open. If you don't keep your eyes open, then you'll find yourself in trouble.

As someone who has a similar personality type, I will say that if you work in finance you won't stop being "soft", but you will learn when to be "soft", if that makes sense.

 
Going Concern:
StaphyBone:

Wolf of wall street is not real life.

This is an exaggeration. There are plenty of major investment banks that toss midgets onto dart boards, trust me

There are midgets down the street in my nieghborhood. I've been considering cold-calling them to network and learn to improve my midget tossing technique. Do you think I'll be able to better leverage my improved midget tossing skills for an interview at The Goldman Sachs?

 

You're in college, which means you can do lots of internships (if you want). You know what's great about internships? It's like taking a job for a test drive. Also, assuming you do join a fraternity, you can talk to some of the older brothers about their internship experiences. Even if you don't, you can still talk to seniors/alumni to start figuring out what you want and how to get there.

 

While fit is important at all banks, the personality traits of being a team player who works hard and means well is much more important than knowing the details of every college football game or having GSE one-liners.

As a side note, a lot of your problems may be fixed through your time at college (especially with Greek life).

 
Best Response

TLDR: My last paragraph.

Apologies for the novel. I'm waiting on someone to finish up something, and I'm a few glasses of Friday-afternoon-scotch deep.

First off, the confidence issue you've highlighted is entirely normal for someone your age, but it is also 100% something you can and should work on while in college. Some of the other posters have commented that there are a variety of different personalities in banking, and that is true. Not everyone is an alpha male running around beating their chest all the time. HOWEVER, I cannot stress enough the importance of developing self confidence with regards to interviewing and ultimately securing a full-time offer. Banking is ultimately a sales job, so in order to get hired, you will have to appear to be comfortable around people (just to be clear, I am not talking about your speech impediment here, just confidence in general). You don't have to act like a superstar (nor should you, people will hate that), you just don't want your every action to come off as an apology for your own existence.

As for the competitive side, I agree with other posters that have advocated for exploring various internship opportunities and talking with older kids / recent alums. Trying different things and speaking with different people will give you an idea of whether banking is for you or not. Again, there is no one set type of banker, but I do maintain that there are 100% certain traits that make banking easier. For example, you mentioned your competitiveness, or lack thereof. Honestly, being competitive is a common trait in the industry. Competition is a huge driver of many people's performance. It was for me in banking, and it is for me still in PE. I'm unashamed to say that I enjoy outperforming my peers, and that helps motivate me to work my ass off.

However, just because you're not competitive doesn't mean that there aren't different and equally (if not more) effective motivators / performance drivers for you. The trick is to find what works for you. For example, maybe you're more patient than a lot of other bankers. Maybe that patience allows you to be thorough when you get a Friday evening assignment instead of racing to get it done like some other kids might.

Everyone has their strengths and everyone (except me) has their weaknesses. Too many people spend too much time trying to recreate within themselves the aspects of someone else's personality that they believe make that person successful. That's great, we should all have people who's qualities we want to mirror. However, if those attributes don't come naturally to you, you'll just wind up mediocre, having failed to polish your own strengths enough to make yourself stand out. Improve on your weaknesses enough so that they don't cripple you, but focus on those things that really make you great.

SACONSULT3 OUT.

 

Myers Briggs test isn't definitive but it can be used as a starting point. Ukulele try the following:

https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Used to be INTJ now supposedly am ENTJ or ENTP.

The test isn't Scientific and more like a Horoscope for personalities. Humans and their spectrum of emotions and changes in life cannot be readily categorized.

Take the test knowing that it is nothing more than a horoscope and see if any of the results has any insight for you.

Yeah, it's useless in trying to pigeonhole you into one of the 16 types of human beings in a game where we have infinite degrees of freedom and choices...

 
Ebolamonkey:

Take the test knowing that it is nothing more than a horoscope and see if any of the results has any insight for you.

Yeah, it's useless in trying to pigeonhole you into one of the 16 types of human beings in a game where we have infinite degrees of freedom and choices...

Saying the Myers Briggs test is on the same level as a horoscope doesn't match my personal experience. I'd call that claim pretty outrageous. Ignoring the actual test questions, if you look at the 16 type descriptions, they are pretty distinct, and I can say I definitely fit one much more than the rest. Same with many people I've observed. That's my anecdotal evidence for what it's worth

Jung introduced 8 cognitive functions. Myers Briggs took that further and said there are two possible types for a person that has one of those 8 functions as dominant, and which one depends on the second most dominant function. But each of those type pairs are very similar, so there could easily be some vacillation (perceived or actual) between them, based on imperfect test questions or even circumstance. Furthermore, there could be some vacillation between the priority of the primary and secondary functions, giving rise to a third possible type

For example, someone who is Te dominant could be perceived as ENTJ or ESTJ, with the former having Ni as the secondary function. Reverse the order (Ni dominant, Te secondary) and you have INTJ. Three possible types for the same person, with one most likely predominating the majority of the time

None of that makes the test "useless", which I'd describe as a pretty short-sighted claim

/end rant

 

If you are dead inside you'll be just fine in finance. Internship is bs because you will do meaningless work anyway and if you will find it exciting to collect information from the web and input it manually in a spreadsheet for 8 hours straight, well congratu...f***ing...lations, you are dead inside, welcome to the wonderful world of finance.

