Trying to go into investment banking after college but also joining Marines officer reserves.. opinions

I plan on pursuing a bachelors degree in bus admin: finance whilst also participating in officer candidate school to be commissioned as reservist. Marines contract is 8 years and requires myself to work two days out of every month of the year for my regiment. Plus, I’d miss out on possible internships due to 6 week trainings sophomore, junior summers. Senior year would be the basic school, and my military occupation school. I am pursuing towards becoming a financial analyst in NYC , opinions, thoughts?

7 Comments
 

Keep in mind the military won’t give a fuck about your IB job. The needs of the Marine Corps > everything else. You just need to understand that.

Personally, I don’t think this is possible. It’s not always a bad idea to serve Active Duty and then get an MBA or such afterwards. I’ve seen plenty of people like that on LinkedIn who absolutely crush it.

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

Honestly yeah this is a tried and true route: Active Duty Officer -> as good of an MBA program you can get into -> see if you still want to do IB and if so can go to Associate level (other options: Consulting, Tech Product Management, Fortune 500 leadership program). You'll have 6 years of savings and free master's tuition to change your life up, as well as the optionality to stay in the services, and other exit options for veterans.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

I’ve had about three conversations about this plan going into reserves while also being in finance working in the city; two being with my officer selection officer and the other with a SSgt. Both assuming my choice of being reserve component and saying it would be capable to pull off. I feel as if active duty might provide more liabilities (Actives Stationed anywhere, Reserves choose where they want to station)

 

A few points:

  1. I’m not a veteran, I looked into joining but just didn’t. No grand story, I just didn’t feel like doing it. I guess I wasn’t as passionate about it as I once thought.

  2. I’m not a banker either.

My experience with the USMC is limited to my father (who served active duty and then reserves after) and just me talking to recruiters and OSOs.

OSOs are salesmen at the end of the day. Just keep in mind they may not be completely upfront with the difficulties. Talk to people actually doing what you plan on doing.

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 
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