Career Confusion

My problem is I can’t decide what (finance) career to pursue.

Things I have done to help myself:

Spoken to several career advisors/consulted career mentors Read Vault/Wetfeet guides Researched on this forum Networked with people working within the industry Completed ‘find your fit’ type tests

People always say ‘a guy like you can do anything’ – not boasting – this is genuinely what they say. This is irritating feedback because it means I still can’t make up my mind.

I find different parts of the different IB divisions appealing but also different things in the division don’t appeal. For example, I like Excel modelling so like IBD BUT I don’t like writing long documents because its just not ‘me’. Trading has modelling but sitting in front of a computer for 12 hours a day looking at a graph seems boring also.

Things I definitely do NOT want to do:

Become an actuary. I studied an actuarial module in my degree. So boring! Haha

I don’t think I can cope being awake 24 hours a day 7 days a week and still being productive. Therefore I think its time to kiss IBD goodbye…? Not sure though. Some people tell me it’s not as bad as it is made out to be. And no IBD would mean I cant break into PE etc which seems more interesting.

I’m not sure I have the ‘jock’ personality suited for Trading and its perhaps ‘too numerical’ with no focus on the business side of things (the reason I chose IBD). Also, although I can be good technically, I find ‘small talk’ generally hard. ‘Purposeful conversation’ is what I find easiest. I’m not the person you ‘sit in and spend social time with in the bar’ unless we are friends as such – sounds completely anti-social I know. haha That said – with this problem – I’m likely to struggle with any job! haha I’m working hard on improving though.

I do not want to do any ‘Sales’ roles because although I am a normal/reasonably sociable person, I know I’m not a brilliant sales person. So PWM and Sales are completely out for me.

I looked into Research also. Good reasonable working hours, but I find it’s ‘too focused’ on certain stocks and the pay isn’t too great (no bonus approach so I’m going to slack) with very limited opportunity for promotion. And someone I networked with said it would ‘be a waste of talent’. :S (VP at a BB working in Research).

My Background:

Education: Target uni, solid grades, top marks in A levels too (one of the top in the country for maths and 100% in a qualitative subject too!). My degree convers maths, stats, econ, accounting and finance modules. I do not want to study Masters/PDH etc.

Work experience: An IB boutique (abroad), a MM boutique and a 'rotational' internship which covered operations, IB, sales trading and some other areas of investment banking. Had a couple of BB ibd interviews but haven't secured anything so always end up in a boutique (not that this is a bad thing – just saying).

I have done some investment challenges and so on. Done reasonably well - mostly guesswork though. Completed some time/agility challenges and some other BB stuff – done well in those too.

Extra-Curricular’s: Big gym fan, own my own online business (not doing too well so will probably close down), some society work (president etc. typical stuff), play a sport and am captain of the team and so on. Recent interest in ‘programming’ (helped build a website and designed it myself). Usually ‘geeky’ interests with me... nothing ‘new’ like scuba diving haha

What division would suit me best? And why?