Senior Changing Plans About Finance...Long Post but Really Need Help
Hi guys,
So I am a senior from a non-target with a major in finance and throughout college, I was 100% convinced that I was going to work in investment banking/PE, etc. However, after joining an investment club at my school and getting some experience with modeling, valuation, etc., I think I have come to the conclusion that this is not the industry for me. I will still stick with my group because the people are awesome and valuation is a good skill to know, but I'm not sure if I can do stock picking or valuing companies for investments my whole life because I don't have the personality (too risk averse, don't like the hours) and I just don't find it very fulfilling personally.
What I think I'd rather do as a long term goal is be in a position working for a company where I am doing a combination of budgeting and forecasting. For example, if I worked for Apple before they released the iPhone, the duties I would enjoy more would be determining the budget for the iPhone project, analyzing the costs involved, and forecasting how profitable the product will be. I guess to put it succinctly, I want to be involved in analyzing and managing projects versus valuing and investing in companies if that makes sense. Eventually, I would also like to do this in an industry I'm really passionate about, like biotechnology, infrastructure, or a renewable energy company and maybe even a startup or smaller company where I can really be a big influence on the direction of the firm.
Therefore, I was wondering what kind of career path this follows and what I can do to reach it. What I'm describing maybe sounds like a financial controller, but I don't exactly know what I'm looking for in terms of titles or how to reach it. If anyone can guide me, I'd really appreciate it. Feel free to PM me for more specifics as well.
project management??
When I hear project management, I think of the IT department, not finance.
My friend is in the exact same boat and he's going to do GE FMP. Most F500 companies have these rotational programs. Do some research and look for the perfect company that fits your interest and your personality, then do anything you can to break into that company.
It sounds like what you want to do is FP&A (financial planning and analysis). Look into F500 companies for graduate recruiting programs.
Is FP&A mainly accounting? I get so confused because some people say it's forward-looking while others say it's basically just closing the books and such. I want to do something where I'm doing some modeling (as in modeling projects, not so much companies) and a forward-looking role using historical data, not just creating the historical data if that makes sense
It sounds like you have no idea of what you're doing.
Where have you interned? Do you know what an investment banker does? What someone in PE does?
Do you realize that almost none of us - the prospective monkeys - are on here to "make a career" in any of this stuff?
If you spend your first 2-3 years out of college on Wall Street, you'll be better positioned than anyone "rising the ranks" at Apple or wherever you want to go to do anything else you'd like to do. If you want to do financial planning, I guarantee you'll be better off with a high ranked MBA and 2 years' WS experience than doing operations or finance at some random company. At the very least, you'll be paid more or even better respected than some of your peers.
You go to a non-target? So do I. You joined an investment club and don't like the content? I'm president of my school's finance club, and as much as we try, what we do has nothing to do with what almost any place in finance - even the broad industry - does. I've interned in corporate finance and consulting, and our other members are in the school's MSF and MBA programs and have real work experience as well. It's a given fact that a club is an activity, not a simulation or even a description of the work.
Reason I say all this is because it sounds like you're pussying out. Don't take any of this the wrong way, I just feel as though really intelligent people will cop out of doing something and find a way to rationalize taking the easy road. If you've got the wits to think this far ahead (which a lot of other people don't even try), you can definitely try to succeed in investment banking/PE/other high finance. You can "do something great," or be behind "something that changes the world" in just the same way. Whether you do it in IB or PE, or in another industry, it's going to take you just as long an amount of time to get to "iPhone 9 Project Development Guy" or "Investment Banking Vice President."
Ignore me if this is irrelevant. Good luck.
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