Tell me about your friend circle, are they all in finance or also from different backgrounds
I’m starting to feel I’m not living life. I’m just surrounded by people from PE HF IB. I have interests. I love surfing (cheers to that in New York). Joking aside, do you have friends based around your hobbies (ex: like to visit Coldplay concerts, so have friends with that similarity) or do you have friends strictly in high income jobs “finance, FAANG, medicine. A bit cringe, but that’s the circle I’m in, and it’s sort of senseless. They don’t share my interests but I don’t know how life is outside of finance anymore.
Most of my friends are either "from the old days" or people from my hobbies. Therefore almost nobody works in finance/banking/PE/IBD etc. - in fact, it is refreshing to explain to a friend how a credit card works. My friends are in medicine, law, research/development or corporate jobs. And yes, they have a lot more free time while they still make a decent living. I often feel like they are enjoying life more than I do.
(I have more time during WFH, but at the same time, I can't really use it due to various lockdowns and no travel).
Most of my friends in college are finance people too.
Maybe it's different for me since I just finished college - but aside from people I've met through recruiting, most of my friends have no idea about what I'm doing. Maybe it's because of the high school I'm from, but my friends are all very unmotivated about careers, and could care less about what IB is.
Most of my friends are from high school, and aren't particularly career oriented. They are in a mixture of sales, marketing, software engineering, investment banking, consulting, and back office operations positions. I love that my friends focused on different career paths, as it reduces a lot of conversations about work. It would really suck being friends with mostly IB/PE/MC guys I think. Don't get me wrong, one of my best friends is in IB and is my go to for all career advice, but I like having an eclectic range of friends from a career oriented perspective.
you guys have friends?
Most of my friends are STEM grads. Some went med school, one runs his own business, others were chemical engineering. They were all killers in school with how seriously they took academics but also made time for chilling and parties/bars. One even developed a patent during an internship and came out of undergrad and got hired on at the same pay as a 2nd or 3rd year R&D engineer. The other chemical engineering guys are all at top-knotch F100 companies too.
None of mine are. I'm an engineer, so mostly STEM people. Many of mine were lost in recruiting unfortunately. It's unfortunate, but it is the truth
I’m just 22 so I’m still very early, but most of my friends I have came from playing soccer together in my neighborhood. I live in a place with a lot of immigrants, low income, etc so most of them aren’t very school oriented but two of them are doing a Bcom. The others are either working in restaurants, construction, finishing high school or just vibing. (lol)
I have to say that it’s pretty tough to relate with a lot of “finance people” or even most people at my university.
Forgot to add that I also have another group of friends who are more school oriented. (Two engineers, a high school teacher and a pharmacist, all of them are still in Uni too)
Forgot to add that I’m not as close with the second group of friends.
Forgot to add that I’m not as close with the second group of friends.
Have many different groups of friends.
The ones I made from my “super into finance” years are all mostly unsurprisingly in finance. Course mates are unsurprisingly tech but some in finance (CS).
Of my other friends: A ton in finance. Some are in corporate law. Big chunk in tech. Handful in quant stuff. A couple medics. The expected few big4 / mid-tier public accountants. Couple in central gov policy. Couple in consulting. Some friends from my elementary school days have followed in their parents footsteps and gone into O&G. Couple teachers. Some PhD scientists. Quite a few yet to solidify a path (which is fine since we’re all early career anyway).
Overall, tech, finance, consulting and corporate law are the big ones.
I have two groups of friends that I "associate heavily" with I guess you could say. These are my closest friends from high school and growing up, and my closest friends from college. The high school guys are basically family at this point. We've all been thru some shit together over the years, including the loss of one of our own, and we are incredibly tight as a result. Really close with my college friends too. Love them to death. We don't go back as far as the first group, but there are about ten of them that I am very close with and love to be around. Besides that, plenty of other friends and associates from college and work that I see from time to time or on the job. To answer you questions about what do they do--from the high school group, one is in consulting, and from the college group, one did IB for a year but left. So no, not really any of them are in finance. Their jobs go include trades, military, working at startups, the consultant, working for standard corporates, and a good chunk are in grad school, mainly law but one in med.
I have no problem getting along with people in finance. I talk to you wonderful creatures so much on this site, and have been texting some of my coworkers nonstop over the past year of WFH, and am actually really excited to see them IRL since we seem to have gotten so much closer. I'm just glad I have friends I love, who luckily will never be working in finance or banking, because lets get real, this shit is BORING and I do it all fucking day and the last thing I want to talk about during time off is some sellside process that is driving someone nuts.
I think personally it is important to have a healthy balance: finance people that understand the hours & pressure and you can blow off steam with but also non-finance people to keep your mind healthy
I feel like such a loner reading these comments lol. I have one friend in accounting (audit) and that is all.
I've tried making friends but it's just too much effort maintaining a friendship.
It’s a worthwhile sacrifice/effort.
You're probably right
Two friend groups, 1) highschool 2) edm/college crew
In neither group does anyone have a clue why a person would willingly work more than 40 hours per week, let alone understand investment banking. Both groups are super fun to hang out with and if I need people to talk shop with, I go to my co-workers or come on WSO lol
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