Quitting finance for something else?
So I think I've peaked in terms of how far I'll ever go in finance and am pretty bummed that this career isn't working out, and looking for some advice.
Background: graduated from HYP 5 years ago and started on the trading floor at a MBB, then switched into a quant shop (eg DE Shaw, BW, etc) where I've been for the past 3 years (associate level). The trading role was pretty terrible, but my current job has been neutral to positive. The company and culture are actually pretty great, my team is relatively good, and the work is really interesting. Hours are great too, around 9am to 7pm most days.
The thing is, I've known since my first year that I have almost zero interest in finance/economics itself, and I think I've finally reached my limit in how far hard work/intelligence/basic finance knowledge will take me. My role is extremely varied - from powerpoints and excels, to writing responses and white papers, to in-depth research - but I haven't raised my hand to do any of the more analytical work in a long time because it's so uninteresting to me. Other than general news, I never read anything finance-related, and rarely do anything extra for work on top of my day to day duties. I don't care about making it to VP in a few years and certainly can't see myself as a portfolio manager down the line. I don't have any long-term career goals whatsoever because the apathy is real. I was never this uninspired and unambitious before finance, and I hate the feeling.
I feel really ungrateful that I have this objectively fantastic job and am still complaining, but admittedly even if I left finance I wouldn't know what I'd do, so I feel stuck. Has anyone been through the same thing and can share what they did? Is it worth exploring other areas of the industry, like corp dev? Or stick it out, get an MBA, and pivot to another role? If I gave finance 5 years and still find it unenjoyable, is that enough to say it's not for me? I'd love to do something I just feel any excitement for. Am I falling into the classic 'grass is always greener' trap? I know, lots of questions and realize I sound pathetic but any advice is really appreciated.
You say "the work is really interesting" but also "I haven't raised my hand to do any of the more analytical work in a long time because it's so uninteresting to me." What characterizes the work you find interesting versus the work you find uninteresting?
Do you find yourself burnt out because your work isn't adding up to a meaningful big picture?
You say your team and culture is good. Do you actually like the people you work with? Think they are competent as well as ethical? Would you want to start a new company with them?
You say "this career isn't working out." Are you dissatisfied by the lack of rapid advancement in comp relative to what you had expected?
These are just some areas I can think of that might help you pinpoint the root of your dissatisfaction.
Ah yeah I sound like I'm contradicting myself. What I mean is, the work is objectively interesting - there's a lot of variety and outside of the day to day, you get a lot of freedom to pursue your own ideas/side projects. There's not a lot of BS gruntwork. But I have very little personal interest in any of these topics, from (for example) examining VIX behavior this past quarter or analyzing our peers and trying to replicate their indices, to thinking about how to make our funds better or backtesting different strategies and writing up my results. Honestly I'm not a very analytical person in a firm that prizes analytical ability, so maybe I should transfer to a team/firm that suits me better?
I don't think I'm burned out because my lifestyle is on the easier side for finance - usually 10 hrs/day, no weekend work, managers aren't hounding me after hours, etc. Ideally I do want to work somewhere more meaningful where I'm able to help people directly, but that's always been there, not because I'm stressed out at this job.
My team's pretty good. They're ethical and very competent, and other than a few typical coworker annoyances I like them and we get along. I'm pretty sure I'm underpaid relative to an avg 2nd year associate based on salary databases and the sense my boss is lukewarm about me too, but honestly I don't mind? Like, I'm happy with my salary and am definitely overpaid for the work I do do, and live well within my means with it.
Thanks for these questions. I think it still comes down to not being interested in the subject in the first place since I have no complaints about my company, but am keeping everything open.
Great - I was trying to pinpoint whether you are A) analytical but just not given problems with interesting content, or B) if you don't like solving problems/puzzles because analytical work just doesn't appeal to you enough to be 100% of your workload. It sounds like the latter - let me know if that's incorrect.
It also sounds like you are not getting a whole lot of meaning out of this job, and you mention wanting to help people. I personally like helping people, not necessarily like a doctor, but coaching them through their thinking and decisions. Definitely miss some of that in my current role, and I think I'd have more fun on the analyst development team at my platform.
Putting those two together, I think you want a role where you get a good mix of different types of work. Some analytical work, because while you don't think you're much good when stacked against your math olympiad peers, you are very likely pretty good compared to the average. And work that uses your soft skills where you interface with people. There is really no shortage of roles you can consider that would achieve these objectives - some kind of internal strategy/consulting team at a large corporate would be my guess. You'll be more plugged into the business and solving tangible problems, but also getting face time with senior management, and adding value with the analytical chops you've built up in your current role.
Finance work is boring. If you have reached the state of total apathy, nothing is going to change for the better.
There are tons of threads about leaving/quitting, like this one. Maybe read through them and get inspired?
I did PE right out of undergrad for 2 years. I was bored out of my mind within 6 months. The money and prestige doesn't mean anything if you're unhappy all the time.
I work remotely for an education startup as a product manager. The work is alright, nothing too challenging or interesting. My co-workers are much more diverse from backgrounds to personalities. The work/life balance is great, I usually do 10 am to 5 pm.
Thanks dude, I've actually read that thread and any others I could find about quitting/career changes. Guilty of the "but none of them is my situation" mindset but have several of them bookmarked for reference.
Sounds like you have a good thing going now, congrats. Can I ask what skill set your role uses? Interested in hearing about other careers to see if it's something I'm potentially interested in.
Its mostly soft skills. I act as the voice of the product to internal stakeholders. I conduct research, make prototypes and push forward an agenda that will help both the business and our end users. Feel free to read more about it here.
When finance people move to the tech world they usually go into corp dev or internal strategy, but product management is getting quite popular. Whenever you hear that people from top b-schools go to work at tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc., its usually in product roles.
How old are you and how much do you make in total comp?
damn, this guy is asking the real questions here lmfao
I'll bite. 27 and 180-190 last couple years.
Have you.m considered more corporate type roles
Just wondering, why'd you major/enter finance in the first place?
I was in a similar boat a few years ago (PE but whatever, same concept). Burnt out, not enjoying the work, etc. I kept grinding for similar reasons - felt like it was a great opp that I had worked really hard for, but my heart wasn't in it anymore. Then one day I just decided to quit. Didn't actually resign immediately, thought about it really hard for a few months, and then one day just walked into a partner's office and did it.
I intentionally didn't have a job lined up - just wanted a break to reset. Didn't think about work or career at all for about 2 months, did some traveling, read some books, played a lot of video games (this is probably relatively less appealing today given COVID/lockdowns). At some point that got old, so I made a list of jobs that I thought were cool and had a reasonable shot of getting. Called up a buncha buddies in those roles to chat about them before deciding to say fuck it to PE. Wound up in corp dev at a midsized company, which I genuinely like (mostly because I like my coworkers) but the work is certainly more varied too.
One thing you can do now is just start to figure out general areas that are interesting to you. Browse LinkedIn, talk to friends, etc. You don't have to make any commitments, but I certainly would say that 5 years is enough to tell you whether you like something or not. It's also a good time to pivot, as you have some good experience but aren't senior enough to be pigeonholed.
This is exactly what I'm going through now. Thought about quitting my HF job for almost a year. Lined up a gig at tech start up. Change in general and lifestyle feels amazing and I don't imagine myself going back.
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