Am I even right for IB? Freshman having an identity crisis

  • no finance internship this summer, am working with a healthcare startup

- no finance experience other than a club & participating in pitch competitions (never won)

- I go to UPenn, which is more toxic & competitive than u would think & everyone does IB (>1000, including non Wharton kids)

- I've not started on coffee chats or networking even a little bit

- I love sleep, working out, cooking for myself (picky eater)

- I like to take it easy but do lock in during finals week & whatnot

- my finance knowledge is average (am locking in this summer)

What would u recommend for me?

11 Comments
 

I don't think u are cooked at all, u go to a target and u are locking in this summer. finance isn't really too hard to learn at all and you can possibly frame the healthcare startup work as finance related depending on the type of work done

 

I went to a non/semi target, did a valuation summer internship at a good buyside firm in the summer between my sophomore and junior year, and then started recruiting in the fall for late IB roles and landed something for the next summer at a boutique firm. Not cooked, just keep up the studying, campus involvement, and relevant experience and be able to speak to your path/why more than anything

 

Honestly, if you value sleep and being able to take care of yourself / have a social life outside of work, IB / large cap PE is not for you. It’s good you’re discovering this now - you have to decide if it’s worth sacrificing 1,2,4 years of your life for career acceleration or not. There are plenty of other jobs like corporate strategy, treasury, etc that are finance jobs that pay well without insane hours. They can be a little harder to find out of undergrad but plenty of regional and f500 higher for these roles.  

 

I find that most entry level jobs have a lot of rigor, so saying you’d like to live laid back is a non-starter.

Fortunately, I’ve personally found that intense hours are more tolerable proportionately to how interested you are in the subject matter.

So to answer your question, consider how much you love and will enjoy modeling, markets, and investment banking - and if that crosses the threshold to work in it.

 

If you’re having an “identity crisis” over summer networking I don’t think you’re made out for this

 

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