I'm wondering which of the two jobs is harder to get out of undergrad at a target. I know this varies based on school and personal strengths, but I'm hoping to know the general trend. Any insight from people who went through recruiting for both? Appreciate the help.
Edit: By target, I mean in investment banking because that’s what it seems we’re familiar with on this site.
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Idk what you mean by target but as a Stanford student it seems that FAANG companies hand out SWE jobs like Halloween candy...I wouldn’t say it’s harder to get into IB here difficulty wise but harder to be sufficiently prepared as there is no well established (and highly publicized/socially accepted) pipeline to it.
If you're smart and good at math, getting swe should be a walk in the park
The difference is that swe has a more singular criteria, and it's easy for those who excel in that
For those who don't, they would probably find it harder than IB
Replace math with logic
SWE at a FAANG isn't hard to get into depending on the exact role. They struggle to hire enough people so the process isn't nearly as competitive as you might think.
Just google will hire more new grads than all the BB, EB, and top MM combined. Good luck recruiting for both unless you go to stanford.
Yeah but we also need to know how many more people are interested in Google jobs vs BB/EB jobs. The average person definitely knows about swe at FAANG but probably doesn’t know the difference between an IB analyst and a stockbroker.
The average person can't code but the average person can use excel.
Your point isn't valid and neither is mine.
Incoming college student wondering the same thing. Can anyone comment specifically for UChicago?
Schools don't really matter
Just try the first 50 easiest leetcode qns and if you find them easy, CS is probably for you
At uchicago banking and consulting are the most popular professional paths. Sure some people get SWE at FAANG but the process is not as structured and publicized as the finance recruiting
I go to Stanford and SWE kids are def. smarter than the kids going into IB. With that being said, if you look at difficulty relative to the abilities of both types of people, it's probably similar.
Getting FAANG SWE gigs was actually pretty easy. Took 2 intro CIS classes and read cracking the coding interview. At my school those going into standard SWE roles weren't any more talented than the banking guys, and definitely not more than the EB or buyside kids. Those going into PM were pretty impressive though, such as M&T kids. Im sure this varies by school though.
I see you are an analyst in IB. Did you recruit for both?
Yes. Did FAANG SWE internships but switched to the IB to PE path. Maybe a lot of people don't understand this, but at the junior level you're going to be doing a lot of mind-numbing work in most industries. It wasn't just for higher comp, but I just didn't really have a passion for computer science/SWE, and preferred to follow and be in the finance industry long-term
Both are insanely difficult to get into...do you people not have any concept of what competition is like when applying to these jobs?
If you enjoy finance and can excel in it, go for IB
If you enjoy cs and can excel in it, go for SWE.
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