HELP WANTED: Career Advice

Hi. I am a sophomore with a 3.9 GPA and very interested in the financial markets. I am looking for a career with some work life balance (though I understand the first few years are always a grind). I am extremely hard working, competitive, and willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. I dont think a career in IB fits my personality but I don't know what path to take. I love to research but also enjoy talking to and helping people. Any ideas? Also would like to make some money but not the main priority :)

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Couple of things that I think will help:

  1. Read as much as you can about finance as a whole, and the different elements (M&A vs. trading, vs. corp fin vs. consulting)
  2. Speak to EVERYONE you can. Use your network, and more importantly use your uncertainty to help you expand the scope of it. Reaching out to everyone helped me a lot. I spoke to consultants, PE partners, guys in investment banking, corporate finance, and sales and trading. When i started my network was virtually non-existent, but with enough effort anyone can change that.
  3. Research the roles you think you might be interested in. Find out what kind of work they entail. Try it out. If you think S&T would be ideal, make a mock portfolio. If you think IB is cool, try to learn the fundamentals about how to value a company.

I think really giving everything a shot is the way to go. Unfortunately, with the path recruiting is taking today, you don't have a ton of time. Try to use your time to network/apply places/think critically about what you enjoy. I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do until I landed a role at a search fund. I used that to evaluate what I liked and disliked about the role, and continued to seek out roles that incorporated similar skills and tasks. Lastly, don't forget to use the students around you as a resource too

 

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