Loss of educational motivation after an internship
In high school and the first few years of college, I have been a pretty motivated student that often enjoyed the topics learned in school and did assignments ahead of time make sure I got great grades. But ever since I started working in finance, whether in the summer or part-time during school, I have lost almost all of my motivation in school (like senioritous but I’m only a junior).
After getting a taste of the industry, these discussion posts and random essays seem so pointless compared to the useful work I was/am doing for the bank. I already have a summer internship lined up so I have very little motivation from keeping my grades really high.
I still do all of my work but I can tell that the amount of time I spend on them has decreased drastically and their quality has therefore suffered. It doesn’t make me feel good to do subpar work but I also don’t want to grind away at something that barely matters.
Anybody else also feel like this? If so, what realizations did you have to change your ways or accept it.
interesting perspective. For me, I had the completely opposite experience. Was completely fuck-all in uni, did terribly, did the bare minimum precisely because i thought 'these discussion posts and random essays seem so pointless' for finance. B4 I had actual work experience (aka my SA), i thought what i was studying was completely useless because it's not 'what analysts do' (i did rlly well in high school but that was bcuz school was piss ez without the need to rlly grind tbh). I study economics
Had a complete change in perspective during my SA. I rlly appreciated the critical thinking that goes into inputs in models. I had an extremely supportive and intellectually curious boss who welcomed me to discuss finance and economics with him in his office when we were free. He and the team rlly motivated me and I started to see the bigger picture behind finance and its inherent linkages with the real economy. I started to feel that the classroom theories like Modern Portfolio Theory, the Efficient Frontier, the Mutual Fund Separation Theorem, continuous-time finance, etc etc etc, could rlly serve me well someday even if I thought they were too theoretical rn, as long as I keep them in mind and use them as a compass to think like a financial economist
Maths is the language of economics, and economics is the language of finance. I am also a competitive (at the amateur level lol, cringe) powerlifter and we run phases in training - alternating between hypertrophy and strength. I rlly enjoyed this phasing between academia and industry for me, I felt that my academic and industry phases complemented each other and gave me the chance to rest my brain in certain areas. 1 of the most reflective periods in my life, if not the most. Became more and more hungry for (academic) finance and grinded hard for CFA L1, read finance textbooks (yeah, cringe). Would discuss my thoughts with my boss
I like Soros' work and life philosophy that rlly motivated me as a high school snr jerking off to the idea of working in high finance - Soros' background is in philosophy, he studied phil at the LSE. He thinks of himself as a philosopher first, HF manager second (at least he claims in 'The Alchemy of Finance'). I rlly resonate with this and I think maybe u could have some use for this. What we do in finance serves a bigger purpose. Think of yourself as a philosopher - everything u do and study has inherent linkages with the real economy, markets, and the extremely complicated forces which drive the economy. We tap-dance to work everyday trying to piece these things together, and only then hopefully profit from these decisions.
I told my friends who study engineering and who dgaf about finance about how the top HF managers like Soros think of themselves as philosophers and they all were super impressed and found a new-found respect for PMs and finance folk
Just my cringe thoughts lmfao
Yes, cringe. But also noble.
I'm also a lot into philosophy and I couldn't ever do a job if I don't see a meaning behind it. So it's important to see always your job more wider than pressing some buttons.
Regarding OP's post, for me was the opposite, I had several internships in finance, and after understanding the monotony and the mundanity of the work itself - where there is a plateu and you reach a point where you can no longer learn - I enjoyed returning to school and study.
So my recommendation for all the students out there is to really appreciate your time in school because maybe that's the only point in your life where you really have the time and the opportunity to satisfy your intellectual purusuits and to feed endlessly your curiosity.
I'm in an incredibly similar position as you. I just bagged my '23 SA role and I'm feeling good. I think after the interview process and previous roles school/education starts to feel more arbitrary and "second-place" to career stuff. I mean, we only have about 2 years left of school and then we're thrown into the professional world. I agree that the educational stuff starts to feel far more obsolete both because landing that big role doesn't have anything to do with what you're being taught in classes, and its only purpose is getting that decent GPA so that your resume isn't auto-rejected. It has only been about meeting people, networking, case studies, and doing boutique internships to get the big one. Not to mention, you probably also know that your college GPA is going to be completely obsolete in 2 years.
I know I have to regain the motivation just in case I don't get the Return-offer, or if I want to line something else up after college my Senior year, so meeting that 3.5 or 3.7 threshold (especially coming from a bottom target) is still pretty important. I think you just need to find that hungry motivation you had coming into school. It's easy to feel like you're at the finish line but you aren't quite done. You're just getting to that last leg of the race and you don't wanna fuck yourself in case this SA role doesn't give you the return. Good luck.
Why not have a change in perspective? Instead of thinking 'i need to hit this GPA threshold in case SA doesnt work out', think 'i already have a SA and now i have time to explore my interests and feed my curiosity, this stuff is pretty interesting and it will sharpen my insights and give me 'background knowledge' that although isn't relevant to IBD, will make me an overall higher IQ person'. Classic example of external vs internal motivation - guess which one is more sustainable
Well unfortunately, there seems to be a big difference in absorbing content and getting an A. The vast majority of people I know who have extremely good GPAs aren't learning the content to learn it - they're learning the class structure to best position themselves to get an A. My GPA wouldn't be as good as it is if I did not position my strategy this way. Why blame me and insinuate on my personal motivations for utilizing this strategy, whereas it's the institutions I am applying to that have this requirement, and I just have to play the game.
The vast majority of finance I have learned is entirely self taught through guides, personal interest, other internships, networking, and the news. Perhaps besides accounting classes and a couple econ. Largely, my finance classes haven't been particularly helpful in the work I have completed thus far. If I wanted to become a "higher IQ" individual, I'd have just taken Philosophy and other arts classes and disregarded my GPA. However, this isn't how the world works, unfortunately.
Don't hate the player, hate the game.
I was like you a year ago when I signed my SA but after interning you realize how valuable your time is at school. You might realize that the skills you pick up at work is actually very commoditized and depending on what you study. I study a mix of engineering and economics. If what you study is challenging at school; in my mind, it raises your maximum potential in terms of how deep your analysis can be, especially for the more esoteric asset classes and investment approaches like quant fixed income and such. After my SA, I was so much more motivated than before and actually am taking like double the course load of a typical senior because I think with like realistically 6-7 months left actually in school might as well push for the limit. I guess what I'm trying to say is although linear algebra or some weird algorithm course may not seem directly relevant to you, any challenging class will increase the depth and efficiency of your insights much more efficiently than grinding away as an analyst ever will. This is because tedious analyst work will never make you hit your intellectual upper bound and raise it while writing an original thesis might.
I also realized this emphasis on gaming school to get higher grades is so stupid. If you are at a good group doing investment research people will notice if you don't know shit. Rather take harder classes and learn in my opinion.
When I interned I also noticed that the people in my class (mid tier ivy) were scary competent and smart compared to SAs at my bank so if you are not going back to like a top tier group, treasure the time you have with your peers. I feel like an idiot at school all the time and I think it's good to enjoy this while it lasts. Otherwise, I feel like I'm stagnating.
Sorry for the long reply and I'm trying to be as honest as possible and this will probably get lots of monkey shit because might ruffle some feathers.
bro just enjoy being in college
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