How to know if IB is the right future for me
So I'm currently a senior in high school and am going to be graduating around this mid May. I'm currently at a crossroad in my life where I have to make a decision about my future. My friend would like me to join him in going into IB but I'm not sure if I want to join him. I don't know if I'm about the high finance life and I have no idea whether this will be a job that I will enjoy, or at the very least be something I can at least tolerate.
The pros of going with him seem to be great: high pay, meet and network with lots of important and rich people, respectable job, good exit opportunities, etc.
But there are also a couple of things that I don't like about, such as: moving very far away (I'm a 25 hour drive away from NYC), whether I can tolerate the job, the location (as of late I haven't heard many good things about NYC), my parents and family all believing that this is a far too risky plan and isn't a good choice, if this is a misuse of my time that could have been spent pursuing better goals, and those are some of the biggest ones.
There's just so much to consider about my future and it all just feels so overwhelming sometimes and I'm just unable to make a decision currently. I'm currently leaning towards not going so please give me any reasons not to go or any reasons to go for it. Any advice or insights would really help and don't be afraid to get real with me, I want to know all of the worst and best parts of going into IB.
Where are you going for college?
I probably should have mentioned in the main post but we are going down a very unorthodox path for IB. The plan is to get a bachelors degree in data analytics from an accredited online non profit school, take the accounting and financial modeling courses from Wall Street Prep (I've done the accounting and have to do the modeling now), and network with people in the industry to try to get reputable references and recommendations for the interviews. My friend believes that us being 18 and having all of this done will help us get an "edge" by being such an oddity that people will have to notice us and make us a much more interesting prospect for recruiters and interviewers.
I have doubts about this logic though and believe that instead of seeing promising prospects, interviewers will see an unqualified 18 year old with a rushed degree that has no idea what he's doing/no idea what he's even getting himself into and will see us more of a liability than a prodigy.
But I might be wrong, would they actually hire someone like me?
Sounds like too difficult of a plan tbh. Online school doesn’t help. Graduating early doesn’t make sense in IB because you won’t have the time to have done internships and learn enough to even get a role. Sounds like you need to go to the best possible university you can. Or at least go to a community college, do well, and transfer to the best school in your state at the least. People won’t be impressed by your early degree or certifications. There are kids going to Ivies with the same certifications who get on campus recruiting and have strong alumni networks. These kids are applying for summer internships. Now you can imagine how much more competitive it would be to try jumping straight into full time IB. If anything, you wqnt to spend more time in school so you have longer to build up experience and get more shots at IB summer internships
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You seem like a motivated kid so don’t want to discourage that, but would strongly suggest you consider matriculating into a traditional 4 year bachelors program, or CC+transfer like the above user commented. GMAT, WSP, etc are all nice to have but not anything extraordinary. As far as your references go, again – nice to have – but given HR is the ultimate gatekeeper I just don’t see it panning out the way your plan is currently structured. While modeling and WSP is important, all analysts / interns receive some form of this training before hitting the desk, so not a real differentiator
Again, don’t want to discourage your goals here – and coming from a nontarget I understand how difficult it can be. Just my 2c
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Appreciate the additional color, and it’s great you’re already networking across all levels. I will say that the recruiting process / qualifications changes exponentially every year. Point being, the recruiting landscape between when your MD connect entered banking, to now, is drastically different.
For sure as long as you kill technicals and come off as likable, then your odds are pretty good. I will say that having interviewed kids for superdays a few times now, offers often boil down to not giving the bank a reason to ding you vs you actually “winning” the interview.
I was told that a major reason why the bank I’m at took a chance on me was because of a strong alum performer who was currently there. This, along with doing well in the interview landed me the offer – but I honestly doubt I would have gotten past the superday without that alum. I’m not sure if the online program would serve you well in this regard.
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