It seems like IB is the gold standard for jobs straight out of undergrad, but there are so many great career paths. What are some other jobs in finance that, similar to banking, have:
1) Good opportunity to learn early in career 2) Provide exit opportunities comparable to IB 3) Surrounded by smart, driven people
Some that come to mind are reputable PE or Hedge Fund, Equity Research, Consulting (?). Any others?
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FLDP programs, Corporate Development (M&A), or Corporate Strategy at F50s and Product/Project Managers at tech companies. Not necessarily finance or comparable, but they offer good "exit" opportunities.
Straight out of undergrad, there are pricing jobs and underwriting entry-level positions. Analyst at an insurer, for example, running models for IRR. There's also programs like WF-FAP, which I believe is commercial banking. Other ops roles that are similar in more production-oriented industries. You can find these jobs, at least in NYC, paying around ~$75K. That's not a bad start for your first job.
I also dated this chick who was going to the foreign service form a HYP, but said a lot of her friends went into banking ops. I think all of them were liberal arts majors too, but they described those jobs as "boring" or not too much going on, but plugging in stuff on a computer. That's mostly true, form my own experiences.
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