Are there are industries that offers a similar compensation/exit opportunities to IB but is just a bit more challenging?
Quant is just too far out of reach unless you’re a mathematical genius.
Perhaps fundamental equity L/S? Or GE?
Whaddaya think
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Agreed. IB is the easy way to make 6 figs for unexceptional kids
can confirm i signed ib and i am incredibly unexceptional lmao im genuinely retarded
It’s a relationship-based business. If basic networking makes you seethe, it’s not the right career path for you. And how would requiring more “intellectual horsepower” reduce the amount of people networking?
who are they doing coffee chats with lol?
Okay I also go to UChicago and did my summer at an EB. Nobody is doing coffee chats that early, and if they are it’s pointless. If you hate networking then you might not be fit for IB. You can try HF, but that’s a whole nother beast
I went to UChicago (ignore intern title) - O-Week is 1.5 years too early for coffee chats. Banking also can be intellectually interesting, and I've found "selling out" to be more interesting than expected. See how your first year in college goes, take the real econ major when you start your second year, and then you can think about whether you're interested. Don't forget that those fellow first years have the same (lack of) experience you do.
This is really not helping the common stereotypes about UChicago haha
lol. Someone’s salty
You already shot down a field that requires more intellectual horsepower. Quants not that hard and you don’t have to network.
The top quant firms are far harder than top IBs, and shitty quant firms have a huge risk of pigeonholing you into a dead-end
On one hand yes, but on the other hand getting into BB IB isn't that hard. You go to UChicago which is one of the best schools if you wanted to do quant you could probably go to a tier one quant shop.
I work in quant (received offers both for trading and SWE at name brand firms).
The bar isn't as high as you think, especially coming in as a freshman. There is ample time to prepare.
I think what you're looking for in tech. Requires more intellectual horsepower and knowledge, and no networking or club recruiting. Great compensation, and then coast as a senior SWE making 500k 20 hrs/week,
Thing is I never was a math/cs kid. Not that I’m bad at math, I got 800 on the math sat, but never was at the level where I would be going to math competitions.
Also have only ever done AP CS, so pretty much 0 coding experience.
Is it too late?
Programming isn't that hard. If you're a freshman, you can start right away, be disciplined and strategic. Can pretty much land many different careers.
And like others have said, networking is a must in IB because it's all about soft skills as you rise up. Eccentric math geniuses don't get deals done. So you might definitely want to explore other careers while you are still young and still have the time and freedom with no responsibilities.
Go be a doctor or something idk? You are going to have to network your whole life in IB
Medical School is hard in the same way IB is - requires a shit ton of work but the actual concepts aren't difficult to understand.
If you want difficult complex work go be a quant or an AI researcher or something. The engineers at Google coding Gmail buttons aren't exactly doing complex work either.
the obvious answer is to start a business. otherwise you’re just peacocking with this post. IB is made for unexceptional people who want to trade time for money. nothing wrong with that, but if you are who you say you are, entrepreneurship is the way
Most of the industries that make decent money are not intellectually stimulating. Until last 1-2 years, tech was the easiest moneymaker for average kids. Getting into FAANG was a cakewalk for average kids who are willing to grill leetcode.
FAANG each expanded headcounts on average at 5000 each year and 70% are US based software engineers - imagine 3500 NET NEW openings at just 1 tech firm, far more than BB IBD openings every year. And you have other big techs like Lyft, Uber, Microsoft, Airbnb, Snowflake, etc.
Until 2021, even schools like UMass Amherst, Stony Brook, Santa Clara, UC Irvine, etc. send 20% kids (50-100+) each to big techs. Imagine this happened at finance, even big 4 doesn't hire that many kids at this tier of school.
I go to UF and the hardo frosh guys started networking in summer lol
Investment banking is a sales job, it's not overly complicated. You're not solving anything other than finding a buyer for the seller, your job is to make a business look attractive to sell for a client. All that work you put into building financials gets molested by the buy-side crew anyways. We don't actually give a shit about your forecast because our MD/CEO already has a vision/pov for the valuation of the business.
In order for the lack of an intellectual barrier to be "ruining IB" it must have been great because it once had an intellectual barrier?
At the analyst level, 95% of the job is being willing to put up with bullshit, 4% of the job is not doing stupid shit, and 1% of the job is doing smart shit.
Go to comp sci? Whole set of varying degrees of technical complication there and you can stay purely technical forever if you want and are good at it
The fucking salty ass balls on this freshman 💀
How smart do you need to be to move boxes on slides in M&A and coverage... In quant on the other hand, there are some (mental) geniuses
The BS networking IS the "intellectual barrier". Its analysis/admin as you start but the real job is sales and building credibility.
It attracts a lot of school smart but dumb grinders with no creativity and risk tolerance.
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