Is IB/PE Actually Worth It? Feeling Lost Lately
Hey all,
I am a bit lost and at a crossroad in my career, and could really use some advice from people who have walked down the road.
Im in my mid 20s, finishing up a business undergrad at a good school in Europe. Got a year-long internship lined up at a decent PE fund (more secondaries than direct deals). Also did some capital markets stuff before.
The original plan was: get great grades, crush the GMAT, get into a top master’s (LSE, LBS, INSEAD, etc.), break into IB or PE, make good money, and maybe build something of my own later on. That’s been the goal for years.
But now I’m not sure anymore.
Lately I’ve been feeling kind of burnt out. The idea of spending my whole summer grinding GMAT sounds miserable. I’m also realizing that I’ve never really cared that much about finance itself. My main driver has always been money and maybe a bit of status. But if that’s the case, is this even the best route?
Like, do I really need to spend years working 80+ hours a week just to hopefully make good money in the long run? Doesn’t seem like many people in IB or PE actually become wealthy, unless they make partner or start their own thing and even then, it's rare.
At the same time, I’ve been getting more interested in AI, automation, and figuring out how to build something online that could actually scale or generate cash flow. But I don’t have “the idea,” and I know most of those projects don’t go anywhere either.
So now I’m torn between a few options:
– Suck it up and do the GMAT + master route this year
– Work for a year and hope I can land something better or more interesting afterwards
– Try to work in a startup or VC, or even pursue something on my own (though I don’t have anything concrete yet)
Just stuck at a crossroads, I guess. Wondering if anyone else here has been through something similar, questioning the path, wondering if you're chasing the wrong thing.
Would appreciate any honest thoughts.
nah, not worth it, lots of interesting things to do with AI nowadays
if back then the majority thought that "I would like to start some business or whatever, but don't know how/don't know to program" so they kinda went into MBAs/schools/unis/companies because they just said "I'm competing at a disadvantage to those who do know programming/marketing/ideas/have education/experience" - then this pattern starts to become obsolete, and it's more a matter of preference than "I can't".
you literally now have everything in front of you. All the AI tools you have is as if you were managing a group of people that are awaiting your instructions: finance/operations/programming/marketing/ideas/etc.
Truly no limits to what one can do nowadays due to how good AI is for brainstorming, programming and teaching you whatever interests you, and the point is that so many are seeing this, that the more you postpone to trying and experimenting and launching new things, the more others will anticipate your ideas and the only thing you'll do is sit on the side and think "that should have been me"
It's like entrepeneurship on steroids. Learning it, mastering, and trying things with AI is x1000 better than grinding 1 or 2 years of academic curriculum (which anyway, everyone does it with AI making you question the critical thinking value of an education) to then do pretty slides for 2 years. That's like around 4 years were you could have done so much with AI to the point that you're steps ahead from others in some years
Think it this way: Now there isn't such a big gap between people's approach to use AI, we're all the beginning, but in some years there will be some gaps between those that pushed it and those that don't (exaggerated, but in the same idea Bill Gates dominated the internet boom in the 90s when everyone got interested/start to learn the ropes just because he start programming/getting interest into PCs way back in the late 70s).
This is a great way to think about it
You’re gonna get a couple immediate comments from same couple crusaders on this forum saying that “PE is dead and a scam and full of blood sucking evil marauders and the industry will now shrivel collapse into oblivion and if you choose to do PE you will surely go to hell”.
Would encourage keep doing what ur doing get multiple perspectives and also talk to real life humans to avoid the echo chamber syndrome
I’m ~3years into PE and like it
Sounds like you have a decent safety net around you. Had enough extra cash to go biz school and you worked in some high finance roles.
Go take that risk and build what you want. Scenario would be different if you were just coming out of undergrad with no experience or cash.
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