You killed the Greece spread goes up, spread goes down, from Wall Street they all play like a freak, Goldman Sachs 'o beat.
 

Agree to the above, position yourself for internships and enjoy college. As a freshman, you haven't even gotten into any upper level classes. You may find you really enjoy those or you really don't.

At the end of the day business/finance is broad enough that roles exist for a wide variety of people with a wide variety of strengths. Use these four years to figure out what you like and are passionate about. If you enjoy what you do, it will not seem like work and you will be happier overall. Everyone acts like Investment Banking is the only thing you can do, which is false. corporate finance, accounting, treasury, supply chain, marketing, entrepreneurship, business management etc. are all options.

Enjoy the ride, work hard and you will figure out what interests you as you progress through college. You aren't expected to have your life figured out as a freshman. If you told me how my next five years would play out when I was a freshman, I probably wouldn't have believed it.

 

The other thing to keep in mind is that every entry level finance role, including banking is really financial analysis and making presentations. In short, you are an excel & PPT jockey putting together materials and then revising them 1,000 times based on feedback from every person more senior to you. The skill set required for the entry level roles is different than what's required as you move up the ladder.

For the first job (which is what most people in IBD stick around for before doing something else) you need to be able to fast and accurate with your work product, which makes life for everyone about you easier. This means having good attention to detail and being reliable. There are plenty of awkward kids who do not carry themselves super well as analysts. In a lot of these finance roles at some point you find people that were great for the entry / mid-level roles that focus on execution but not well suited suited for what comes after and self-identify or are told that they should look into doing something else.

For now just enjoy your classes, get good grades, network with alumni, talk to classmates who have had finance internships, which will all position you for an internship and just enjoy the college experience. Don't sweat this so much, things will work out as long as you work hard.

 

As a couple other posters mentioned above, there are many career paths in finance other than IB. Considering you're a freshman, don't pigeonhole yourself into one area of business or finance just yet. This site is very heavily focused on IB, but there is a big world of other things out there. Besides, a lot of people do their analyst stint in IB with the specific intention of doing something else afterwards.

I would suggest, as others have, taking a look at the various finance extracurriculars that are available at your school. Join an investing club and see if you prefer the research side of the business. (Arguably very different from the IB mindset). If you do, then try going straight to buyside equity research (examples: Asset Management, or hedge fund) or maybe to sellside equity research. Maybe fixed income research or credit research is your thing. See if your school has real estate finance classes or clubs. Try meeting with alumni of your school who work in different finance fields you might be interested in. They can give you a lot of insight. (On a side note, if you started cultivating these relationships that early in your college career you'd be way ahead of your classmates as it relates to networking). Certainly try a few internships as well.

I think as a freshman you shouldn't be worried about whether or not you perceive that your personality today may or may not match up with "prestigious" finance jobs. I've only been out of undergrad for a couple years now and I can tell you that I certainly wouldn't want to work with the freshman versions of my and my coworkers selves. People change and mature. Take some time to figure out what you might be passionate about and then work on pursuing it. Doesn't matter if you think you perfectly fit the mold or not. Probably better that you don't actually. It's refreshing to meet down to earth humans in one's professional life.

"Successful investing is anticipating the anticipation of others". - John Maynard Keynes
 

I would like to go through your questions one by one in a list format:

1) Your personality is okay for finance. I don't think you need to worry that much. To answer your question about "fit", I have been working in finance for the last 10 years - moved up through the ranks from an intern to a VP. My personality is exactly like you - 10 years ago and I am still the same person. So I don't think personality is an issue (being nice, accommodating, easy going, not aggressive).

2) Attitude is more important than personality. As you get older, the attitude you have is more important than personality. You may continue to be a nice person but if you have the attitude to get things done, it is not necessary to be aggressive. And as you move higher in the finance, I find that having humility and empathy goes a long way to build up strong relationship with your clients.

3) Reality will force you to change. Having to deal with challenges at work will eventually change your way of dealing with people. You might be feeling that you are accommodating and easygoing because you haven't been in situations where you are being "forced" to get things done. Experience (both at personal and professional settings) will change the way you deal with situation.

