I Really Don't Like Finance - Advice?
I don't like finance. I really don't. Didn't come from money, went to a top school, IB seemed like a natural choice. Prepping for interviews was tough because I didn't major in finance, but I powered through and thought that things would get better once I started understanding these concepts on the job.
Now I'm a year into the job at a top coverage group, and it's clear I can't do this long-term. I'm not doing poorly (would say I'm middle bucket), I don't mind the hours and I like the people at my firm. But my god, I find this so boring. I hate modeling. I hate doing acc / dils. I hate looking at financial data, and it's especially difficult since I work in a more technical group. I'd much rather write a 100-page history paper.
I know it's already PE recruiting season, but I can't motivate myself to do any LBO practice because I hate finance. I also don't think I'm ready for the technical interviews, because even as a second-year I think I have minimal finance knowledge since I just don't want to study. I'm a hard worker, but I just cannot muster up any desire to look at more finance stuff than I already do on the job.
Has anyone been in the same boat, and if so, do you have any advice for the long-term?
I feel the same exact way and I'm actually leaving pretty soon. Have you considered exiting to Product Management? They pay well, the work interesting, hours are fantastic wnd there's optionality to WFH.
Congrats! I did think about PM during college, but then received my full-time offer at my current firm and stopped recruiting elsewhere. Interesting work and WFH flexibility is definitely a plus. Maybe now is the time to reconsider.
What’s product management?
This is all you need to know
https://www.levels.fyi/t/product-manager/locations/san-francisco-bay-ar…
Have you considered feet finder?
Don't know why you would go into PE when you would clearly be unhappy there. Prestige isn't everything and if you keep blindly going down that path you will eventually end up stuck.
Spend a month or two and figure out what you want to do - make a list of roles that sound cool and start researching them. Do some informational networking calls (make clear in your emails you're just looking for insight on their day to day, not a job, you'll get many more responses) and see what sounds interesting. Product management is a good idea per above, even strategy at an interesting company would be more fitting.
The good news is that with a top IB stint on your resume you can pretty much pivot into any role
it's matter of perceptions, if you look at your day to day or at finance at a granular level then indeed you can't see the fun.
But in your case I will shift entirely to another field. Instead of remaing in finance and coping with your situation, you could take a bigger risk and find what you want to do. You would have a nice story in the following decade about how "I was a lost 20-something but then I found what my purpose was and since then I never looked back"
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