the different areas of finance

Shit boy, so you want to be a banker? In my days bankers were beaten up and spited and dragged in the mud boy. In my grandfathers days Bankers were shot like the pigs they are boi. I literally can hear their screams. Fuck. I remember my dads debt; it was 2 million acres with some caws and mules. Dad was furious about those fuckin bankers and so we waited for them. Just as the buss of greedy financiers and bankers was parking me and my 9 brothers came out the bushes and shot those damn greedy shitheads. We killed 4 of them and 1 escaped. Afterwards we burned the fucken truck with the bloody bodies all over in it.

Now let me tell you something boi, i never went to school but i got myself a decent job in the financial sector. What you are telling me is that you are shit and your grades just show you know nothin of the real world. You think your friends are getting you a job? BULLSHIT. Get over your insecurities. College was and will alawyas be for pussis. You think you are but you are not holding as much cards as you think so. MAN UP. Let your sorrows drown in your nearest tavern. You will wake up and realize how the world really is.

What do you want to be doing day after day and what do you think you'd be good at?

definitely major in finance. your second major should either be economics, or computer science/information systems if offered. computer skills will put you ahead of so many other people, and econ is just generally a good concept to know

I agree with the post above, however this is a question that only you can answer for yourself. Talk to your career center.

WSO has a great finance dictionary explaining the main points of all areas of finance you have listed. As for top firms, use the search function of WSO or google.

Thanks a lot! I'll definitely do that.

And how do these rank according to pay?

You will find that anything will become interesting once you become good at it. I never thought I would be interested in leasing dump trucks to mining companies in Africa, but that's what I fell into..

Most people don't really choose the path they follow, just do your best to make yourself employable (top grades, extracurricular, etc) and take the best opportunity that comes your way.

When I discovered finance and all the different fields in it, one thing got my attention. My girlfriend at the time said "you should be an investment banker, it would be really hot." So I began finding out what banking was and discovered that it was indeed awesome, and set out to get into I-banking.

A strategy consulting internship in China, an ER internship in NYC, and an actual M&A internship in NYC later, I would have knowledge of only 2 things: first is that I absolutely love financial modeling, and second is that I am definitely not a transactions kind of guy.

That should illustrate my point pretty clearly: people (bosses, coworkers, family, girlfriends, whoever you listen to) will influence your path more than you will immediately realize, and your internships (assuming you do a variety and not just 1 field) will open your eyes to what you enjoy and what is and isn't for you.