Dream big or don't be stupid?
Context: You are a naive, lost, overwhelmed graduate who had some pretty mid and mixed intern experience. You have a side project that could potentially be a fintech startup which did gain some interest within your PhD tutors.
Option 1: Knowing that you have some pretty average background, and 250+ rejection to join high finance. You think that you will get no where and pivot your life to the founders era and DREAM BIG about the future.
Option 2: You know 90% of startup fails and you don't have much resources or rich parents to support the journey. Despite the constant rejection you did make it to a few interviews or even superday. So statistically speaking your goal of being in IB is still a better option compared to blindly jumping into the sea of startups.
What would you choose in this current economy? Is there an option 3 that you would pick? Is there still a chance to get back to IB after failing your start up?
If there is any insider who had run the path of going from start-up to IB/PE, I have so many questions for you and I would love to connect.
PhD tutors don’t have money or connections , it means nothing that they like your project - so that’s business lesson number one: there is no signal for PMF besides people saying in writing “if you build this i will commit to giving $X,000” or them actually just paying you for it.
I promise you, your idea will be there after banking. Not just be there, but it will grow,it will evolve, and it will become a far more tangible bet once you have some real business acumen developed even after just two years of working. I’ve seen resumes of ex founders whose business failed two years post grad and they…just have nothing really to offer or get through. The experience is good,just completely irrelevant so really the best time to do IB is for a short period right after undergrad (even better than joining post MBA imo)
Very true much appreciated for the insights, I guess I am really more just panicking in this current job market, after landing absolutely nothing for a while now, and just seeking an alternative route.
Would you say that I should keep waiting for an IB or consulting opportunity where I can gain skills and business acumen or would a role like sales at top fintech also very beneficial?
My thoughts is that it's better than nothing, but I don't see how this can leads me back to where I want to be.
Sales at a top fintech / startup isn’t a bad gig per se it’s just a very different job. You’d basically be doing a much less glamorous version of a senior banker’s job, and likely a lot less valuable deal reps given you’d probably just be a BDR tasked with sourcing rather than full fledged account management.
Would you rather spend your time dialing for dollars or conducting M&A? Personally I think you can learn the sales you need from IB rather than siloing on startup sales experience now. The M&A/financial advisory toolkit is much more useful imo. If you’re dead set on being a founder, consulting would be even better because you would be focused on real internal operating problems for clients - bankers kinda take numbers and find 10000 different ways to present a story about them.
Really useful insights, thank you so much again for taking your time to answer my questions.
I think the experience is definitely not a bad one, but if have the choice I will go for consulting or IB anyday. Is just that now that I've passed IB hiring season, it's unlikely that I can get a job ASAP in either so in order to not leave a gap in my CV I feel that I have to do something, no matter if it is start something myself or compromise a bit and go do a job like sales (maybe I am just panicking too much?)
Now that I have failed so many times in campus recruitment, I am less confident that I can get a top tier role as my first job. Hence the alternative choices, but also scared that these will carry me away and make it a lot harder for me to pivot back.
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