If you had a gap year before banking, what would you do?

I have an SA internship this upcoming summer so assuming all goes well, I would start FT in fall 2024. I am going to graduate this year and am curious as to what I should do for a year. I want to save money so traveling isn’t really my thought. Instead, what cool jobs would you do if you were in my situation? Finance related?

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I would 100% travel and it’s super easy to do on a budget. The amount of money you save will be tiny compared to starting full time. If you are super concerned, go get a retail job from October - December to fund part of the trip.

Hostels: Don’t get the cheapest one but lots of great (and safe) places for ~20-25 dollars a night and fantastic way to meet people

Flights: Be flexible on dates

Food: Lots of street food and sandwiches lol

If you want something even cheaper / more structured: do work away / woofing, au pair, teach English abroad, working in a hostel 

I spent 6 months in Mexico / Europe before starting and it was hands down the best decision I’ve ever made. Probably spent ~5k and made lifelong friends (literally met people who were also joining my FT class randomly) Just save some of your internship money, pick up a random side job now (all you need is ~100/wk), or get a retail job after you graduate.

Edit: if you do go get a job, don’t do anything related to finance. You’ll learn everything on the job anyway and literally no one will care that you worked at a random pe shop. Go do something fun and interesting that sets you apart, would recommend something where you’re either outdoors or on your feet (ski patrol, working at a bakery, bicycle shop, sports team, food blog, formula 1, museum receptionist, something else random). If you absolutely need to do something related to finance, would strongly encourage you something good for the world and teach low income kids basic finance, help people with their taxes, or help a nonprofit with their finances. Whatever you do, don’t go somewhere where you’re arranging logos, you’ll have plenty of time to do that later.

 

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