A lot of people at my target school have gotten IB jobs out of college. During the SA recruitment process, I asked my uncle (who runs a long-short equity hedge fund) to help me and he told me I should not do IB. He said that my personality was not compatible with IB and that I would get eaten alive and hate my life. I took his word for it as I have pretty severe ADHD (which I read also would make M&A difficult for me), and didn't shoot my shot during SA recruitment season my Junior year. Recently, I started the ADHD medication Atomoxetine, which has greatly enhanced my ability to focus and just sit down and do work. I had begun to feel a bit of FOMO as I saw a lot of my peers who had told me they didn't want to do IB at first become IB SA's while I had instead become a PM at a tech company.
My FOMO greatly increased, however, when I realized I'm not exactly sure how to spend all the free time I will have working 40 hours/week. My pay compared to an IB analyst will be $25K less, and I'm starting to get really fearful that I sacrificed my chance at being able to use all that free time, when I feel like I'll get bored, to instead make money.
I'm not sure if my line of thinking is just being dictated by my FOMO. I feel like being in IB basically just means you're getting paid to be alive. They'll pay for your food (I could get a whole thai red curry chicken and rice + a spring roll with a $25 grubhub meal allowance), give you a nice air conditioned office to be in while you use the computer and you even get a free gym. With my current job, I'll have to pay for my own food, I'll be making $25K less so the apartment I'll be able to get in the city won't be nearly as nice as the one I could get in IB, and I'm worried if I have all that time I'll get so freaking bored.
On top of all this, I keep reading Quora questions where people who were in IB say they were able to be with a lot of girls while they were in IB. How accurate is this? I'm asking this question because I'm in the pipeline right now for an M&A advisory position, which would set me up way better down the line for IB than being a PM at a tech company. I wanted to pose this question to everyone to see if these worries and reasons for doing IB are similar to that which any of you in IB right now had, which were why you did IB, or if my worries are stupid and I should just listen to my uncle. Thank you all so much, I appreciate your help
If this is a real comment, sounds like you're focused on the wrong things. Free meals? You'll be bored if you only work 40 hours a week? I suggest that, if you don't already have any personal or professional passions, you develop some and let those dictate your future decisions.
I guess to that point, I've resigned myself to the reality that I would never be able to compete with any of the IBers going to PE and my highest paying option would be becoming a career banker. I enjoy coding and trading, but I feel in terms of expected reward I would net out more from just working more hours in IB than taking the risk of getting really good at CS or data science or getting really good at securities trading. I feel like I can honestly be passionate about anything, but then that being the case is IB the best option in net expected reward or have I just not found my passion yet and that's why I feel this way?
Is this satire?
I just really wanna fit in with all the kids at my school that are going into IB. They always told me that I would never be able to get IB because of my GPA, and they were absolutely right, I just want the chance to prove to them that I can be like them
Honest question, what do you think IB is? If the only reason you want to be in IB is to prove your classmates wrong, you're in for a rude awakening. Yeah, you'll make more money, but you'll rarely have the time to spend it when you're stuck working 80+ hours a week. Sure you can afford a nicer place, but you'll only ever be there to sleep. The only girls that care you are in IB are gold diggers that you want to stay far away from. If you are worried about picking up girls, your personality and looks matter a lot more than your job, especially considering that a PM at a tech company (assuming FAANGM or similar) is a great job. You can make a lot of money in Tech. Most people who go into IB will never make it to D/MD or to VP or higher in PE (where the real money comes in). There's always going to be someone that makes more money than you, don't let that define your life and goals. Your friends are going to be depressed 2 months in when they've gotten yet another round of comments from the VP at 11:00pm that needs to be done ASAP for no reason whatsoever. IB isn't for everyone and it certainly isn't as glorious as you think it is. Take advantage of the free time you have, your classmates are going to be the ones jealous of you soon
IMO might be not be a great company, given other comments about low GPA, not being smart, etc. I'm sure if OP were at Google they'd be a little more confident at least.
Why are you still in IB? You seem to hate it even as an intern...
Hang on.... did you say only a $25k difference and you are only working 40hrs/week? Assuming that is all in.... would you be OK pushing my CV at your company? Kinda feel like I need to exit this stone-age level snooze-fest.
Ya exactly let's trade places bro
I thougth it was real, and then i read the red thai chicken curry part. Lmfao got a good laugh out of it
if you're fuckin aroudn with us -- good post
If you're for real, that red thaic hicken curry part indicates to me that your uncle was right. if you actually think and talked like that in the bull pen... idk what to think lmao
Wait I'm actually very curious about this, would you mind elaborating? I'm a really hard-working person, though I definitely relate myself to the character harlequin because I will do anything for money and food, but I'm not really that smart (was in a major car accident before college which dropped my IQ 20 points). What about that particular portion of my post spoke to you, I would really love some insight.
