What did you do after signing?
Hi everyone, recently wrapped up soph year of college and signed 2025 SA gig at an MF PE in March. I’ve been grinding recruiting stuff ever since freshman year (like most other kids at my school), and ever since I’ve signed I’ve felt a little directionless. I’m not sure how too make the best use of my time anymore.
And before I get all the “touch grass” comments, I’ve been actively involved with hobbies and other things. I’ve been going to the gym more, I play IM sports, I got more involved with my frat, I take weekend road trips with my girlfriend — so I’ve been touching as much grass as I can.
The problem is I’m not used to having no work to do (immigrant parent mindset maybe), and I want to do something that makes me feel more productive. I’ll be doing my soph summer internship soon at a smaller firm so hopefully that’ll keep me busy. But once junior year kicks off, I’m going to feel restless again. If y’all have any advice on how I can best use my time, or what y’all did during your junior year, please let me know — thank you.
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Do kids in college not have coursework any more? Wtf? Do you not have 10 hours of schoolwork every day?
No, that’s why the love to protest
Chat GPT and post-zoom school makes it a joke
Getting in too. Test optional + ChatGPT essays + fee waivers and you’re all set
Drink a beer or something. Idk man just do what you wanna do with your time, none of us know what you find fulfilling
So as a college student I see where you’re coming from. Whenever I have free time I feel bored out of my mind, like there is nothing to do. That being said, here’s what I’ve found can help spend some of that time:
1. Books - Although you may have heard this before, one good saying I live by is: “If you are smart, go to the gym and get stronger. If you are strong, go to the library to get smarter. Repeat.” Whenever I have free time, I usually try to read something. Note: this does NOT have to be the self-help book of the day or anything, usually I pick a novel or something fiction that will interest me. History is always good, even historical fiction.
2. TV Shows - I have a pretty bad binge habit, where I start a show and won’t stop watching until I’ve seen every episode, but it’s something I’m working on. However, it is a really good thing to do, as it can be something to talk about with friends or a good talking point when meeting new people. Note: Movies are in this category too.
3. Sports - Keeping up with local teams, especially where you want to work at/are interning at, is super important. Meeting another fan of a local sport is an amazing feeling, and it can create a super quick friendship/connection, if nothing else.
4. Technical projects - Now this is something for popular for computer scientists/engineers, but a recommendation I got is to create some mini projects that you would do as your dream role. For example, if you want to go into quant, try making some algorithms and back testing them on historical (or even better, randomized) stock market data. If you want to go into an accounting style position, maybe practice working with balance sheets on public companies of different industries and sizes. Every position has their own different things you can do.
Overall, I have the same issues. Don’t worry about feeling like what you do is wasting time. I feel like a lot of people have this problem where they spend ages 18-40 working their ass off in this industry, then realize once they’re halfway done with life figure out that they spent all this time working and no time actually figuring out what to do for fun. Just my .02$
Literally nothing.
Get really deep into a skill or a hobby. Trust me, if you don’t you’ll one day feel serious regret about finance turning you into a boring slate of a person.
Crush beers
After I signed my offer letter and got my signing bonus, I proceeded to take my girlfriend out to brunch. I accidentally parked illegally only to have my car towed and get charged an excessive $200 fee to recover it (in 2006 dollars). That was one of my first lessons that money can evaporate quickly if you do stupid things…
Solo backpacked Europe for the 4 months between graduating and starting FT. My only regret was not being able to go for longer.
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