Any way to switch from SWE to investment banking?
I graduated college about a year ago, and only have SWE experience. The SWE market is terrible right now and I don’t know if I’ll be able to meet my expectations for career growth.
So I was wondering if it’s possible to switch into investment banking, or if the door closed when I started my junior year of college. Would it help if I go back to school and get a PhD? I wouldn’t mind doing it.
Current total compensation: 250k
Could care to elaborate on what you mean by the SWE market is terrible ?
Second, PhD is not the move unless you want to do Quant or Strategy in Finance.
MBA is the best path to pivot into IB
You used to be able to easily make 300k+ with ~2-3 years of experience (not even senior) if you were good enough at solving programming puzzles. Now tech had a 2008-like event last year and it’s basically impossible to get those offers.
Bro stay where you are why would you recruit for IB (market is also terrible) just to get paid less and work 3x more?????
it's not that simple - SWE is of course a great career with many incredibly smart people but the most slept on thing in banking is that you basically have close to 10 years of a career locked in, even if you're only slightly above average, with promotions / comp progression that are presented in pretty defined intervals. only people who've come over from other industries understand how unique that is. you can sit for like 10 years at a single position (or with nominal title / pay increases) at a corporate. By your 3rd VP year (after this, you do genuinely have to be pretty good to get promoted), you'll have quadrupled your year 1 comp. that's a rare outcome in SWE even though they do have better comp initially (and always have better wlb).
To answer the OP, there are literally 30 year old analysts so you'll be fine. you just have to demonstrate the requisite knowledge but you would absolutely get looks from internal recruiters with the proper education creds (recommend MBA) especially with the big push to hire more STEM
How many YOE do 3rd year VPs have? And how much money do they make on average at the top firms?
Is there a spreadsheet somewhere with anonymized bonus data? It’s a bit hard for me as an outsider to know how much you guys make (while you can easily know SWE compensation for different levels and companies by checking levels.fyi)
This is correct, however $$ isn’t everything. I think youre in a pretty good seat atm, enjoy it. I personally wouldn’t go from SWE to IB.
Not completely related to OP's point, but could you elaborate on the last part about hiring more people from STEM? Do you mean IB recruiters are looking for STEM credentials or smth?
SWE comp starts high but doesn't really scale much
OP, work for 2 years and then do M7 MBA. Straight shot to BB/EB and you'll come in at associate rather than taking 40 lateral steps at small firms
I thought a lot of M7 MBAs end up at program/product manager or whatever roles at FAANG. At least this was my impression from r/MBA. I wouldn’t make as much money as a PM, and being a SWE is way more enjoyable, so I thought it didn’t make sense to get an MBA.
Is that wrong? Does a large number of M7 graduates end up in IB instead?
Damn dude I thought SWE paid a quadrilion dollars a year and only worked 10 hours a week, you mean to tell me that the grass is always greener from the other side's perspective too? Shocking, truly.
Nop u pretty much stuck lol ib is for the elite and im talking abt ga or ms not those ugly ass eb like lazard evercore etc and everyone knows thqt stop trying to search for an excuse
What about switching from IB to SWE? Know a bit of coding, want better WLB
Wouldn't recc'd. Market is brutal, and it is flooded with a lot of seniors who are laid/getting laid off.
do you expect the market to recover in, say, 2 years?
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