What’s your dream career?

Obviously investment banking is a highly desirable career (the buy side even more so).

The 80 hour weeks, working at PowerPoints, climbing the corporate ladder - not so desirable.

So the question is, what is your dream career for your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and beyond? MD at an IB by 40? Or maybe start your own firm / business instead?

The path towards building a firm for yourself in particular is interesting to me, because I’d rather eventually build something of my own rather than stay an employee for the entirety of my life.

Thoughts?

24 Comments
 

If you are lucky, you get fired from your comfy corporate life around age 34

and grind in the entrepreneurial abyss

and work alongside non-college educated people,

earning below your market, and

have your wife tell you that you’re chasing a dream: “rainbows, unicorns and leprechauns”

and learn what makes a business work, on Main Street 

your credentials carry you to own a big chunk of the business with your partners

and then hit a recurring revenue and grow it,

then sell it (but encounter the worst in human nature)

and then think, what do I want to do in my 40’s and beyond?

and think I just wanted to do my thing all along - if I could go back, I would figure out want I want to do, do it well, and just do that.  I’m the Managing Director of my own firm.  Just skip all that BS. But I had to learn the hard way, and that’s life well lived.

Have compassion as well as ambition and you’ll go far in life. I am interested in digital immortality. Check out my blog at digitalimmortality.com
 
Charles Dickens

Im confused - are you saying that you regret going entrepreneurial and wish you stayed in corporate? Or you wish you went straight to entrepreneurship?

I’m definitely happier leaving corporate.

That said, it was a difficult, rocky journey. 
 

If I never got fired, I probably would not have made the leap.

Have compassion as well as ambition and you’ll go far in life. I am interested in digital immortality. Check out my blog at digitalimmortality.com
 

had the same feeling, the writing style made it feel the story was headed towards the depression of a failed business/the depressing world of entrepreneurs lol

incentives trumph ethics
 
MrPermaBear

I want to say playing poker but it’s probably more of a grind than what I do now

I’m working on my poker game too. I like playing poker more than anything. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
MrPermaBear

I want to say playing poker but it’s probably more of a grind than what I do now

How long have you been playing poker?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Something like ~3 years now. I used to be much more into it than I am now because I had more time on my hands in college. I wish I could see my old PokerTracker data. I had literally hundreds of thousands of hands tracked and got to 25nl but never really further than that. Seems like small stakes but crushed live and with buddies when we played

Good times

 

It depends on what you mean by dream career, if only a specific position in a company or if we also can throw the perfect circumstances surrounding our careers...

Anyway, my dream career (and I emphasize the word 'dream') is probably being the CEO of JPM/GS/MS.

incentives trumph ethics
 
Restless

Anyway, my dream career (and I emphasize the word 'dream') is probably being the CEO of JPM/GS/MS.

I think my buddy is on the track for CEO of JPM/GS/MS. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Being a politician seems pretty cool but from further research it’s years upon years of shit-eating and low pay before you get a shot at the house or senate. By that time, you’re already in your 50s.

It’s definitely worth it if you’re a Bush-type who has the wealth and influence to run for governor with minimal political experience. Being a first generation American that’s not really in the cards for me, so why not finance! Maybe one day I’ll have the money to lobby what issues I’d like to see fixed lol

 

goldmanornothing

Being a politician seems pretty cool but from further research it’s years upon years of shit-eating and low pay before you get a shot at the house or senate. By that time, you’re already in your 50s.

why not do banking instead, you'll also play a shit ton of politics around office while avoiding the low pay inconvenience

incentives trumph ethics
 

Difference is comp. In IB you’re paid a pretty penny to eat shit, but unfortunately that isn’t priced in to politics.

I had a boss who used to be a staffer and pivoted to banking post-MBA. He said he was pulling analyst hours while making a 50k salary, absolutely brutal.

Edit: I read your comment incorrectly, but yes I agree! Partly the reason why I’m in IB.

 

Don't have a dream job but working on creating a 7-8 figure business empire via real estate / small business acquisitions with siblings. Already a work in progress - our portfolio is worth a little under a mil.

Honestly conflicted about what I want career wise. Came into business school thinking I'd want to go into M&A but didn't get a summer internship offer (applied to IB / a few corp dev). My summer internship was internal consulting within a niche department that I grew to like a lot. Majority of my work was operations focused within a small public tech company. Absolutely loved it.

I really like working on business unit strategy vs. corporate strategy (one of my co-interns was on our company wide corporate strategy side and her work didn't sound interesting to me, too big picture). Really like working on the granular details on improving how a company can compete better in a particular business vs. growing inorganically (acquisitions / mergers etc.). My end goal would be to handle a P&L within a tech company on the operational side.

 

Taking over the reins of a 100m+ family business ideally in the real estate / hospitality industry and taking its valuation over 1 billion

Life on easy mode by skipping the shitty grind and high initial failure rate, but still get to feel great in accomplishing way more than their parents

More realistically*, upper management in the NBA. But ok pay and hours during the grind, and a rather volatile career although I'd obviously want to be one of those few top dudes

 

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SafariJoe, wins again!
 

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