Best Exits From Banking

Current senior about to start at a top BB coverage group. Have had tons of conversations with people in my same shoes all the way up to seniors in the industry (mostly from my internship last summer), and am becoming increasingly disenfranchised with PE as an option after banking. The amount of deals done per year is increasingly few, there is little to no path for promotion, tons of time is spent dealing with shitty portco's from the last five years, and I am increasingly unconvinced that it is an opportunity worth many or any juniors time. Am I wrong here? If so why, and if not, what are other opportunities that people in my shoes should be looking at more? 

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DEI Becky > MD’s sneaky link > Mistress > OG at ColdPlay Concert 

 

A few things that will always be true about IB and PE at the analyst and associate level regardless of the market:

  1. These high finance firms provide an excellent training ground in professionalism, work ethic, and networking that quite frankly other firms and positions struggle to provide. If you do 4 years of Finance at a bank or 2 and 2 years, you will be a great applicant for things outside of pure M&A work, if you choose to go that way.
  2. Your comp (although it may not seem like it), will give you more optionality than a lot of your peers. My friends in IB and PE are able to look at buying homes, or living in the nicer part of town. Maybe after a stint in a Tier 1/Tier 2 city, you  move to a MCOL/LCOL city, well you will be set up very nicely. You will be able to save for retirement and have a good chunk of cash for investing after a few years too.  All things my friends and family not in finance are not going to be able to do. Or will have to sacrifice quality of life to do.
  3. One thing to keep in mind is that everyone's experience in finance is different. Maybe, you mesh well with your firm and are able to climb the ranks quickly. Maybe, you have a rough two years, and burnout. On this site you hear a lot of horror stories of banking. Sometimes you hear some upside, but usually not as much. As a college student, I would go in and expect to work hard, but learn a lot. Maybe after a few years you realize its not for you, but maybe you love it. 
 
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Ok I am going to read between the lines. Finance is now full of 2nd+ generation high petit bourgeoisie folks. That means that most of “high finance” is, crushingly, lateral mobility relative to how they grew up. More crushingly, there is no real structured path into the true bourgeoisie or even the very high end petit bourgeoisie. There are really only two true exits that approximate these types of outcomes: successful “start your own PE firm” type stuff, and differentiated success in publics of some sort.

Absolutely, working your way up a MF will often net you higher lifetime earnings than your parents, but it won’t necessarily feel different for a long time. My recommendation is to do PE but not be psychotic about it, treat it like a day job while you seek out something more entrepreneurial. But most people struggle with this. They either don’t know where to cut corners and fail, or the fear and neurosis that got them the seat also keeps them in burnout gear.

 

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