Hitting mental blockers and failure - my story and situation -
Hi All,
I have read many success stories on this forum, which always made me wish one day I would be writing one – this is not the case.
Here’s my story.
Background and current situation
I went to a non-target undergrad in Europe, did a couple of internships of which one in financial services (macro research at a regional bank) and then did a master’s degree at a top 3 university in UK (never got outside the top 5% on all my courses).
I thought that all I wanted to do with my life was consulting, so after a few interviews I accepted an offer to join a small consultancy. Before joining I was told I would work on this and that project, turns out the company has slowly been changing direction and is turning away from proper consulting. Needless to say, the projects aren’t even remotely as exciting as I had been told when extended an offer – this made me start doubting my choices of a consulting career.
Shifting job interests
While I was a student I had never really thought I would be interested in finance, but I slowly started to realize that in my current job. Also, reminding how much I liked working at the bank I had interned at and after talking to both my old boss and mentor, I decided that it would be best for me to enter the finance industry.
I found that I would be interested in doing Equity Research/M&A/Asset Management.
So, over the past year, I bankified my CV, networked and got a bunch of interviews for graduate roles (one BB for FIG, one specialist boutique, one MM and ER at a couple of asset managers).
In all cases, I never made it past the first round of interviews. Feedback has pretty much consistent in that I didn’t really have the experience they were looking for.
I have been in my current job for about 1.5 years and applying to graduate roles is starting to get more and more difficult as I am building experience in a different field.
I have never given myself mental blocks, in the sense that I always grinded and learned that through hard work and self-improvement I could obtain the goals I set for myself. All that until now. I thought that at some point I would be able to land that dream job and be satisfied with what I do day to day… but that has not been the case. This is probably the worst feeling, knowing that I will never feel fulfilled, which makes me angry with myself and unsatisfied with my life. People around me tell me that I should be happy as I have a safe job, good friends and a lovely girlfriend, but work is really important to me and I can’t feel happy if every day at work I feel incredibly frustrated.
Current situation
I am currently considering the following:
- Staying in my current job while studying for the CFA and aiming for a top MBA program, although I doubt I would be able to get in given the job experience;
- Join a more prestigious consultancy;
- Try to get an internship in a lesser known bank/asset manager >> get an offer >> lateral to BB/EB/MF.
I am curious to hear what people on this forum think
You would probably need to rebrand at this point. Aside from the obvious MBA, have you tried looking into an MSF at LBS/LSE, etc.? Banks tend to recruit heavily from these schools. It will be difficult to lateral directly from your current job even if you aggressively network. Does your consulting job require a very specialized skill set or focus on a niche field like restructuring? It is very possible to lateral to a RX group at an IB, for example.
Yes, I thought a lot about it and I don't think it's worth it... I already have a master's and at that point I might as well go for the MBA (I will be 25 this year).
The type of consulting I do is mostly focused on analytics, so it is a niche field but has little to do with finance. I am studying modelling on my own through online courses.
Firstly, you mention you'll be happy in a role in ER, IB or AM. Have you figured out why you'd like those roles? Maybe you can find the parts of the jobs you like in a different area/field. Also, did your previous boss and mentor not help you with a role at the bank you interned at? If not, it may be worth figuring out why they thought you wouldn't be a good fit for a full time role.
That aside, here are some ideas/potential career paths for you to explore:
1) Easiest in my view: Move to a Big4 analytics team, then transfer to Big4 Transaction Services or Business modelling or Valuations (some CFA would help for valuations). From TS you can go to IB/corp dev, Valuations is better for ER. Or do a top MBA and then go to IB/ER/AM.
2) A bit harder, but very doable: Apply to more prestigious consulting firms. A lot are investing nowadays in building analytics teams. From top consulting analytics -> top MBA -> IB/ER/AM.
3) Not necessarily harder, but a longer route. Move to a tech firm doing analytics. Top brand name is good for MBA applications. Then from MBA you can go into IB/ER/AM. You'll need to build up finance skills independently or through the MBA on this path.
Bottom line, if right now with a brand name Msc you're struggling to get a role in finance, and you don't think your firm is giving you the right experience for an MBA, you should leave your firm sooner rather than later, so invest your time in that rather than CFA exams. I would also ask friends to do mock interviews with you. Since you've gotten interviews, but didn't progress, you may need to improve your interviewing skills (I always take feedback from interviews with a pinch of salt, they'll generally tell you what's easiest for them to justify not picking you).
Thanks for the quality advice SReaper well deserved banana.
Sorry that’s a misunderstanding - my old boss and mentor are separate persons. In terms of no full time offer, he didn’t have budget for a full time analyst (it was an unpaid internship) - he would have made me an offer if he could. He however wrote me awesome references and I think I owe it to him as well if I got into my masters program.
I think that for now I will consider joining a more prestigious consultancy and prep for that and improve my interview skills. I am really keen to get out of my current firm and I don’t want to make a career out of analytics - larger consultancies tend to take on people as generalists when they have less than 2 years worth of experience like in my case. I will then shoot for a top MBA. I wouldn’t be so keen on tech or big four analytics.
As for the feedback from interviews, I agree with you, they wouldn’t call me in the first place if they didn’t think I could do the job. It may well be the case that I sell myself well on paper but not in person.
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