It's a pretty harsh realization discovering WSO and coming to terms with if you haven't been playing college admissions game since you were in 7th grade, you're pretty far behind if you want to play "The Path". Attending a non-target puts you at a distinct disadvantage from those who attend target schools. Pile on-top of that if you're not going to be the benefactor of nepotism, kiss away the idea of finding kushy internships your freshman / sophomore year to subsidize your imperfect CV.
How competitive finance was going to be:
Good looking people, good at networking, pristine CV's and that was just at my school. High-Finance is really "sexy" as a profession and attracts not only the cream of the crop from the declared "pre-business" (largest declared major on most campuses), but also cherry picks some of the most talented STEM majors for a very limited number of truly open positions. If you missed the chance to craft the perfect CV during college, you're going to have to play the hustle game starting with hundreds of cold emails to maybe land a bottom-barrel position making 60K in a non-hub city. In an ecosystem enamored with prestige, I didn't see that path getting much easier after "breaking in".
Carving out your own path:
When you look over the hedges at technical majors + working in technology, an alternative emerges. At first, studying a technical discipline (e.g. engineering, computer science) is not "sexy" as the stigma carries with it neck-bearded virgins that participate in hackathons for fun, but you don't have to subscribe to nerd culture outside of the classroom / work. Technical disciplines are academically more challenging but there is plenty of time for partying and extra-curriculars with discipline and time management. Finally, every job in technology doesn't necessitate you being a code monkey. Product Management, Enterprise Architecture, Project Management, IT Consulting & IT Sales are all disciplines that requires equal parts technology / business. All of these professions pay very well.
Look deeper than social stigma and you may find competitive edge. In an industry of introverts that aren't as strong on soft-skills, it's easier to standout with interpersonal or networking as a personable extrovert. Where finance internships are all about who you know + cookie cutter CV, technology internships are about what you know + a resume that tells that story. For roles that are equal parts business / technical, firms will always hire the technical individual with the propensity to learn the business as opposed to the inverse.
Instead of assuming what the community would like to know about, I'm going to cut this short in favor of keeping an open-ended dialog. Technical College Recruiting? Choosing a technical discipline? Getting over the stigma? Keeping up with high-finance? Exit Opps? Maintaining an M7 profile? Career Trajectories?
Let me know!
