IB is my paradise.
I’ll keep it short fellas.
From a lower income family. Pops is a pastor, mom is a piano instructor, I have a few siblings.
Entire life my parents pulled in ~$50,000USD combined. Folks let me do anything, never pressured me into pursuing some lucrative career.
They gave me 100% freedom, support, and never once asked me to take care of them after I made it.
They have no retirement nest - every dime went towards rent, food, and essentials.
I went to a non-target in the middle of buttfuck nowhere to pursue a commerce degree. Chose finance. I grinded my fucking ass off. I’m working a sophomore internship right now at a respectable buyside shop in fixed income. (Think PIMCO)
Got the call a little while back and I’m going EB next summer.
My parents can’t tell the difference between corporate banking and IB, doesn’t matter. I’m prepared to pay everything forward to my folks, and send my younger sibling to university without having to worry about having to mould his/her life around monetary gain.
Been a wild fucking ride. Cheers boys.
Lesssssgoo
i pull up
You’re a beast. Major props to you. Keep killing it!
Absolute beauty
Also coming from a working class family, that's ultimately my goal too, to retire my parents. Hope the big city doesn't drain our finances too much and we can send remittances :)
Congrats dude that’s an awesome feeling. Kudos to you and good job on securing the gig!
Grinding out a Sunday deadline, saw this post and really resonated man, made me really emotional. Described my parents down to a t. Put literally everything they had into the family with no expectations other than pursuit of happiness.
The battle is over but the war has just begun. The non target path is obstacles every step of the way. Never lose sight of your roots, never lose that chip on your shoulder. Never. Outwork, outgrind, outsmart, out everything everyone that crosses your path. Anytime I lost sight of the prize, I'd think of what the rents would say - do your best and you can hold your head up high.
Rooting for you homie, big big shout out to the parents. All the best.
I come from the same shit. My parents live in a 60k trailer, same one i lived in as a kid.
This has been my thinking thus far and it’s worked with everyone and everything so far.
At this point its just about staying sharp and consciously squeezing every last fucking drop out of every opportunity you get.
It's not just students of "non-target" universities who have it tough, though. If you go to a top school from a family of a similar background as OP, it can be very hard to figure everything out too. Those top universities assume everyone is well-connected from Day 1, provide advice from day 1 with the idea that you already know what you're doing, and in addition to the challenges of college, most people from richer families have legs up in almost every way since most of the professional organizations self-select the students who are already privileged.
You can still get something nice out of it, but you're gonna often be a lot further behind and need to take a circuitous route due to missteps more-privileged peers will never need to make. Of course, some people make it regardless, but if you go to like an Ivy and your family isn't upper middle class it will not be the rose-tinted glasses as portrayed on this site. Best you can do is focus a lot on improving your skills and education because in my experience that's what has gotten me roles, NOT connections. Connections only help once you're established unless you have several other privileges.
Everyone has their own circumstances of course, but to think an Ivy kid does not have multiple legs up over non-targets is silly. Career services who know what they're doing, peers and upperclassmen who have gone through the process, alumni, brand, OCR. Most non-targets have none of that. Nothing is obviously handed to you, but the disparity in opportunity and access is immense, whether you come from the middle class o r not.
You're a fucking K I N G my man
Absolute W
How did your dad react to you going into finance? Many pastors preach against acquiring wealth, money, success, etc. and finance is basically the antithesis of that (turning money into more money).
I hear people say this on this forum, and feeling confident in the fact that I spent more time in more churches than 99% of ppl growing up (father was also a pastor), I've never once heard a pastor teach this.
They do teach not to place anything (money, career, relationships, hobbies, literally anything) over God and to do whatever you do for the Glory of God other than yourself. I get not wanting to do that, but I also think that it is misconstrued to say that Christianity teaches that success/money is bad.
You probably went to church more than me but I’ve been to well over 1000 services in-person in a variety of denominations and have watched 1000+ more on-line or through TV in my lifetime so I have some ground to speak here.
