People in IB: What is your socioeconomic upbringing and how did you initially gain interest in IB?
I'm curious about this because I'm from a middle class background but the vast majority of people I've come across in IB are from an upper-class, private school background.
I was fortunate in that while my parents' combined income was only about $125K for my teen years, we lived in a neighborhood and I went to a public school that brought me into contact with a ton of 1%-ers. Because of this I constantly got to speak to my rich friends' parents and ask them questions about education and work. This is how I initially discovered IB, as my friend's father was an MD at a large bank.
But I feel like had I not had that privilege of growing up around so many wealthy, successful people I never would have broke into IB or anything similar in terms of comp/prestige. It just helped me visualize my potential for the future and I had the benefit of getting to ask a lot of accomplished bankers/lawyers/contractors etc. tips and advice on what I need to do to be like them when I grow up. I'm really just curious, if someone isn't from that type of background, how in the hell would you ever even stumble upon IB as a career path until it's too late?
Grew up in <$70,000 income household with five other siblings. Had no idea what IB was until I transferred to a private university after two years at CC. Came in as a sophomore and basically had to discover what IB was, break into the banking club, study technicals, take much harder classes than CC and overcome the culture shock of being in a new city surrounded by wealthy / outstandingly smart kids for the first time in my life. All before recruiting started up. Fortunately, a few guys leading the banking club recognized how hard I was willing work and spent extra time tutoring me and helping me get up to speed. Will always be grateful to them for that
$70,000 is above average
And? Never said I was poor… but when you factor in how many mouths to feed (much less put through college) with that level of income it definitely isn’t rich.
Surprised at the amount of lower middle-class here. Woulda thought it would predominantly be rich kids from Greenwich and Orange County.
Plenty of poor kids on WSO. Also plenty of people who just don't want to admit that they got into Goldman Sachs because they were born on third base.
Disclaimer: Not in IB, but Big 4 TS.
I grew up in a small blue collar city. I was lower middle class for much of my childhood, up until my dad was able to get his business off the ground (when I was in high school). Lived in a small house with 2 siblings. One computer, no cable TV until I was 12, almost no video games. Lived off pasta and beans for many years. City was/is ground zero for the opioid crisis, some of the neighborhood kids I grew up with ended up ODing. Never really travelled, our vacations consisted of tent camping at the local park 1 hour away. Not that that's a bad thing, I have many fond memories of those experiences. Obviously private school wasn't an option. I'm not gonna pretend like I was ever in bare bones poverty, I mean I was privileged in a lot of ways. I always had a roof over my head, and never wondered if I was gonna go to bed hungry. Also to the extent that there was abuse and dysfunction in my family, it was quite limited, at least in comparison to what some of my childhood friends were dealing with. I'm also a white male for what it's worth.
When I first heard of investment bankers as an 18 year old freshman, I literally thought they were the middle class guys at the local bank branch managing grandma's retirement savings. Eventually smartened up and joined my (very non-target) school's investment club. Got a few internships in BO/MO and FP&A at an automaker, and then finally in equity research. Used this experience to break into big 4 TS for a full-time role, where I remain today.
Preface: This story sounds so fake I actually do not tell people in real life but if you do not believe me, you are underestimating how stubborn boomers are and how fraud does not always have to be high tech.
I grew up blindingly wealthy overseas, don't wanna say where, with all the trappings of things you would think of when imagining how rich people live. Renting boats, bodyguards, multiple houses, luxury cars etc. It was during this time when I learnt about IB and high paying jobs from my friends and wanted to go my own way and make my own money.
It was a lucky decision because my dad lost every single penny in 2015 - 2018. Like everything, including the homes and all the assets and liquid cash, to his childhood friends who were stealing from him, he is a boomer who thought my brothers and i could not be trusted to run his business because we were young mainly due to the fact he made his money easily and recklessly in the 90s.
His friends must have realized how he never adapted to technology and decided to take advantage of him, under the instruction from their own kids (my brothers and I are pretty sure this happened), convinced my dad to invest in obviously fake businesses over and over to the tune of millions of dollars, my dad would trust them because these businesses had websites and he can barely open an email, so to him a website was a stamp of approval and an email was an official means of communication where no lies can be told. Like investing in fake hotels, being tricked to hand over financial information etc.
When my brothers and I told him it was all scams, his friends would tell him we were young and spoilt and he would listen to them and shoo us away. When he realized it was scams, he felt ashamed and started hiding everything from us and would run back to those same friends for financial advice.
Today he barely has anything except our family house, and i am now basically the bread winner and the crazy thing is he is still friends with all those guys who's children now control his businesses.
Till this day, I do not understand how he could have been so foolish and it made me lose respect for rich boomers who made a lot of money 30+ years ago, it must have been so easy to acquire wealth if my dad was able to.
All this happened right before I joined big 4 audit, and now I am in banking. Thinking about how he lost everything and my family becoming the topic of mocking gossip and not being able to afford anything for 3 years after growing up like I did, makes me grind harder and honestly kind of mean but I am working on that.
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These type of threads are inspiring to read but I think there's enough AMAs and comments about people coming from nowhere to becoming successful in banking. I think this thread will evolve more into a dick measuring contest of who came from the poorest background and most successful today.
Facts. You got that good Trust fund?
Congrats on Russian Empire