Love finance but hate banking, what to do...

I was lucky enough to land a sophomore internship at a top BB firm from a non-target but I can't stand the work.

Pulling logos and remaking charts seems like an absolute waste of my (and all of the extremely intelligent people I work with's) time. I don't aspire to be like any of the senior bankers as it seems like they would do anything to land a fat fee (despite what that means for the client, the junior team, or anyone for that matter). Every 20-something analyst seems like they've had their will to live sucked out of them and are terrifyingly unexcited about their future. I've been candidly told that you can throw together a book with almost no knowledge about the company. Everyone seems to be sneaking behind everyone's back to better position themselves for a promote or exit op. No one seems happy and neither am I.

The worst part is that I really love finance. I've been intensely motivated to learn about all things finance since I was a kid. I developed my modeling and financial skills on my own time and during a freshman year internship at a small HF. I would love to see the inner workings of a well-run PE shop or HF, but am afraid I will never be able to get there without 2-years of banking on my resume. I care much less about money and prestige than everyone I work with. Yes I need money to pay off my student debt and I don't want to worry about putting food on the table but I don't need to rock sleds to the hamptons with the #boys to be fucking happy.

Does everyone in banking hate their job? Are these exit ops really worth 2 years of bullshit? Is a decent buy-side job feasible out of undergrad? Does everyone just do banking because everyone does banking?

3 Comments
 

Sounds like you should look into lower MM / MM PE firms. Given your experience, I'm sure you could lock something down for full time.

Don't let yourself think that PE will be the answer either. Still going to be doing grunt work like an analyst in IB.

 
"The Lord" Sounds like you should look into lower MM / MM PE firms. Given your experience, I'm sure you could lock something down for full time.

Don't let yourself think that PE will be the answer either. Still going to be doing grunt work like an analyst in IB.

.

 
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