Jesus told the rich young ruler who came to him to sell all his goods and follow him. He led Peter, James and John away from a lucrative fishing business to being beggars with him. He led Matthew away from being a wealthy tax collector to a beggar. Paul went from being a religious elite to a vagabond.
The theme of giving up material possessions as a part of conversion is easily seen (and Jesus explicitly states it). There’s definitely a contrast here between the Old Testament (which is another theological debate in and of itself) where material success was allowed alongside worshipping God, but that theme disappears in the NT. The NT is all about living a life of suffering (Jesus said if someone slaps your cheek to turn the other way), persecution, poverty, and mediocrity.
I heard far more sermons that I can bother to count where striving to obtain material possessions through education or work is deemed to be a sin and that Christians should emulate the life of Jesus and the disciples who lived as the poor and outcasts of the world.
Also maybe your church was softer on teaching but if you take “putting God over money” to its full extent it requires at best a mediocre life. Are you turning comments from your MD or going to church on Wednesday night? Are you reading your Bible for an hour in the morning or trying to get sleep from a long night at work? Do your decisions at work help the poor (whose Jesus ministry focused on) get better or service the rich?
My folks were both missionaries in their 20s-30s. My old man has been a pastor ever since. Just some background context.
He doesn't mind, at all. He's never forced me to be that perfect pastor's kid (PK), and honestly has always told me how sorry he felt, that he couldn't provide more for me and my siblings - but he knew be couldn't let go of his spiritual role in the community. It was his calling.
With that being said, he's never forced me to carry anything out. Gave me the freedom and support I needed to continuously do my best and let the underdog narrative fuel me in a way. Having to ask the community for help to pay for little league and things like that, in my opinion, built character.I think my folks just want me to not lose myself and stay grounded in my roots as I enter the chaos of IB.
They’ve always taught me to simply be as similar to Christ as possible. I don’t have to preach, convince friends, or work in ministry - as long as I as an individual represent my faith to the best of my abilities, especially in environments where it’s hardest to stay firm to my beliefs. I don't think I identify as a banker, I identify as a Christian lad who happens to be a banker.
Just a thought, but if becoming a banker changes you (as a person), you shouldn't be one.I'll come back and provide an update on how I do once I join the big leagues. Thanks all for the support - fucking love you guys.
I wouldn’t say finance changes you, but your faith is going to be tested in a tangible manner for maybe the first time in your life. If the associate tells you to “change the input numbers” to your model to make the projected financials “look good” will you follow through or hold the line and lose your chances of being top bucket? Similarly if you are told to change the axis of graphs to exaggerate gains and minimize losses will you do it or again hold the line? If you move to the buyside will you purchase non-ethical non-public insights from companies such as Robinhood to beat the markets or eat that upside in returns and risk being pushed out (HF specific)? If you’re in PE will you engage in “cost-cutting” measures that leaves the common worker worse off and ships jobs overseas or will you take the difficult route of creating value by actually providing strategic direction and business plan for a company? If you stay on the sell-side will you market company XYZ honestly in a roadshow and risk interest being low or will you use “edited models” (see above) to exaggerate your expectations for the company? And in all of this remember that there are no secular consequences if you take the unethical route and you make more money.
Jews are wealthy and it’s not against the Torah. Whatever nonsense being taught in the church is misguided nonsense meant to keep you poor and giving your hard earned money to that rich man on a pulpit.
Absolute class, reading this made my day
Congrats man. That’s what life’s all about.
lets fucking go, i salute you
Congratulations!
Congrats man, class of 2024 and Christian who signed at a BB for next summer. Similar to you in a lot of regards and though I come from a slightly more well-off family in a small town, just wanted to remind you though we'll see a lot of privileged kids in our SA classes that there are a lot of us out there coming from backgrounds like you and being the first in our families to really change our socioeconomic standing. Happy to begin that path with you.
+1 SB, pretty much in same shoes as you and op
LET'S GOOOO !!! Major W's you are collecting my friend, wishing you a lot of success and happiness along this path. May god bless you brother
Congrats!!
