I'd love to hear from people who were in banking (internship, short full time gig, etc.) and decided to leave without getting substantial analyst experience (working on a live deal). Am currently a senior with a summer IB internship under their belt trying to decide whether or not to stay in the industry.
| +266 | Looking to raise a Billion Dollar Fund - College Junior | 41 | 32m | |
| +206 | It doesn’t need to be this way | 29 | 1d | |
| +130 | Career Bankers, Was It Worth It? | 41 | 23m | |
| +127 | Biggest gripe in IB: people with no balls | 37 | 3m | |
| +118 | What to expect during your IB summer internship and how to secure the full-time offer | 6 | 1h | |
| +83 | RBC M&A vs PJT RSSG | 14 | 1d | |
| +75 | I FINALLY DID IT, I GOT A FT OFFER! | 14 | 3h | |
| +66 | Vanderbilt ($$$) / Northwestern ($$$) vs UF ($) | 36 | 6m | |
| +63 | Did I mess up by correcting my VP Publicly? | 20 | 1d | |
| +51 | Feeling really lost in IB | 15 | 18h |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Likely not on this forum anymore lmao
I don't think anyone regrets doing banking.
You make more money than everyone else at 22 and your exit opps are unparalleled.
What if I'm at a lower tier bank. I think people rarely go to PE if not LMM at best. Are other exits still worthwhile/easy to attain?
You’re just fine buddy you’re what 21/24 years old? Clearing over 100 grand?
You’re fine bud
This is a very interesting question and I think the answer will vary person to person. I did my internship at a MM bank in M&A during COVID, and due to obvious reasons, I did not get to experience what IB is actually like. I graduated a semester early in December and was asked to start in January instead of August due to the fact my team was short staffed as a result of the resurgence in M&A activity. I ended up quitting 3 months in as the job started to affect my mental and physical health. I have always had a high work ethic and worked long hours before, but IB was just a different level. Obviously, many people are able to handle the hours, but I was not one of them. A lot of this could have been attributed to the fact I was working 15+ hour days from my bedroom all alone, but I really don't think being in the office would have made that big a difference (even though the people I spoke to on my team were confident it would have).
Now on to your question, do I regret quitting this early? Yes and No, but not for the reasons you think. Quitting this quickly, I obviously did not get any meaningful experience out of the job, but I do not regret that. I realized right away that I did not see IB as a long term career, nor the typical exit opps from IB (PE/HF/CD/VC), so I really don't care that I never got to build an operating model, spend countless hours scrubbing and re-formatting excel files for DD, pull comps, and turn comments on a CIM at 1am. However, I do regret not sticking it out until I found a better job to transition to. I wanted to leave IB ASAP, so I took the first role I saw with decent enough pay that sounded semi-interesting. However, I realize if I toughed it out for a few more month and did some actual networking, I could have landed a much better opportunity. Hindsight is 20/20 though and overall, I'm not really mad about it. I had to do what was best for my health. I will have more opportunities to lateral to a better job now that I actually have the time to network effectively.
My situation is probably very different than yours. The decision to pursue IB or not is going to come down to your goals and capability to handle the hours. If you are set on a career in PE/HF/AM/CD, then IB is the tried and true path. If you want to take advantage of the countless learning opportunities in IB, then it makes sense to join FT. If you know you can handle the hours and not have your health deteriorate as a result, then IB is truly one of the best jobs you can get in Finance after graduating (even if it is a lot of grunt work at the Analyst level, people respect the IB badge and you will have a lot of doors open for you as a result). And it is important to consider that things might be a bit more manageable if you are working in-person when you start FT and if deal flow normalizes a bit. This is a long winded-answer that basically says you have to make the decision yourself, but that is the reality of the industry. There are people like me that burn out right away, people that tough it out for 1-2 years, and there are people that can handle the hours like it's nothing. Everyone is different, you just have to ask yourself if IB is necessary to get what you want and if you are willing to put up with the hours.
So you worked at Piper Sandler?
I interned in IB this past summer and ended up not liking it as much as I thought and signed an offer at MBB for FT. I already feel so much better about my decision as the people, culture, and opportunities have been amazing for me personally (I think it depends on ur interests as a person), and I think that there is no set right path but if you're considering switching don't think against it because other people did or did not, just think about what will make u the happiest
What was the process like switching from IB to consulting FT? Did you renege on your IB firm?
