Incoming Analyst, school online, what now?
Hi everyone - I'm an incoming analyst at a BB and given that my school is online, I have no idea what to do. Im extremely bored, working ~30 hours a week, and have completed the WSO PE Guide and all of Wall Street Prep. I can't take the CFA in June and I want to prep to start IB and hopefully recruit PE. I've read a few PE books (not technical, just the background about the industry and the major players). Does anyone have any idea on what I can do to set myself up now? I'm at a non target so getting people from PE firms on the phone has been a bit challenging,
You're definitely one of those guys who thinks he'll pick up a girl by explaining how to do an LBO.
You're going to get crushed for the next two years. Coming from a non-target, you should be stoked. Enjoy a little please before you actually start having responsibilities and realize that life after college isn't as amazing as you thought it would be.
Not quite. I had to grind my ass for over 3 years to get into IB and would prefer to get ahead so I don't have to do that again on top of IB.
I got to be honest. Your SAT score, GPA and non-target status are going to hurt you a bit but at this point, this is something you have to just live with just like how a short guy has to live with his height and get potentially rejected automatically by girls. I can see how you feel behind.
The only things you can really focus on is your skillset prior to entering IB, networking with PE people and making sure you are a top bucket analyst that has learned a shit ton about finance. Unfortunately, there are many things that you will just learn and experience only when you're on the job and will have to adjust to (the stress, long nights, how to manage up, meet deadlines, deal with the unexpected).
Just please don't burn out yourself going so crazy already before you start the job. This job gets so stressful at times and if you set really high expectations for yourself (like I'm going to work on this deck until 6am every night just to impress my senior team), you will get into a rut that you won't be able to get out of. Hope you understand.
The generational difference here is amazing. There are countless threads similar to OP’s and there are always several higher up guys telling the undergrad to ‘party’ and ‘enjoy’ his freedom or whatever. Most of these guys were WASPy, relatively wealthy, fraternity members,etc. who had the time of their life in college. The reality today is IB is now opening up to very different groups and for many of these kids college sucked big time with crappy social lives and no money.
The conception that life after college isn’t all that glamorous or whatever is often spouted by guys who are no longer living that animal house or atleast social life in college. For many people life after college is when their life finally begins to have some meaning where not only money becomes less of an issue but social life moves beyond the rich kids in greek orgs, they can actually start building to a career, and give back to their family.