If you could do it all over...

Question

Knowing what you know now what career path would you have taken?

or

If you were me, what would you do for a career?

I spent the past 10 years flying a military jet, I'm going to a top 10 business school this fall. The ONLY experience I have outside of the military or high school jobs is a summer audit internship in 2005, so I am a pretty clean slate.

I have a family so I'm not considering investment banking or consulting. Everything else is fair game.

Dingdong08 · Accepted Answer

a) I'd have flown a military jet. I've been in finance my entire career and that would have rocked. Congrats and thank you for your service.

b) I don't want to turn it around at all and say "what do you want to do" but what are you good at and what do you like? Nix IB and consulting, I have a family and can more than understand that, but do you like finance and accounting, marketing, operations, etc.?

flewbye · Answer

Thanks for the responses guys. I knew someone would say "fly a jet", but if its any consolation to those on here having a quarter-life crisis wishing they would have done something like military aviation, understand that it just became a job like everything else after a while. 4 hours of prep for a 2 hour flight followed by a 2 hour debrief gets old.

BraveSock · Answer

I would echo the commercial real estate route as well.  Even though you say you have great sales skills, I wouldn't recommend brokerage (CBRE, JLL, etc) however unless you have substantial savings or family connections.  It's usually mostly commission based (stipend but low) so it's tough to make a decent amount of money the first year.  Could be tough if you're worrying about supporting a family. Although, the good brokers kill it after they have a few years under their belt.

REPE is a great opportunity and an MBA can get you in the door, especially since you have a pretty solid story.

LeveragedTiger · Answer

Two suggestions:

1) Asset Management. With a location restriction, you won't be targeting the big firms so there's a good chance you can find a regional firm that has an investment strategy you like that'll offer a good work/life balance. You're East Coast so working market hours will be pretty family friendly. A family office would also be good fit.

2) Commercial banking. Try and get on with a firm with a good financial sponsors group so you have interesting deals to look at. Wells Fargo is pretty pro work-life balance in terms of a corporate focus.

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