wtf do I do now
For context, I am a 3rd-year Finance major at a non-target and an incoming IB SA at a MM in NYC this summer. When I got my offer a year ago, I was over the moon and excited about doing IB post-grad. However, for some reason, this semester a lot has changed and I don't even feel like I can do IB and handle the lifestyle at all.
I started taking actual Finance courses, like the upper-level, not intro to corporate finance type shit this year and it was a fucking shitstorm (GPA-wise, mental health, etc). I have no idea what happened but I just lost all interest in finance and was not doing well, at all, in the classes. I was tuning out the professors, trying not to fall asleep during lectures, and avoiding studying for exams until it was too late. I suspect I may have ADHD but I am also unsure if I am just lazy and self-diagnosing, but I became a total wreck this year. It's to the point that my GPA is awful now (~3.4) and I have to retake a class since I am failing.
Now, I am so scared about doing my summer analyst role at the bank and I am terrified it's also going to be one big fuck up. I even thought about reneging on my offer and dreaming about just staying the summer at my parent's place and rotting in my childhood bedroom instead. I have lost all confidence in my ability to do well in not only my internship, but also finance in general, and am honestly too scared to even start studying for my upcoming finance exam. I feel physically sick when I think about doing my internship this summer.
I look at some of my friends who are management, business admin, marketing, and even communication majors and am so jealous at how much they seemingly actually enjoy what they are doing and learning about. I use to be a genuinely curious student and loved to learn but I feel like I totally lost that this year.
I read some of the recent posts on WSO about the grind, lifestyle, and the "just survive the 2 years" vibe that IB has and I'm lowkey getting scared. I don't think mentally or physically that I can handle IB anymore but I have no idea what to switch to or even do. Did any of you guys feel this way at any point in college? What would you recommend or suggest I do? Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated.
Look into some therapy and don’t reneg your offer. You’ve got it. You’re in your head. Plenty of kids do it every year. Don’t take finance classes if you don’t like them - you don’t need them to do ib and you already got an internship.
Why are you focusing on 2 years? You’re an incoming intern. It’s literally 9 weeks on a desk. You got this.
Do not renege. Push yourself through the summer and re-evaluate in the fall. An IB summer at a reputable shop will open doors into anything, even if that means pivoting and pursuing a masters in something other than finance.
You’ll be fine man, hang in there.
I’m in a similar boat to OP (not that I’m not interested in ib, just that I’m terrified I’m not cut out for it compared to everyone else coming from ivy leage schools and finance majors when I’m only an Econ major with rudimentary, at best, accounting and finance knowledge). Do you really think we’ll be ok? I’ve been trying to self-learn basic accounting skills/knowledge, better understand the 3 financial statements and how things flow through them, etc. and I can understand the core logic behind these concepts, but I can’t really reproduce that knowledge from memory yet. (Which is why I am also hesitant to start FT recruiting for a post-grad job until I can continue studying and hopefully get practice in my summer analyst position this summer, so I don’t sound like a fool when answering technical questions in interviews. Would you mind giving any advice or elaborating on what would be best worth my time to prepare myself for this summer? I’m super nervous, I really wish I’d chosen to major in finance lol. I’m so glad I got this opportunity but I don’t want to ruin my career chances with my lack of knowledge!
For what it’s worth I hated all of my finance courses and apply little to none of it to my IB role. Accounting-related topics are most of what I use. Hated the coursework, really enjoy the actually career work. Give it a shot and try not to overthink it all, you have plenty of time to work through things.
People go through rough patches, try to reach out to family and friends to get your confidence back. Best of luck, I would not renege.
Honestly I have been facing similar doubts but I 100% would go through with at least the internship. It would probably be a lot easier to switch industries if you at least have this internship on your resume than if you had nothing
Don’t worry. Those finances courses will be the most finance you do all summer. Welcome to PPT hell intern
This is oddly reassuring.
But, how do interns get enough technical practice/knowledge to ace the dreaded technical questions in an interview? The FT interview questions are surely a lot more complex than anything we had to answer for our internship interview. I’m so nervous I won’t be ready for interviews after this summer at my internship, and I’m trying to self-study but it’s hard to get the concepts without putting them into practice.
Converting your SA position to FT doesn’t require an interview. They’ll look for hard work, ability to learn quickly, and communication skills (to name a few major ones).
The summer project which most interns have to do is where you both learn and utilize relevant skills.
trust me your friends in marketing, business admin, etc do not enjoy what they are doing. in finance you are kinda pushed to realize what you are actually doing way earlier than the others. im a senior and my friend in marketing is applying for FT positions rn and he's telling me he wish he did finance like me because marketing isn't actually super interesting and he's gonna get payed way less than me.do the internship, and see how you feel after. if anything, doing an ib internship will show that your smart, hardworking, and capable, and then you can find something else that may interest you more for a full time job
Lmao you sound like a wuss. Man up and do it. Nothing worth doing is easy. You’re in an incredibly privileged position so stop being a pussy
I was in a similar position last spring. The best thing you can do is get to the end of the semester, then put a mental wall between the semester and the summer. Take the weeks off before your internship to rest. College can get really stressful sometimes and if you're the kind of person who puts a lot on your own plate, you might end up having bitten off more than you can chew. Treat the summer as new and apart from the school year and do everything you can to gain a positive experience. If you don't like the experience, you can leave and there will definitely be options open to someone who has spent time in IB.
