Reconsidering Wall Street?

This is primarily for the college kids:

Has the recent financial crisis caused you to reconsider a career on Wall Street at all? What are you most worried about going forward: job-security, pay, or something else? Are you optimistic about the future state of the industry?

If you have reconsidered finance, are you considering moving away from business alltogether or just going the consulting route?

 

ive been out of school for a few years but the concerns im hearing is more towards job security. undergrads are still considering wall street but more for the exit options.

in the short term, for current seniors, they are looking more at corp fin/consulting gigs for a few years then grad school and then a high paying job.

------------ I'm making it up as I go along.
 

NO, I still want to be on Wall Street but looking towards exits even more intenty than before.

So what do you do? -I work for an investment banking firm. Oh okay; you are like my brother, he works for Edward Jones. -No, a college degree is required in my profession

Reality hits you hard, bro...
 
Best Response

you guys keep using the exit ops argument but we don't even know what the future of private equity or HFs will be like. There might be fewer of those in the future and you might end up with no kick ass job after your two year stint. You can move to corporate strategy but you can do that from the very beginning to and you can do that after consulting as well. Also, little leverage will reduce the ROE at p.e firms which might not even make bonuses that attractive after all. I'm not saying this is a bad career choice, but I'm just saying it's important to fully consider the future of your prospective exit option too. Also, for instance you join a bank, and market conditions force the firm to fire you within a few months, what then? You don't have the skills for a kick ass exit op and you're stuck with an exorbitant lease in Manhattan with little or no savings thanks to the tax rate.

 

i doubt PE/HF/VC activity will slow down significantly in the coming years money hungry risk takers that are loaded with $$$ will keep looking for the next big thing, VC investment in alternative fuels/Clean Energy has exploded in 2006-07..and now everyone's talking about these 'exotic' markets like vietnam, some south american countries, Kazakhstan etc etc.........my point being the buy side people will keep investing in what they think is the next big thing

 

Luckily it's still a few years until I graduate, and I'm still content to go into finance after graduation. However, I'm honestly a bit worried how this will change the business, but there will always be opportunities, so I'm not giving up on my plans just yet. . .

 

I'm not too concerned about job security as much as the uncertainty of the industry in general. Despite everyone's opinions on the board about where the economy is heading, what comp/bonuses will be in one or two years, and what the exit ops will be, nobody really knows for sure. Just the fact that it is so uncertain is what is worrying me these days.

 
bkm125:
I'm not too concerned about job security as much as the uncertainty of the industry in general. Despite everyone's opinions on the board about where the economy is heading, what comp/bonuses will be in one or two years, and what the exit ops will be, nobody really knows for sure. Just the fact that it is so uncertain is what is worrying me these days.

You probably bought in to that 'supercycle' bullshit as well. We found out, once again, that the cycle is not dead. Funny that.

There will always be smart people working in finance earning outsized pay checks and hiring cheap, smart graduates to help them. They may not be called IB/PE/VC/HF etc... but they'll be there.

 

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