Very inspiring my man
Software engineers at Jane Street make 400k starting, working 40 hrs a week... and goes up to a million by around age 30 lol. So over double the pay for half the hours lmao... Also heard Citadel/HRT pay even more. You chose the wrong profession bro
https://www.teamblind.com/post/Is-the-new-grad-SW…
https://www.levels.fyi/company/Jane-Street/salari…
Wow, you must have a Mike & Ike for a penis to act this insecure lmao. Just let him bask in the gigantic W that is his life and find another place to be a useless twat.
OP- Huge respect and congrats to you brother. Keep going, with an attitude and values like yours, I’m certain God will bless you with many more monumental W’s. Bless you and your parents for having raised such a fine individual. Absolutely love to see it.
Instagram influencers and OnlyFans people can make even more than Jane Street with no education and fewer hours, what's your point?
Go rot in your privilege prospect, respect the hustle or get the F out
Respect man, very happy for you. Keep that drive and motivation going forward and you are going to accomplish great things
Cheers my guy
Honestly what EB are we talking? If it's Lazard/Evercore this is a solid achievement and you should be proud. But if you're just talking about another Moelis/Rothschild/Guggenheim offer I honestly think you missed the mark and shouldn't be celebrating prematurely. Look at how low they are on the league-tables dude. You need to transfer to a BB or top-tier, Elite Boutique ASAP to have any fighting chance of going buy-side and actually "making it" in "high finance"
nope lol just grind people get MF from firms well below moelis in terms of prestige lmao. plus money is good in umm type exits too…
Shut up bro
Was being satirical
You are delusional, not funny - Any sort of salary above $100k is a huge accomplishment for someone from this background. Go back to the safe confines of your dad's yacht club
Congratulations. I think a lot of people on this forum don't understand how much they make compared to main street. When you're bringing in 200k+, going home to a 6+ person family where 50k is the norm, and offering to take them to Denny's or Cracker Barrel can mean the world. Paying for a siblings books, or a new laptop when they start college and are stressed about money, helping a family member pay for new tires when one unexpectedly goes flat... Doing little things like this during the holidays or visits home with no expectation of anything in return can give you a real sense of accomplishment and purpose. If you want to take care of your folks and siblings long term though, this is just the beginning. Keep your head down and don't spend the bonus. Again congratulations. Always a nice refresher to know there are people like this in the industry.
Congratulations buddy - you’ve broken in and can now change your families legacy for generations.
This is the kind of stuff that inspires me. Kinda similar situation here, looking forward to being able to support my parents in retirement and younger sibling w/ college, etc. Cheers to you!
This made my day! 🙌
Made my day reading this too
Congrats! Just make sure that if you give to others that it comes without expectations. No one expected you to fit in a box, don't pay someone's way to college expecting them to hit any number of check boxes unless communicated upfront. Your parents may not have had monetary gifts to support you but I’m sure they have given you values much more important than money. 
Wholesome! Congratulations pal!
:)
More power to you man! Reminded me of my old days !!!
My folks used to work extremely hard to save/earn anything they could. Their lifetime savings was less than $15k. But they always gave me whatever they could. My father was spending majority of his earnings on my education !
Now I earn almost $15k each month, bought them a house last year, a car and a vacation this year. Helped my father start a new business.
There is no nobility in poverty - it brings anxiety, depression and a lot of avoidable stress. Every other time when I see a poor family, I get reminded of my old days and that is why I never complain about the hours or the hard work.
.
This is what it’s all about. Cheers
This made my day. Congrats, major W - God rewards good men
Cheers mate!
Good Job bro! Proud
Amazing
Keep going! Mad respect
This is what it’s about brotha🤝
Congrats mate. I'm in a similar position and just got a mega bonus... Was wild
Respect.
Remarkable. Keep pushing forward.
Similar story as yours, poor family from an unknown school. The big realization I saw doing IB is that it is quite a working class background friendly place (albeit for the wrong reasons, they see working class folks more willing to grind, but still).
congratulations
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