4) Passion is overrated. I think all the things in life are difficult. And people don't love what they do because they are not good at it. And in order to be good at something, you need to spend a lot of times to work on it. As you become better at what you do (relatively better than your peer), you will start to enjoy it. So if you think you like something but you don't feel passionate about it, don't just drop it - give it sometimes to get better at it.

 

no need to panic yet as you have time to figure all that out. go for an investment banking internship this summer and that will be a great chance for you to see if you like it. If not, next summer try Consulting or F-500 FP&A or Corp Dec or whatever you think sounds good. Chances are as time goes by you will become more confident on your choices and find something that you are good at and not miserable while doing it. good luck.

"I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. " -GG
 

There is a very large percentage of people in finance/IB who aren't and never were super passionate about it. Sure, we have a whole bunch of reasons when we interview but it's all BS. For a lot of us, it's just a job that's some combination of: just interesting enough, pays well enough, doesn't suck too bad, seemed like a more realistic career than our other passions (ex. sports), and didn't require a whole lot of creativity in the job-seeking process (for those that came through standardized OCR recruitment).

 

A lot of good advice in here already. I agree definitely intern around and test drive different careers (not sure your major glanced at your post) and see what you like doing.

The "personality" you are attributing to banking and finance is probably derived from your interaction with fellow classmates. Generally, these are the types who think if they do not get into GS TMT their life is ruined and they could not imagine the same of only working at a MM. Try your best to ignore the gunners; instead, focus on yourself and begin narrowing down a subset of careers that you enjoy. Continue developing confidence in who you are and what you are about both personally and professionally and all of the self-conscious stuff will begin to dissipate in the next couple years.

Good luck and enjoy the next few years of your life -- it is truly a high growth and exciting period.

 

The majority of people in financial services are nice and relatively well adjusted. You would be surprised how many sharks there are in other industries, honestly. Human nature is consistent, the difference exists on the margin.

Have one other piece of advice: start lifting and see what happens. That's one thing I wish I had done my freshman year of college. You will have a great jr/sr year. Keep getting 3.8+. Cheers

 

It doesn't hurt at all to be a more laid-back type. People don't want to feel like they're working with an opportunist either. Honestly, I feel like I changed a lot after one year of college. Don't worry about fitting some type of mold. I'm not even part of any clubs that are related to the field that I accepted an offer from (I do mostly artistic production etc). I honestly think it could hurt your chances if you don't stand out in some way. Maybe your way is a different personality. Being a freshman is pretty hard though, so I get why you're questioning yourself. It is really important to do that, but if you know what you want, don't let other people take that away from you.

This was really corny. I apologize.

 

Hi,

I would not be too worried about that. I am not working in IB myself but I work for a big data provider and happen to spend half of my life in the offices of asset managers and IBs in the UK and European countries therefore I have seen a lot of very different companies and corporate cultures and from my experience, finance clichés are not true. Most people are regular people who want to succeed in their career etc. I am a bit like you and sometimes you will need to get a bit tough with some people otherwise things don't get done or things will be imposed to you but this is true in any company and this is something that you should learn anyway, because this is useful in all aspects of day to day life as well.

Good luck!

 

Congrats on the good grades! Don't worry if you're not certain about who you are or where you are right now. Have fun, work hard and just figure out what YOU WANT. There is NO must have personality type that predetermines success in any industry, just good habits. Besides, Type-A males are a dime a dozen. Some of the most successful guys I've worked with were QUITE awkward and quirky. Work on your self confidence a bit- I suggest weight lifting, drinking and girls. You'll be aight.

 

INTJ here.

I think that's all there is in life; positive or negative correlation between personality, success, and happiness at work?

Every job has people who both are madly passionate about showing up and doing it and people who simply hate it. You have to know yourself well enough to seek out the jobs that fit. That took me many wasted years early in my career. Back then I rued Monday mornings, now I gladly work through my weekends in anticipation of Monday.

.

Global buyer of highly distressed industrial companies. Pays Finder Fees Criteria = $50 - $500M revenues. Highly distressed industrial. Limited Reps and Warranties. Can close in 1-2 weeks.
 
Red Pipe:
What is the investment banker's personality I have heard about? my understanding is that a lot of schmoozing, impressing, and such are necessary to do well. how can you describe the kind of personality that excels in i-banking? thanks in advance.

There's one word that describes an i-banker - asshole.

"Living the dream 24/7 on http://theallnighter.blogspot.com"

____________________________________________________________ "LIVING THE DREAM 24/7 ON http://THEALLNIGHTER.BLOGSPOT.COM" ____________________________________________________________
 

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____________________________________________________________ "LIVING THE DREAM 24/7 ON http://THEALLNIGHTER.BLOGSPOT.COM" ____________________________________________________________
 

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