Is it worth doing IB for exclusively the high pay?(DEI person)

I am a high school student aspiring to be an investment banker, creating clubs, studying for the SAT, and looking for internship opportunities with the sole goal of going into IB. I’m a high school sophomore and a black male, meaning I’ll likely have an easier time in recruiting a getting accepted into IB’s. For people working or people familiar with the field, how likely is it that I become an investment banker and how likely am I to become one?

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Hi, I'm a freshman at a T10 business school trying to break into IB as well.

First, it's great that you have your goals set at such an early age. If I were you, I'd start to build a few ideas around which school you want to attend for your undergrad; prestige and connections matter A LOT in finance, and it can make or break your future career (at least in its early stages).

Being Black will help, but trust me, it is still no walk in the park. Unless you go to a T20, it will be HARD to break into IB with how things are looking as of late. No one will be able to tell you your chances of breaking into IB right now; it is extremely early to even think of that. But do build a good application for colleges and start investigating about them; look into what target schools and semi target schools are, watch a few yt videos, look around on WSO for target school lists, etc.

Feel free to reply or PM if you have any questions

 

Thanks. How important is networking and would you say it’s more or less important than pure academics stats?(regarding breaking into IB from college)

 

Most important is what school you go to.
Then comes networking.
Then GPA.

GPA doesn't matter a lot as long as it's above a 3.6 (or 3.7-3.8 if you're aiming for tougher roles to land).
Networking is the biggest difference maker aside from what college you attend. If you just apply for jobs without networking with somebody inside the company first, and you're not at a T20, then your resume will get trashed.

 

Definitely look into SEO. If you're already thinking about IBD as a high schooler, and you seem to be thinking about this rationally, you'd be a shoo-in for that program which would help immensely with IBD recruiting.

 

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