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Career Resources
I think this will vary greatly depending on who you ask. For me, it's all been about the journey. I started as a 20 year-old IT guy who wasn't even in college, and am now a quant analyst at a bulge bracket bank. The most satisfying part of my job has been gaining the knowledge that I can learn anything I want to if I put in the time. I've dissected papers on optimal satellite transmission signal encoding, analysis of audio waves, and topics I never would have had the confidence to attack if I were still configuring email servers for $50k, which when you're 20 years old seems like a lot but is nothing in hindsight.
That’s an interesting transition. Mind sharing on how you jumped over ?
Closing. Deals.
I have always admired the ability to allocate investment capital to the highest and best use, driving growth with low relative risk. The skill-set requires shrewd macroeconomic insights and continuous study. I enjoy learning and being able to see measurable results tied to my efforts.
I just imagined a young guy going into an interview and he answers every question with that answer verbatim while growing increasingly exasperated. The interviewer is impressed at first, but by like the sixth question, he's calling people in to get a load of this guy.
The single most unbelievable answer to "why finance" I have ever heard was the above. Career guides don't provide answers nearly as dry or bland as that. You could put that on an IB's career site for interns with zero copy editing.
I agree, it sounds canned, but that is the answer to "why finance" ... that should be something that gets us excited, because that is what we do.
BS lol
I can answer this question for theaccountingmajor :
"To get girls yo"
Are you a cop.
getting paid
Being able to semi-retire at 35ish and do something chilled in a low key location without really worrying about money.
And it's not even that unpleasant. Stressful but still enjoyable to learn about stuff most of the time. (I am in trading)
PMed you, would love to discuss your time in trading/structuring
Was all this legal? Absolutely fucking not.
Because I want to fit in
For me it's the best job for a generalist type of person. In most finance roles you need to be pretty good at a lot of things (math, writing, critical thinking, presentation, communication, process management) but not necessarily great any of them. I was always oriented that way starting in grade school, and found it frustrating that that the math freaks could go to engineering and the literature people could go to (I don't know what careers they do but they always seemed to have a clear path) but for someone more all-around like me, there didn't seem to be a lot of options.
Not a lot of fields offer the chance to take advantage of that. Law and consulting claim to be generalist fields but lawyers get away with not knowing how to add or talk to people, and consultants often get away with not knowing how to own results.
Agreed, this resonates with me. +SB
Would argue any top white collar gig would prove attractive for the type of people you described...
Lawyers might not need to add but they still need to be "well rounded". Ditto Doctors, Politicians/Public Servants, Accountants, Consultants, Marketing, Entrepreneurs, Executives, HR etc etc
While I don’t disagree with you, I would say would say trust erodes quicker when someone in finance isn’t well-rounded than in other occupations. If a doctor can’t sell herself, manage/grow a practice, or speak eloquently about a topic in her field, that’s okay because I really just need her to make sure my heart is working well. If someone trusted to make investment decisions performed the same tasks poorly, the reaction would be whoa this guy is not getting my business.
Couldn't disagree more.
Doctors: not well-rounded at all, and why should they be? They're rewarded for memorization in school, and for defensive medicine in practice. And they don't learn how to compete because the AMA cartel limits the supply of doctors. Some of the most inside-the-box thinkers you'll ever find.
Politicians: only need to be good at selling themselves, not much else.
Public servants: really? I live in DC and know many. Most can barely tie their shoes.
Accountants: Good god man, accountants need to be well rounded? On what planet?
Consultants: Now we're getting somewhere, I do think MBB level consultants do have some breadth of skill. But I've found they miss the ownership component. When you know your project is likely to end up in a black hole, it changes how you perform.
Marketing: I appreciate how hard it is, but I don't see a need for a strong technical skill set.
HR: you've got to be kidding me. Unless you mean campus recruiters in which case they do need to be "well-rounded" in terms of how certain parts of their body are shaped.
Well I very much enjoy when the 70 average becomes 100 hours a week. I must admit that I feel giddy inside spending my weekends on a CIM / model that is headed no where but the recycle bin. I can't help but smile when I'm pulling comps for a pre-revenue tech company that can't afford to pay us an engagement fee. But most of all I love the look I get when I ask to use one of my vacation days or when my VP glances at his Rolex GMT and then my face after not taking lunch back to my desk.
This is gold
Spot on.
Models and bottles, obviously. Often (read all), it's the wrong kind of model though... :(
Let's go out to West Village brah
1) Making decent $$ in my early 20s 2) Working with colleagues that have different backgrounds (some were physicist and meteorologists) 3) Getting free shit (meals and drinks) from sell side brokers, by far my favorite one :)
Finishing up your LBO model, building out the IRR function and realizing the IRR is only 20%.
Add 0.5x leverage, change a few growth assumptions, add a few points to margin expansion and 0.5x to exit multiple and BAM!
Spoiler alert:
35% IRR, 3.0x MOIC
Magic.
It's unfortunate that so many people are in finance for 'the money' because it's really not a lot. I think there is a subset of people who are actually passionate about finance and they are most likely the ones who decide to launch their own funds/firms vs. the people who decide to stay at the partner/managing director-level for the duration of their careers, ironically they are also the ones who would end up making the most money.
HA! this has been my thought when everyone mocked my comment above about actually liking finance. What the hell? What is everyone doing? You get one shot at life.
The pay
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