Joining a top BB in a top group for SA but interested in consulting and keeping my option open if I don't like IB as much.
They had an early application deadline option this year, so I received my offer before my banking internship ended at all!
After time in the military I always wanted to go to law school for ages and went to an extreme non-target for undergrad since undergrad doesn't matter for law school, studied a super easy major I didn't even really enjoy at all just so I could get the high GPA needed for top law schools, then realized while studying for the LSAT that I didn't even want to do law school at all. This was right as Covid happened in 2020 and I needed a job just to make money so started working at a community retail bank. It was in that banking and finance environment that I realized all I really wanted was to work in business or finance and do investment banking or something.
Every single day I think about how much I wish I had studied business instead. High school was piss easy, there's no reason anyone could not get a 4.0 and get into an Ivy target school and have lots of options available to them as a result. Instead I skateboarded all day and barely graduated. Not a day goes by where I don't wish I had done it all years ago.
I could get an MBA or something but you really need real experience for that and I can't get any business experience since I have an unrelated humanities degree.
Sounds like you should do a one year MFIN at somewhere like MIT or Vandy. Will give you a good understanding of business and great job opportunities.
I regret it all the time and that's why I am taking the MBA route. I should have done better in high school, gone to a target school and followed the same interests I have always had. I was capable the entire time just lazy and distracted by video games.
Born and raised in the UES, went to a top city private(collegiate/dalton/trinity etc) went to an Ivy League. Basically followed the exact roadmap for doing IB. My parents both worked demanding finance/consulting jobs and although it set me and my siblings up well always thought it was jot for me. Interned in IB and quite quickly realized it was hot for me. Switched to AM at a BB and am enjoying the lifestyle (more or less 7am-8pms, rare weekend work). However I am bored as hell. It is not very stimulating work as an analyst. As a senior MD etc it looks great. I am still very much looking to be in that seat when I am older as my MD put it (“I work market hours and get 600k (post tax plus bonus) it is a great life) . If I could have a do over, I would aim to do the traditional IB + PE stint and aim to transition over to what I am currently doing around 28-30yo.
Interned in banking and left. FT did top consulting. Regretted it. Top MBA. Now banking FT. Regret it after clearing 100s now every single week since I started. All in saved 500k, all in not worth it. I guess the point is... all of these client service jobs suck in their own special way. You should start a band and become a rockstar or something else instead.
I’m joining MBB upon grad. My mindset was MBB> IB > Tier 2 consulting.
I realized recently that I prob should have gone the IB route, given I want to do PE (for obvious reasons). I’ve seen the exits MBB get, and while still great obviously, they’re just less lucrative than finance. A lot of people exit to Corp strat for 150k after 2 years.
So, not quite the scenario you asked for (experienced ppl), but my two cents
Funny how all of us making these different decisions all seem to have regrets. I had a similar mindset, had an IB internship and wanted to recruit for consulting full time. Thought I'd def take MBB but tier 2 was kinda iffy. Ended up not having time to go through the processes and didn't want to risk it so went with the IB return offer.
If you ever join an MBA program, it will be filled with people who all want to switch into each other's pre-MBA careers.
Did valuation for 2 years, will be joining a good MM IB shop here soon. The exit opps/pay were so abysmal from valuation that I knew I was going to live in regret for at least not trying IB for 12 months. Jury is out on whether I will regret IB.
Laudantium autem ex quos et explicabo. Sunt non commodi voluptate qui ut. Est et dolorem earum voluptatem ea aut. Atque vitae voluptate cumque ut eos perferendis esse. Cum nostrum dignissimos iure quis est qui asperiores.
Dicta fugit consequatur nihil. Ipsam eligendi labore voluptate. Ipsa et facilis quidem nihil ipsa. Aut dolorum deleniti sed ut sunt aperiam dicta. In et harum est id. Dolorem at laudantium velit exercitationem.
Sed quis aut tenetur minima doloremque reiciendis. Sint ratione voluptatem aut sit. Nostrum aperiam at qui facere neque pariatur sunt nisi. Ipsa eos accusantium sit ut ab minus facilis.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...