Life After IB: Off-Track Career Ideas, Questions & Musings

Hey everyone,

Long time follower of this space. Wanted to try something a little different here today and share some thoughts.

My own background for context: STEM graduate from a top name, started my career in quant-adjacent / data heavy role before moving to a well-known IB (all East Coast) - never did an MBA (not a fan) and "restarted" at analyst level. Spent nearly 5 years in IB (M&A and RX advisory) and recently took a break after nearly 9 years of working.

The learnings and outlook: enjoyed the quantitative / data heavy role and the first few years of IB but lately IB had taken a toll in terms of lack of mental satisfaction (pointless bureaucracy, mundane deliverables and little initiative to really own a view - yes, I know that is buyside speak). In my time off I am trying to reset a bit (get back in shape, brush up on my earlier coding & DS skills) and get my trajectory re-aligned with longer term goals.

Learnings: one of the things to note about the current market is that "interest" from employers / recruiters is very "selective". I started dipping my toe back in the pond with some opportunistic applications but noticed that getting traction for roles (Tier 2/3 companies with Strat Fin / Operating roles) is no easy thing. I put this down to a few things: state of the market (applies to all of us) where people want a direct "plug" into the mix; anything remotely adjacent goes to the rubbish pile unless there is some sort of a networking pull. Another facet that has come to the fore is that the notion "optionality" that we use in banking is generally only applicable in the first few years and (slightly) oversold - to say a person who has done 2-years of a competitive training straight out of college in finance / strategy is employable is saying sky is blue. Yes, IB comparatively opens more doors in the first couple of years compared to MBB but the temporal elements at play are mainly what determine the optionality, which it seems, plateaus or runs out fairly quickly after that.

Off-track career ideas: granted I am early days into applying for broader roles but keen to hear any off-track ideas that people have pursued. I am leaning more towards roles in Strategy, Finance, Operations, Product preferably. Some left-field options include data science or data heavy marketing, lobby groups / foreign office teams in civil service, data driven start-ups or platforms (e.g., on the academic side, I love the work done by Data Colada).

For those that left IB (or PE) what have you guys noticed? What have been your big learnings?