How do you find the career you're best suited for?
Simple question (with more detail below): how did you guys figure out what path you're best suited to pursue (buy side, sell side IB, HF, corporate, consulting, etc.)?
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For background, I'm 28 now and have jumped between three different functions / industries - PE, IB and strategy - but haven't really found my niche yet. I've started to feel frustrated with the lack of direction in my career, and increasingly feel that I'm not on a path to make meaningful $. My greatest fear is to reach my mid 30s and realize I've picked the wrong path, only to find that I'm pigeon-holed in something that I can't pivot from.
When trying to align on which direction to go, one thing I've really struggled with in both my past roles and current one is feeling like I either a) didn't admire the senior folks at my firm, either from a comp or lifestyle perspective, or b) I didn't feel I was capable of doing that job due to some skill deficiency.
To illustrate:
Job #1 MM PE
Joined a non-traditional analyst role at a ~$5B PE fund after graduating from undergrad. I really enjoyed the investment process and thought this would be the long term path. However, I found myself struggling to keep pace with some of the more quant-heavy workstreams (e.g., structuring options agreements, waterfalls, etc.) and was not as interested in the portco ops side of the job. I also often felt like I was the dumbest person in the room by a wide margin, which was probably accurate to an extent, as I was let go in my 2nd year.
Summary pros: admired / respected seniors; amazing comp; mostly interesting work (excl. portco ops); "prestige" factor
Summary cons: very stressful + tough WLB; difficult to enter PE as a non-traditional candidate (ie no BB/EB M&A experience); felt like this job required more intelligence than I possessed based on IQ/EQ of colleagues
Job #2 - IB M&A
After being unemployed, I was ready to take anything that came along and this was the first job I got. I took an analyst role at a well-known middle market in M&A and absolutely hated it. I hated the people, I hated the hours - I hated literally everything about this job. I lasted 8 months and bounced to the first job I could find that was not this job.
Summary pros: comp? but it barely seemed worth the suffering; required minimal critical thinking at the junior level compared to PE which I guess is a pro
Summary cons: seniors had awful lives (overweight / unhealthy, miserable, stressed) and had to endure generally soul crushing work at the junior level. fwiw I knew I was a shitty banker on day 1 and could tell it was a career misstep immediately
Job #3 - Strategy at mid cap tech
I've been in this very chill 9-5 remote job for the past 3 years. I create some PowerPoint slides summarizing "strategy" concepts for execs and log off at 7 at the latest. Overall, my mental and physical health has improved tremendously with the career switch. But the work is mostly uninteresting and I feel like 90% of my job could be outsourced to AI. I also don't know if I'm extraverted enough to lead a team as a CSO or senior executive, and I definitely enjoyed in-the-weeds diligence and investment work in PE more than the fluffy strategy work I'm currently doing.
Summary pros: amazing WLB and easy job; the talent pool in corporate is much weaker compared to finance and it's easy to put in ~70% effort and still get promoted / progress
Summary cons: generally uninteresting work; sort of feel like a 9-5 corporate drone with no ambition; there's certainly no path to a Hamptons house on this career track outside of some crazy equity package
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Anyways, would love to get thoughts from the community on how they've navigated career choices. I know there's no one-size-fits-all approach to questions like this, but would be curious to understand how people found paths that they felt played to their strengths, while still satisfying other criteria like comp, lifestyle, etc.
A broad answer for a broad question, I found myself firing on all cylinders when I found a job that I was 1. half decent at, 2. found interesting, and 3. enjoyed working with and learning from my colleagues.
Things that helped me rule out careers: experiencing roles myself, hearing horror stories from close friends in specific roles, and anything that was an unacceptable work life balance.
Set some boundaries for yourself in the no-go zone, explore some specific niches that sound interesting, and if there is something that clicks, you continue to develop skills in that area and it becomes a passion.
Trying to not be overly philosophical, but work isn't work when you start to enjoy it
what career are you in right now?
del
Honestly, for most people it’s probably trial and error?
I definitely didn’t know what I was getting into when I started in banking, then moved to portcos, and later into capital markets. In hindsight, ECM just wasn’t for me — at least not from the inside. I figured out I’m much happier advising companies as an IPO consultant / contractor than being embedded in a company.
What I’ve learned is that I need plurality in my work. I don’t have to love every project, but at least part of what I’m doing needs to keep me intellectually engaged — otherwise I lose interest fast.
From your post, it seems like you’ve gotten a good read on what works for you, what doesn’t, and what you want out of the next job.
Have you considered trying to move back into PE? There are some smaller boutique firms that focus specifically on tech deals. Alternatively, is there another industry you’d want to explore more deeply?
