Quitting IB before I even start?
Hi all,
Current junior in college here who was accepted into a 2024 IB analyst program at a mid-tier BB. When I initially accepted the offer this past summer, I was VERY happy as I had just gone through that grueling process of networking and interviewing. But now, I'm not looking forward to the summer and feel almost afraid; don't know if I'm qualified for the job/if it's even what I want to do. Everyone I've talked to in the industry seems like they despise the work they do but have some chip on their shoulder. First, is this a normal feeling for someone like me at this stage? and second, if I were to find another internship in a different field (not lateraling to a better firm) and reneged, would the firm and everyone I've talked to be super pissed and screw my reputation?
Lol. You’ll be fine. Most of the learning is on the job anyways.
Why quit when you’ve already put in the work? Sure, parts of the job suck, but if you have a genuine interest in finance, you won’t hate every aspect of the job.
What’s the alternative? A brain numbing 9-5 corporate job? I couldn’t imagine anything worse at this point in my life. I’d rather work 10-2am on stuff that’s mentally stimulating 90% of the time, and interesting 60% of the time with great learning ops.
The people that absolutely hate IB imo:
1. People in absolutely horrible groups with bad culture (getting screamed at for fn on pg 100 missing a period). Tbh don’t hear much abt yelling at analysts much. More just “plz fix” or “EBiTDa looks off, please review” which isn’t bad
2. People that were optimizing for “prestige” or comp without having any interest in finance at all
Also, it’s literally an internship. If you do hate it, it would probably go easier to recruit for a less intense role with that experience. If you don’t want to do finance, no, reneging will not hurt your reputation since you won’t be working in that industry and nobody cares enough to chase down your other non-finance/banking related internship because you decided it wasn’t the right path. If you want to do finance, it’s just 2yrs of your life that will set you up to be successful in whatever finance (or non-finance) role you want. Seems a bit foolish to throw away the opportunity because a couple people looked depressed
It's only 8-10 weeks. It'll fly by even if you get crushed and don't like it. In the end it'll do much more good where you could find out you like IB and want to stay / get an offer or use it to recruit to something else and levereage the "IB stamp of approval" on your intern resume
Part of the point of any internship, banking or not, is to see if you really like it. I say go for it and if you hate it, then do something else. You got a slot that is hard to get and can open some doors. Keep in mind that plenty of people enjoy banking also, but don't spend all day on internet forums so some of the comments are self-selected.
“Quit, don't quit... Noodles, don't noodles... You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.“
- Master Oogway
If this was FT, I might say otherwise, but tbh, it’s just an internship - just complete it, and try to get the return offer, as that’ll give you a shitload of leverage in FT recruiting
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