I still don’t know if you’re fuckin wit me.
It just came off weird. The fact you asking me specifically why it came off weird just solidified what I’m talking about,
im not dissing you. Don’t take it the wrong way, it’s just kind of off what most bull pens are like in banking
Also can’t tell after reading your post and comments if this is a joke but...
When you say you’re working 40 hours and making 25k less, on what basis does that mean? IE, you’re making 60k vs 85k base, or 115k vs 140k all in? If the former your position is understandable. If the latter you got a very good fucking deal and am curious as to what it is.
$105K all-in and $78k from 35hours/week $89k from 40hours/week
It’s hopefully gonna be in the startup accelerator group of the venture arm of a F15 company or as a PM at that same company (comp will be the same since it’s a rotational program)
Gotcha. Honestly that sounds like an awesome gig, I would take it and run
I was gonna write a helpful comment but then I realized it's not worth it in this case...
> I keep reading Quora questions where people who were in IB say they were able to be with a lot of girls while they were in IB
> I could get a whole thai red curry chicken and rice + a spring roll with a $25 grubhub meal allowance
I would still love the helpful comment if possible
Do you feel like you want/need more money and are totally willing to work more hours for it or do you just want the clout/prestige of more money.
Honest question, would you rather get a 20k raise but not be able to tell anyone OR get a superficial promotion, fancy title but no change in work and be able to tell anyone you got a 20k raise and actually have no change in income. You kinda sound like you’d take the 2nd option.
Your uncle is right. You sound like a fucking virgin. Jfc imagine thinking you are missing out on working all day and doubting a pm position at a tech company because you will have too much free time. Please find a hobby, date, etc. If you are having trouble dating or stuff hit the gym and get into shape and enjoy your 20s. You aren’t missing out on anything unless you truly find banking more interesting and hate your job. You kids are getting weirder every year I swear.
And yes this sound like a troll post but just comment stands just in case that it isn’t.
My gf recently broke up with me and she was one of the reasons I didn’t recruit for IB SA my junior year as I was glad to be working 40 hours/week since it meant I could spend time with her. Now that she’s gone, I feel like I screwed up and IB would be the place where I could put all the energy I wanted to spend on her into.
Or you can find another girl... you’ll likely get over her before you find a way into banking. Most people break in out of undergrad or go in during their MBA. You’ll have to do one of those paths or find a boutique that’ll hire you and try to lateral into a bigger bank. I think it would benefit you more to research specifically what banking is + what it takes + consider whether you’ll really like it.
Believe me man I got dumped during college and it wrecked me. I had so much time to mope around and be sad, so I started going to the gym to forget the girl. It worked and I got jacked. Now I’m with a girl who’s 1000x better and I’m happy.
Find something else to do with your free time; if you want to do banking then find a different motivation to do it.
Thank you all for your wonderful responses, to those of you who are still not convinced this is a troll post, here is my current thinking on IB:
In my junior year I was gung ho about doing IB, I did an IB internship my sophomore year and even though I hated my experience I told myself I would eventually love it, I just wasn't good at it yet. My dad told me an internship wasn't enough for me to see if I actually liked it or not, and told me I needed to spend at least 2 years in it as I might end up loving it. My dad is a doctor and doesn't really know anything about high finance except the salary, but it was my uncle who then told me I absolutely should not do it and should instead do something like S&T or ER if I want to work at a bank, but definitely not IB. I was content with this rationale, up until I saw that the majority of my classmates (not really majority, but about 10% of my fellow finance and data science majors) were doing IB. I had spent a lot of time with my friend learning to trade until I realized quant had basically made S&T obsolete, and I suddenly felt stupid that I was doing my internship at a F15 tech company my junior summer and not IB which seems to be the only place left in high finance where you can make a lot of money. My main reasons for wanting to do IB are as follows:
1. I will be in a place where risk-adjusted my chances of being wealthy will be highest
2. This summer showed me that I'm a hella agreeable beta-male who will gladly take shit from superiors for money
3. I want to fit in
Part of me feels like my reasons for doing IB are kinda shitty, so please shit all over my reasons if these are bad reasons. Or alternatively, if these are good reasons, any insight would be super helpful
LOL they’re not great reasons, but they do fit in with the role. At the end of the day no one can give you the answer, because not only is there NO objective answer (ie. It comes down to your mindset which you can change at will), but there’s also no way of finding out unless you try it.
so if you feel so strongly about it just take the PM job and recruit laterally. also if you really are worried about being bored with the free time, use it to practice for IB interviews or (what I think is the best option but you definitely don’t sound like the type) work on a side hustle / business.
What do you mean your uncle told you your personality was incompatible? As in, you're too shy, or something else?
I tend to make mistakes on things a lot and am not very competitive, though I feel like I can be competitive
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