IB is not for me. Don't Know What To Do next?

Hey monkeys. I would like to get some genuine advice.

For the past 2 years I have been working on positioning myself to break in, only to find that working in IB every day is just not for me. I was planning on going into Banking but after completing an internship I find out IB is not for me. I do not like making models and I'm not interested in diving deep into companies and learning about what makes them tick.

I like doing analytical work, I prefer short-term, strategic thinking, and I enjoy qualitative stuff like writing, doing something with my hands and talking. My main strengths are that I have good people skills and I'm generally good at learning things and problem-solving. I also have issues not doing something else when I watch lectures. I couldn't force myself to pay attention and read about a company or watch a movie without also being on my phone or doing something else, even to the most interesting/great lectures, then lost track of what was going on and lost interest.

I look back and when I was a teenager and until now I always liked pleasing others, or playing soccer, doing something with my hands all day and times where giving gifts to others and see their emotions or solving a problem made me feel good.

The main problem is that I have no idea what else to do if I won't go into IB. Are there any jobs out there that still pay decent and I can still transition into?  What do you recommend I do with this skillset? I could see myself at medical school, coding at a tech company, at a PE or S&T sales. What kind of jobs/careers would fall under this realization?

7 Comments
 
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Based on your strengths, it sounds like you might be a good fit for consulting, marketing, or product management (or other project-oriented roles in tech). In these areas, you have to talk to a lot of people and think about the problems that companies or consumers have. I think that you would like the strategic part of consulting, but you mentioned that you weren't interested in "diving deep into companies and learning about what makes them tick" so it would be a tradeoff.

Some marketing roles don't pay well. However, product marketing managers at most major tech companies are paid very well. Product marketing management (PMM) is closer to the product (different from digital marketing), and you often work with the product managers to communicate users' pain points and interests and thus influence the types of features that a product will have. This could be rewarding for you because you mentioned that you liked solving problems, and product marketing would allow you to indirectly alleviate user pain points and connect them to a product that could help them become more efficient and alleviate stress. Product management is also a very popular career but difficult to break into. In PM, you work more closely with the engineers, so STEM degrees are preferred but not mandatory. It's really important for a PM to have strong communication skills and leadership because you will be the glue of different teams and bring everyone together to work on the lifecycle of a product that could change consumers' lives. Between PMM and PM, your strength in writing might be more useful in PMM.

 
Funniest

I look back and when I was a teenager and until now I always liked pleasing others, doing something with my hands all day and times where giving gifts to others and see their emotions or solving a problem made me feel good.

You should become a prostitute.

 

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