Some conferences can actually be pretty useful for networking — things like PE Insights. If you can attend, it’s a good way to meet people doing genuinely interesting work. Last time I went, I met a few guys working on some new structures for defense deals, which honestly opened my mind to the space.
(It ended up too long but hope it helped?)
Thanks for the response. Totally agree with the plurality point. Working on deals gave me that type of stimulation + variety, so I think that's the direction I'm trying to head in.
I thought about the PE path but I don't think any quality funds would be interested in my non-linear / non-traditional background. There are too many 2+2 associate / senior associate candidates that it would be hard for me to slot into that recruiting pipeline as an older guy (29-30).
Corporate venture capital or corporate development at a strong tech firm seems to be the north star for me right now (e.g., CVC at a place like Salesforce Ventures or corp dev at an active, well-capitalized tech company like AMZN/MSFT). I'm headed to an M7 MBA program in the fall and am trying to figure out if I can recruit directly for those types of roles out of school, or if I will need additionally IB experience before making the jump. Ideally trying to avoid another IB stint as the first experience was awful.
Sounds like a plan to me.
Maybe consider serial acquirers/roll upa are an entry point? Eg. Constellation Group.
They are almost always expanding and have open roles globally.
I know a lot of people in Tech Corp Dev/M&A. If you want I can try to send your CV to a couple of them? Just send me a PM. I don’t think you’d need more IB experience for those roles.
I can only speak from my experience and say that I hear you... worked in ER at a top shop under a top analyst and it was just that, a job. Knew I didn't want to become a senior and got recruited to a scaled LO... Did not enjoy being on the buyside and felt my entire working hours were being spend looking at numbers on a screen and talking to my PMs/sector analysts... LOs are also interesting because it's lowkey slavery in that you don't get paid for like 5+ years. These shops want you to stick around forever until they pay you unlike HFs. Anyways, I decided buyside investing wasn't for me as I know a lot of people at pods/SMs and had an easy time recruiting but just wasn't working out/I checked off the pods. In all honesty, my seniors thought I was decent but I knew I just wasn't that good and I didn't enjoy it. I really hated showing up to work and it bled into my work product which never feels good. Moved to a fundraising gig on the buyside as it suits my extroverted personality and it's just such a world of difference. I feel you generally make the most in the industry by just sticking around as most are done with the game at like 28-30... find a role with some upwards mobility that allows you to stay in the game and I feel that'll get you to a pretty cushy life over time. Find what you're better at than most that pays and send it homie. A bit of a ramble, I know, but moving to a job that was more collaborative, having KPIs, speaking to people made a world of a difference for me vs modeling for a pitch with my PM/CIO.
Wow I feel like I could've written this (the thoughts/outlook not the career path). Any recs on learning more about buyside fundraising as a current ER associate?
Would speak to the equity sales guys at your bank. that's the easiest way to move over by the way... if you're serious about making the switch, would move internally to equity sales and it's pretty easy to move from there
Can’t provide any helpful advice but am following as I am in a similar boat… whole life’s goal was to break in and now after having worked on both the sell and buy sides i am in the midst of an identity crisis not knowing where i want to go or what i want to do. If you find / have any soul searching tips besides trial and error I’m all ears!
Don’t chase the money; chase the thing that excites you and fills you with intellectual curiosity. If you love reading about it / doing it in your free time, then that’s a good indicator. If you love what you do and are willing to work hard, the money will come. Hopefully, your dream is practical and economical though. If you love painting, prepare to be poor no matter what. But that smile is priceless.
There’s no perfect job, they are all jobs. Some of them get much more enjoyable as you go up.
Find something that pays well and has a future
If I were you I’d go back to PE based on what you’ve said
following
Have you considered doing M&A at a portco? I think it captures the stuff you like including getting in the weeds on diligence, wearing an investor hat and strategy work all while operating on the corporate side where as you mentioned 70% effort will get you far. Comp will still be a pay cut to banking and PE but the hours are much better and if cards are played correctly can still realize meaningful equity upside.
https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html
it's a long read, but it's by far the best and only article I'd recommend anyone facing career dilemmas
TLDR
read it 7 yrs ago, don't remember, just know it was the most complete career finding article I've come across to the point that since then I've never read any other
maybe you would enjoy job #3 (strategy) but at a more ambitious/high growth firm?
Trial and era. I worked briefly in strategy at a small cap tech company and loved it. Similar hours for me but it I found meaning in my work because I believed in the technology and was actually at one of their clients before joining the company. Had a great social mission but ended up struggling a lot as a company. Each his own.
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