How to Weigh the Pros and Cons of Certain Careers

Hey everyone,

I'm new to this site, and figured I should post for the first time. I'm a freshman at Villanova, and am thinking about where I want to end up in my career after college. Considering nowadays you have to start networking in elementary school to get into BB IB's, I figured I'd start really thinking about what I want to do as early as possible.

I have always known I wanted to do something in finance. Since my high school days, that was where I wanted to be. Investment Banking is one of the most popular and well known industries in Finance, so I gravitated towards that as my potential career path. I've been thinking about what I want to do in the future a lot lately, and I've really put thought into whether going into a career in IB is what I want to do. At the moment, my two possible (and very general) ideas for what I want to do after college is IB and Sports PWM.

IB is a great choice because of the exit opportunities, the initial pay (which will take loads off my student debt hopefully), and the overall experience. The things I'm worried about, however, is the word itself. From the notorious work hours to the claim that there is very little work life balance, I am worried that I will become "burnt out". Don't get me wrong, I'm all for working hard to get somewhere, I am just having some doubts because I don't REALLY know what it's like out there.

On the sports side, well I've always been a huge sports guy. I follow many professional sports closely, and would love to get involved. The problem is, from what I've seen, it's pretty hard to find a way into that industry, and I haven't heard much about the pay. I figured that managing players money and/or being involved in the sports world could be a great experience, but I have no idea how the industry really works.

It probably seems like I'm rambling and talking nonsense. Hell, it seems like that to me. What I'm really asking for is some career advice from you fellow monkeys so that I can feel more focused on what I want to do (or be okay with not really knowing yet) and figure out what to do from there.