For me, making sure that after finals ended, I stopped thinking about school and focused on the summer. This meant I was much less stressed as I wasn't bringing school stress into the internship.
definitely recommend you try to push and complete the internship to get to see whether or not you would pursue it full time
It's the chase that's the funnest
OP - whatever you do please don't renege on the offer! I don't mean to sound patronizing when I say this, but as a guy now in his 30s who has worked in this industry for 10yrs - even if you hadn't said you were still in college I could still tell you're a young kid. I mean only a youngster still in college would think the solution to maybe struggling in IB is to not do it at all! Again I don't mean to be rude or patronizing saying this, but just trying to get the point across that you lose 100% of the games you don't play!
Also as an analyst the finance side really isn't that complex, and I say this as someone who came from a liberal arts background. Admittedly I did find things a lot tougher at associate-level, but you're panicking about being a summer intern - and you actually have a finance background from college! Seriously as a summer analyst most of the battle is won if you a) turn up (which you're considering not doing!), b) work hard and put in the hours, and c) have strong attention to detail. Obviously I don't know you personally but I think there is a real danger you're catastrophising about what could go wrong, when you haven't even given it a shot.
And (again I say this with the "wisdom" of being in my early 30s) respectfully I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Let's say your fears are 100% right and you completely flunk your summer internship - so what? I'm not being flippant here - it might feel like the end of the world at the time, but realistically it isn't. But at least you gave it your best shot - and also if you find it absolutely horrendous then it maybe means finance just isn't for you? Which also isn't the end of the world - you could go into a corporate F500 job and maybe be an exec one day? I know on the college treadmill it can feel like a single failure (e.g. bad exam result/grade/bad internship) is the end of the world, but it really isn't.
Yet the above scenario isn't even the worse case scenario. The worse case scenario is you renege out of fear and spend years of your life thinking about what could have been, and knowing you had a great opportunity and didn't even give it a shot! Whereas at least if you try and fail then you know you did your best, and maybe it just isn't for you. So I would urge you to give it a shot for your own sake.
And as I've said I really don't think you have any substantial basis to be worrying, given a summer intern is not expected to be a master of modelling and financial engineering. Chances are you'll just be updating pitch decks and circulating teams calendar invites - and that's a test of your work ethic + attention to detail, not whether you can build an LBO model.
Good luck anyway OP. But honestly I just wouldn't want you to be thinking in 10yrs time "wow I never even tried, who knows I could be a VP/Director by now." As someone else said, therapy could potentially be very helpful here in helping you get out of your own head on this (speaking from personal experience of having a therapist here). But obviously that's a personal decision for you. Just don't throw away a great opportunity due to some irrational fear, please.
Man up and do it. That’s what you do
I would stick it out and see how the summer goes. The best part about a summer internship is that you can always recruit for a different role for FT if you don't end up liking IB/can't take the hours.
However, I'll say that I have found finance classes to be very different from actual IB work. As long as you think the underlying concepts are interesting (valuation, analyzing financials, etc.), you'll find some of your IB work interesting. Also, I personally found it far easier to grind and work long hours in IB compared to school work. Being staffed on deals feels somewhat exciting and relevant, whereas a lot of schoolwork feels redundant and pointless.
That being said, IB is a huge commitment and it's not for everyone. If you're still not feeling it halfway through the summer, I'd consider recruiting for other FT roles (e.g. consulting, PWM, corporate finance).
Finance will always be a mix of art and science, and having a summer to learn the art part at a critical juncture for markets is invaluable. You'll notice most people on the desk have not been around in a high rate environment.
Coming from someone who got a C in Fin 101, and never higher than a B+ in advanced courses, I understand the frustration. It's scary, and you'll doubt yourself so many times in your career. But, you will understand, or find something in finance that is significantly more intuitive. Just remember, this feeling will pass. If it isn't for you, you'll be happy you took the shot.
FWIW, College is not real life, a memorization of a formula isnt going to make or break your career! You'll learn more on the job in 3-6 months than in class I can guarantee you that.
Agree with the other points that the worst thing you could do right now is reneg your offer. It’s one summer and we’re almost there so it’s not like you can really go get something else that would be considered good. Just get through the summer (it’s only a few weeks) and if you really hate it just don’t try (but you won’t get a return offer).
At least you’ll get some money and resume experience, will have gave it a shot and know for sure if you dislike it, and then can recruit for FT jobs in other areas.
Dude I have no skillsets at all. nada. I learned what I had to learn for my interviews, got my offer, and peaced tf out with a history degree and one mandatory math class I had to take for general credits. Ignore my flair, but I did just fine, and got my offer, even without having an amazingly quantitative background. As long as you have critical thinking skills, the drive to learn, and the ability to put up with shit that no one other than a super masochist at a BDSM club would deal with, you can do IB. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. And you actually have hard skills, so that means you're gonna do great and be miles ahead of people like me on the first day. Trust me— if Chad, Kyle, and me can get this bread so can you.
Dude, really? Those Ivy League kids are also econ majors. Or history majors. or whatever majors. This job doesn’t exactly take rocket science. Stop psyching yourself out and get some self confidence. People go in with zero technical skills because the job doesn’t even require it.
Voluptatibus consequatur qui et quo magnam. Voluptatum dignissimos omnis veritatis vero animi sint. Natus animi ut optio est.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Illo eum non praesentium porro. Et voluptas nobis qui velit ad quod dolorum. Laborum vero exercitationem quo molestiae culpa sit recusandae.
Ullam quia nisi sequi quidem blanditiis ea qui. Saepe nesciunt unde placeat nulla reprehenderit quia voluptatum. Aperiam consequuntur maiores ratione vel dolores expedita tenetur quaerat.