When does the rat race end?
I just finished my sophomore year and will be heading into SA recruiting this upcoming fall. I am currently spending my summer at a boutique IB, and given the comparatively lax lifestyle I have now compared to next summer and potentially for the rest of my life, I wanted to do some soul searching to realize if this career is really for me.
I'm sure many of you who are in the workplace or still in school can relate, so if you have any insight to provide, I'd be more than happy to hear your thoughts.
For those that discovered their interest in finance in high school like me, you chose your university based on what would set you up best for a career in the industry. With a bit of luck and elbow grease, you were fortunate enough to get into what was considered a "target".
Over the past two years, I did the whole shebang. I joined clubs on campus to show my interest in finance. I participated in finance competitions and was able to see my effort come to fruition through a few 1st/2nd place finishes. I spent weeks upon months cold emailing/calling for a boutique IB internship that would supposedly position me well for SA recruiting in 3rd year. All this because of a passion I discovered in high school, right?
I'm sure most on this site love spending their weekends spreading comps/making pitchbooks, but I'd be a liar if I said passion is really the underlying driver behind why I want to pursue a career in investment banking. Don't get me wrong - I still love finance and believe IB will provide the best exposure to a student right out of school. However, I'm reluctant to admit that a lot of my "passion" is fabricated by fear. Did I really spend the last 3-4 years chasing something that I love so dearly just to throw it all away? Will my family and friends think less of me if I pursue a career that's considerably less prestigious and pays pennies on the dollar? Is this a phase that will pass once SA recruiting gets underway?
My dichotomy is accentuated by my peers that are new to the finance world or are just ignorant. Its bittersweet hearing from friends about how they're going to pursue BB IBD>MF PE>M7 MBA>Jamie Dimon because I too, was once a bright-eyed finance wannabe who thought a career in finance will bring me happiness in life. I feel like I've had enough. The money isn't worth the hardship and sacrificing the best years of your life. At the same time, it's hard letting go.
Don't really know if there is a real purpose to this post, just wanted to get it off my mind. I'd appreciate your perspective - Does the rat race ever end once you're in? How do you say goodbye to a such a lifestyle?
Take a breath. As a sophomore doing IB at a Boutique this summer, I think you have the unique opportunity to get to learn the job early. And more importantly, if you like it or not.
I've generally seen three types of results for IBD summers who are rising seniors: 1 I love this job, I love this bank. I got an offer for FT and I'm coming back. 2. I love this job, I hate this bank. I'm going to try to get an FT offer somewhere else. 3. I hate this job. I'm going to do something else.
All three outcomes are successful outcomes. You have the opportunity to get to this answer sooner.
Many people hate the job. Maybe it's the firm. Or the people. Or the type of work. Regardless, if you are doing this for a summer, and you have the opportunity to learn from the experience itself rather than just what people tell you during informationals and networking. You will come up with your own answer.
Having said that, I would be careful about one thing. I've noticed that people often say that IBD has excellent "exit opportunities". Now that I've been in this job a bit longer, one thing I'd suggest is don't get into this job if you hate it just for the "exit ops" especially if you don't like the type of work. The great exit ops that come up are usually jobs that typically value the IBD skill set which is a round about way of saying that they'll often have similar characteristics.
Life is too short to hate your job, whatever it is, because regardless of that you do for a living you will probably dedicate a significant portion of your life to it.
This shit usually stops once you realize that it's nonsense or when you have children. I know 40 year old MDs who are still caught up in it because they have nothing but work in their life.
It never ends. You are always trying to move higher up the ladder and/or make more money. Or, there is some possibility, you just decide that what you have is good enough and put in just enough effort to get by at work. That's rare though before you have fuck you money.
The rat race certainly doesn't end in the analyst days.
The rat race never ends, all you enter is another stage of relative poverty.
I know people who have worked their entire lives to get FU money who are now trying to out do successful musicians, models, professional athletes and entrepreneurs.
Yes, finance is the best career risk adjusted return wise but there will always be those people who succeeded in far more interesting and competitive fields that we could never compete with.
The moment when you realize that you are in fact not a rat or apart of any race. You need to become more zen.
On the contrary, I'd say most of us don't want to touch Excel if we can help it.
I spent the majority of my college life being overly obsessed with i-banking. You can search some of my old posts from 2010-2012 on this site to see how much time I was putting into trying to figure out how the industry worked. Joined three finance groups on campus, did the competitions, yadayada. Participated in the first WSO Conference (are those still going on?!) Did three internships in IB, one in ER, got a full time job in M&A consulting (e.g. we did the grunt work on Excel that the bankers didn't want to do... and you thought you had it bad!) I had over 30 interviews total, 7 or so superdays. Half of those were from cold calling. tl;dr - I was ingrained the hell into finance and I thought it was what I wanted for life. IB > MBA > PE > F500 CFO or something like that.
I feel you, trust me. I spent a good 3-4 years fighting tooth and nail for the opportunity to join the "high finance" world. After I finished up my M&A consulting gig, I did some investor relations, and then interviewed for corporate finance roles. I was getting interviews from some of the better-known MBA-level FLDP programs - Intel, J&J, GS, Microsoft, etc. It was during this time that I sat back and really thought about my life; was finance a passion? Was it something I could look back on when I was 50 years old, nod my head, and say, "Yes, if I could do it all over again, this is the path I would have taken?"
It took me about 3 months to admit it to myself, but the answer was no. I said goodbye to the finance rat race. I'm now on the road to a PhD in Clinical Psychology (which is a whole 'nother rat race, but much different in its challenges), with the intent of doing research and psychotherapy. Before I even knew what investment banking was, I was intrigued by the cognitive/behavioral sciences. The lifestyle of a psychologist allowed me to pursue other passions of mine - dance, fitness, fostering kittens (okay, hold the laughter...) I appreciate my stint in finance, and it taught me a lot and made me much tougher, but when I left I had no regrets.
Did the parents nag at me for years on end? Yeah. Did my friends shake their heads and sigh, even as they rose to become Associate, started MBA programs, and some are starting to get promotions to VP? Oh yeah. I've gotten lots of, "But why would you give up $80k a year just to go back to school for 6 years to earn $70k?" Because it's not all about the money; it's about the time, the satisfaction, and the quality of life, and that answer is different for everyone.