How Quickly do you think IB interest is growing?
I can't help but think that the interest in IB is growing at an exponential, and quite frankly unsustainable rate. Judging from the number of posts in the last two months alone regarding school choices and placements, it seems like there are already enough people to fill every analyst class at all BB/EB/MM firms. Even worse, these numbers are likely lower than they seem because school choice posts seem to be heavily weighted towards non-target or low semi-target schools instead of target schools, from where many slots are filled. I personally think this has to do with the economic fear held by many of America's youth regarding the difficulty of buying a house/raising a family/retiring in an economy where they see little room for failure. They then google "hIgHeSt pAyIng jObS fOr cOllEgE gRaD" and decide to veto law school and medicine based off of the immediately necessary graduate school and lower pay.
How do you see this ending? I know this may already be the case at Goldman, but how long until a single analyst spot at Baird is applied for by 200 non-target students? (Maybe this is already happening and I just have no idea of the numbers, but just increase them if so).
I agree, other factors could be more and more kids graduating every year + the increased technology and information these days allowing for more awareness for the highest paying careers (ex. IB)
Exactly. I seem to have forgotten to include the second one in my post.
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Not sure if this is normal at other colleges but the finance club at my semi is filled with people who are IB or die. Myself and a select amount of 4.0 students are willing to spend every night obsessing over modelling, technical and behavioural interview and creating a toxic culture that leads to a hardo mentality. So yes competition is ultra competitive and non target to GS stories on WSO adds fuel to every non or semi target student fire but I don't blame myself or others for being this way when the stakes are high. I genuinely think that people who talk about enjoying college and not being a "hardo" are either disconnected from the realities of the situation that revolve around recruiting for IB or are plain ignorant of the competition in these internships. Also who wants to spend years in debt for medical school or risk being paid a low salary after 3 years of law school?
idk man you can have fun in college and get a good job without being psycho about it...
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Sure but how does that advice of enjoying college do anything for my career?
You can most definitely enjoy college and still kill IB recruiting. From what I've seen, most "hardos" rarely end up at the top banks. This is especially true at semi-targets, where networking is a key factor.
This post really begs the question. What do you value in life?
My family.
Hey bud, FYI that 95%+ of the population doesn't want to be in high finance, medicine, or law. Open your eyes and have some fun for once.
I should have clarified that I am referring to alumni in IB, PE or HF and business professors who give this advice.
This sounds like such a wrong approach. I don't know you but my gut is that this will come out negatively both in terms of placements and your social life. That's a lose lose and not having friends is really bad for your well being in general. I think people like either college kids who are generally normal, nice, smart people who are trying to get or stay ahead (depends on where they were raised) economically, or kids who are really passionate about the field itself. I don't think anyone likes kids who are going crazy trying to get what they think is the "best" job in terms of money/prestige, and who aren't intrinsically interested in the field and don't care about making real friends (latter is much worse).
See, this is the issue - technicals are a floor.Once you get through the technicals, the IB interview is judged like every other job: on fit. If candidate A and B both got through the technicals on the interviewer's sheet, it comes down to who the interview got the best impression from.
Not to mention, if I like a kid I will definitely help them through the technicals.
Fuck dude, you only get FOUR years of zero-responsibility fun in college (plus 2 in MBA), don't blow it walking though the 3 statements.
Idk if interest is actually growing or if more people have access to technology but I've definitely noticed how many posts are being made about target schools/IB.
I'd agree. But, there are a lot of factors that make it hard to conclude that interest in IB is growing... Is the recent uptick in target school/IB posts due to:
People have more time on their hands, and thus are making more posts
People have more time on their hands, and thus are noticing more posts
Are there normally more posts this time of year when college decisions are due?
I say this because the amount of people from my school that recruited for IB last year could be counted with the fingers on my two hands lol.
Both good points, and I definitely agree that this may be a seasonal uptick. I think what I failed to emphasize in my post is that in my opinion, the growth of interest in IB is still long-term and is primarily based around people from blue-collar families finding out about the industry online, which likely would have been significantly rarer 10-15 years ago.
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Not really. If anything, it's declining. Don't get me wrong, I think a Wall Street career would be great. But just from observing other students at my Uni and at other targets, management consulting and Silicon Valley have objectively become much more in-demand destinations than Wall Street. And if you talk to recruiters, they'd agree with me. Banks have been very concerned about losing talent to tech and MBB. That's why they've scaled back the intensity of IBD internships and have had to ramp up recruiting efforts at non-targets (to make up for the lost bodies).
This message board is only hot right now because everyone is at home with very little to do.
Majority of the kids I met at the university are hard-set on working at FAANG, and not so much Wall Street. I asked why and they were more attracted towards the lifestyle and atmosphere of the environment in the city. Also a perk was that their friends works in FAANG.
agreed. my school has historically skewed heavily towards finance, but more and more kids prefer consulting / F500 strategy / big tech PM roles. in fact, i'd bet if you gave every kid a mckinsey and goldman offer, more than half would take mck, despite the majority going into IB.
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This is interesting. Not in IB, but for most CRE analyst positions in top markets, there are at least 200+ applicants for each position, in a matter of hours....
As someone at a non-target who describe himself as as former "hardo", I can say recruiting and having that attitude and outlook in college is very draining on the college experience.
I for one basically dedicated freshman to junior year to recruiting and I didn't realize how much fun college could really be until senior year. On paper once you break in, you make seem like a "god" but I think very quickly you'll realize you need more balance.
Especially after working with people in my analyst class who are more brilliant than me but honestly had a much greater college experience, I realized that it isn't a zero sum game. You can be more balanced and make it in. In fact, I wish I was.
I hope that future college students debating on sacrificing everything like I did to get into banking read this and stay keen on striking that balance because college is meant to be enjoyable too.
I think it seems that way because kids are starting so much earlier and freshmen/sophomores in college realistically don't know all the opportunities out there and they feel they "have" to go IB to get into a good finance job
I'm just wrapping up my 1st year and didn't even decide on pursuing banking until my sophomore year summer. I also didn't even know this website existed until I was halfway through my summer internship lol
The fact there are seniors in high school picking colleges based on IB chances is absurd to me and quite honestly it's such a toxic mentality
Well I wanted to do IBD for most of my uni years and I got into a very toxic mentality. I'm now out of it, looking towards working in tech. Really regret being a hardo, wasting so much time and happiness.
I think it's growing a lot. I've been seeing a lot more applications and interest from students at my BB
I go to a top 15 university and what I’ve noticed that the 99% of students go through the following funnel of career interests specially for IB interested students.
It’s a shame but everyone wants to work a prestigious job after school to have the best opportunities. Competition will continue to increase for IB and consulting positions. Soon non-IB finance positions like commercial banking, corporate banking and asset management will be just as competitive. It is what it issss
competition for IB is going down, 20 years ago it was much harder
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