Where do the failures go?

6 years down the road, where do those that don't cut it in the front-office end up? Referring explicitly to those already in the industry, not those trying to break in.

Everyone on these forums assumes success, but not everyone will become an MD or Partner.

15 Comments
 
Best Response

i'm not even sure where to begin with this one. if you view not making the cut to investment banking or PE as failure, you are extremely short sighted and likely not a good fit for the industry anyways.

very small % stay in PE / banking as a career. in fact, a lot of my finance friends went back to coding boot camps and entered the start up world by choice. others went the corp dev route or even as project/product managers and let me tell you, their work/life balance is off the charts good and comp is not bad either.

remember, even if you don't make it fresh out of college, you can always get an mba and try again for banking. you don't need hbs/wharton or the like to break into investment banking as post-mba...

i would usually shit all over posts like this but in light of the holiday season, i wish you the best.

 
"Whiskey5"

i'm not even sure where to begin with this one.
if you view not making the cut to investment banking or PE as failure, you are extremely short sighted and likely not a good fit for the industry anyways.

very small % stay in PE / banking as a career. in fact, a lot of my finance friends went back to coding boot camps and entered the start up world by choice. others went the corp dev route or even as project/product managers and let me tell you, their work/life balance is off the charts good and comp is not bad either.

remember, even if you don't make it fresh out of college, you can always get an mba and try again for banking. you don't need hbs/wharton or the like to break into investment banking as post-mba...

i would usually shit all over posts like this but in light of the holiday season, i wish you the best.

I currently work in the industry so let me elaborate a bit further. No idea why non-optimistic conversations warrant "monkey shit"

I am referring to the attrition rate. Yes, some leave voluntarily, but some make it to associate and are told they aren't good enough, or market climate changes, and they get canned. What options to do these individuals have? If I were not asking the question I'd be blind. The market is doing great right now, fair amount of jobs to go around. In 4 years? Maybe not. Will I want to be a fresh-faced accountant at 29 because finance didn't work out? No. Teacher? No.

Where is the safety net?

 

My guess is that it's not so much your "non-optimistic conversation", but rather you labeling non-front office folks as failures that's getting you the monkey shits. Hard to believe someone in the industry would even think of calling those people failures. Get over yourself

 

I'm not sure what you're getting at when you mention a "safety net". Whiskey explained to you the career paths people have taken voluntarily and they certainly can be taken if you're forced out as well.

 
"chestnutxyz"
SanityCheck:

I will now use the power of the Continuum Transfunctioner to banish you to Hoboken, New Jersey.

Well I do pay $1200 a month for rent... so I am trying to save. Could probably get down to $900 in Hoboken. Not so bad.

That's cool, tell us all how you ball out at 13th step with your savings and write your cell number on the back of your business card

 

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