For what % of kids going into finance is the grind and delayed gratification actually worth it?
We see tons of posts on here every year about how sacrificing your youth, health, experiences while you're young etc. just aren't worth it and a ton of people look to get out of the industry. The reason being the majority of kids that go into finance are attracted by the prestige, money, whatever, but don't know what they're actually signing up for. No doubt there is a subset of the populous, however, who are willing to dedicate their lives to their career to climb the ladder - for these type A kids, the enormous upside potential from a career in high finance can very much be worth the sacrifices. Of the many kids starting their career in banking/pe every year, what % do you guys think actually fall into this latter group?
Realistically even the kids who burn out of IB after a year or two mostly land in six-figure jobs that are difficult if not impossible to land without doing IB first, so I'd say plenty in category A benefit from some short-term sacrifice with doing IB. You don't need to stick around in IB or grind for a decade in order for some time in the meat grinder to be worth it.
But that's the thing - there aren't that many less stressful jobs which would require an IB stint first. The more exclusive roles on the buyside (for which a IB stint is very useful) have similarly bad hours and arguably even more stress. Some interesting thoughts on this thread: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/ib-doesnt-have…
There's plenty of these roles. IR, corp dev, strategic finance, secondaries/FoF, credit etc.
You can land some of these roles directly but it's very difficult and you're competing for only a handful of spots - you mostly need to start in IB.
Just curious - I'm a strategy (think in-house consulting) intern right now at the #1 firm in its industry and an Econ major at a target. What would I need to learn to go into corp dev or strategic finance, or to open up that route?
Corp dev will want transaction experience - so mostly IB. You will have plenty of shots at corporate strategy/"strategic finance" from where you are now
I went to a nontarget school on the West Coast that was a prestigious, rigorous institution but was a nontarget when it came to finance recruiting, sending roughly 5-10 kids a year to banking out of a state school population.
While my group's culture sucks ass and bonuses will be ass, I think this has all been worth it. I've benefited from my increased pedigree by being at my bank, the network I've been able to build with the alum of my bank/group, and have learned how to play office politics / be around polished people in a way that my state school didn't provide with its lack of business focus. I also do find the transaction process to actually be interesting.
Obviously, I wouldn't have needed the things I just mentioned if I went to say Wharton, so YMMV with benefits of banking depending on your background.
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