Made 350K, Not Do Banking?

Title says it all. I'm a sophomore at a target Ivy League. I'm in the target finance clubs that anyone would want to get into with 90%+ acceptance rates in IB/PE. My family is upper middle class, and they know what IB is and the career trajectory I'm looking for, but my friend and I invested in a startup that made me 350K if I cash out right now. My parents do not know this, but I'm currently pondering whether IB is still worth it. I saw a post that said making it to VP level from an analyst makes 1.4M, but first of all, this assumes I'm willing to sell my soul to IB until VP. Furthermore, investing this money in S&P500 or any real estate and dollar cost averaging with a 9-5 does make it seem like I will be able to reach 1M by mid-30s. I'm sorry if I sound a bit cocky, but the decrease in motivation is real after touching dollars that isn't daddy's money. Again, I apologize to anyone if I sound like I'm a jerk.

14 Comments
 

Yes because although you have this 350K you still have no real skills in the real world, so if by any chance this money would be gone you would wish you continued to grind. 

 

1) cash out 2) 300k in VOO/SPY 3) 50k in high yield saving account. Now you’re broke again. Go to work, learn how to invest professionally, and by the time you’re ready you’ll have 7-800k in capital to deploy (assuming you save nothing your first couple years on the job)

 
Most Helpful

Don't do banking. Recruit for a buyside role. You clearly like investing, have the target school pedigree to break in, and don't really need the marginal cash comp advantage that comes with banking at the junior level. Hours will be better, work will be more interesting, and you can potentially learn about an asset class you're interested in deploying your own money into. 

$350k is a good start, but it isn't enough to fuck off and do nothing for the rest of your life. If anything, use this as an excuse to feel emboldened and more ambitious. 

 
crsq

Don't do banking. Recruit for a buyside role. You clearly like investing, have the target school pedigree to break in, and don't really need the marginal cash comp advantage that comes with banking at the junior level. Hours will be better, work will be more interesting, and you can potentially learn about an asset class you're interested in deploying your own money into. 

$350k is a good start, but it isn't enough to fuck off and do nothing for the rest of your life. If anything, use this as an excuse to feel emboldened and more ambitious. 

Would agree with this. 

You stand to gain the most by going and working for a nice PE shop right now from a learning standpoint - and you can leave whenever. 

You also will need a lot more capital than your 350 piggybank if you decide you want to be an entrepreneur and want to build companies (full-time). 

If I were you, I would go travel around the world for 6 months to a year first before entering the workforce though, give yourself a chance to chill before diving in again. 

STONKS
 

Why not aim higher and shoot for HF roles? J Goldman, DE Shaw, P72, among a lot of other HFs, are all making bigger pushes to recruit straight from undergrad. I'd say the job can be... taxing, if only in the sense that it's very engaging and requires you to stake your job on your own analysis, but as far as hours and pure workload, it's nothing compared to IB or even PE. It's definitely intellectually stimulating as well... doing very deep research and developing a thesis based on it.

If startups interest you, then VC is the obvious way to go. Growth equity is interesting but can really feel like a call-center type role at entry level positions.

 

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