Potential Career Path for High Schooler

I had very similar thoughts at your age- I was good at math and science and considered engineering. I had an engineering internship/experience in high school and was scared off by how mundane it seemed- I remember the team trying to figure out the properties of the material we were working with to determine how many times they should turn a screw. I thought "Oh hell no" and eventually pursued finance.

But I thought I'd pursue finance at a company that does something I think is awesome- I was always interested in space exploration, so I went to an aerospace and defense company, working mostly in operations finance.

Frankly- it was the worst of both worlds. You don't really know any of the technical stuff- you're more of an observer, and don't know any more than you would by doing your own research. You don't get the engineering experience that enables you to leave and start your own company. Most of the finance work was really just cost accounting- burdening hours, assigning costs, establishing overhead budgets. You also work at a manufacturing facility- not some nice office. At two of my locations we didn't even have free coffee. There is a low career ceiling- the top finance guy at these locations was a manager, and I had a few other analysts around me who would be ahead of me for promos. And finally, cost accounting is the kind of work no one higher up wants to do.. so you spend years doing it, but you are learning a skill set you won't use once you get high enough.

I've seen great career paths come of out ops finance, but those were because someone was the analyst at a factory and their boss left, so they were promoted because there was no one else. Careers are made by luck, but your odds of getting lucky are higher elsewhere.

I'd recommend pursuing an FLDP- that will let you rotate through manufacturing finance to see if you are interested in it.