Social anxiety in Finance (IB)

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Prospect in IB - Gen:

I have clinically diagnosed social anxiety which my therapist said is caused by bullying in early life and how my parents treated my as a child. I’m worried I won’t be able to overcome it fast enough for IB recruiting? I’ve been able to network well so far but I think I could definitely improve. Am I screwed? Should I choose another career path? Are there ways to overcome this quickly? Can this be fixed in time to also an offer if I’m already in college?

If you're already worried about interviews, that's not good.

Practice parts of the interview process so you have them down pat (walking through your resume, your story). Practice and visualization will enable you to conquer interviews. You should be confident for nearly all of the interview.

You eventually should start piling up phone interview and in person interview experience. With more interview experience, you should be able to conquer at least a couple interviews to get some offers.

You may need a benzo, which is fine and acceptable in any corporate job. Also practice techniques to reduce anxiety, get enough sleep, eat the right foods, and workout. Practice healthy coping mechanisms and reduce stress to keep anxiety levels low. You should be fine. There is a method and each step is important.

tons of socially anxious people are no longer socially anxious. look at adults and grandparents, how many of them are anxious compared to teens and young adults? just get out of your comfort zone regularly. also, not everyone will agree with this, but ive a beer or two before phone interviews with lots of success

Honestly I would just keep doing what you're doing and force yourself to have calls even if they're awkward or don't feel great. Although having conversations seems hard now, you'll find over time things get much easier as your brain learns how to handle the situation. This is basically how professional cognitive therapy works as the whole point is to "unlearn" the link between whatever your issue is and the resulting anxiety.

A lot of people feel the same way about interviews, where they get nervous and freeze up when they're in the room no matter how well prepared they are. Over time and after repeated interviews, practice sessions, etc., you get used to the whole interview setting and you find you don't react in the same way.

‘You are not what happened to you. You are what you choose to become’ Carl Jung. Go for it! & good luck.

If you absolutely love IB, then go for it while managing through the issues. I am going to be very honest here, if pursuing IB is not your dream career path, you might want to see what other paths are available to you. I would imagine that IB can be a very stressful career and this environment could make your anxiety worse.

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Have you tried cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)? Your therapist should offer this, but there are self directed programs online as well.

Look yourself in the mirror and claim your fate. You got this bro

It is definitely a step in the right direction to admit it and try to look for a solution, rather than hide from it. Consultations and long-term solution are the way forward. I just wanted to say "bravo" to the community. Sometimes anon comments and college kids can really bring toxicity into the forum, but the fact of so many supportive comments is definitely encouraging.

1 or 2 beers really helps with my ability to connect and network with employers. At that point I'm not drunk but my anxiety melts away.

As someone in a very similar position - I feel you man. It can be hard and anxiety inducing to try to enter a field where the presiding stereotype is of the "uber-alpha" highly social dominant types.

But you must remember that people in finance are just that: people. In interviews, in networking, anything, just remember this.

The way I got over it, at least for finance purposes, was finding a mentor. This relationship helped me get my mind of off the anxiety and helped acclimate me to "talking the game". I find that once you can understand the language of finance and the conventions of professionalism, you'll find that you are much more comfortable operating in this sphere.

Also, talk to people about finance, get comfortable with socializing, learn the process of asking people for stuff in the right way, and do anything else to get acclimated and comfortable with it all. I found finance memes to be a fun and easy way of understanding it all... and it ended up easing my anxiety, both in a professional and social sense.

Moral of the story: STUDY and PRACTICE human interaction. Literally.

Had the same issues pretty much all throughout life up until freshman year of college. Funny enough, I worked a shitty retail job where I constantly had to talk with people and that’s really where I learned the gift of gab and getting comfortable greeting and conversing with complete strangers. It feels corny, uncomfortable, and disingenuous at first, but trust me it will begin to feel natural. Don’t let anybody fool you— most kids are probably about as nervous as you. The only real way to fix this is to constantly put yourself in situations where you have to talk with random strangers. Also, pick up some hobbies man. I feel like a huge portion of nervousness/anxiety is fear of having nothing to talk about. I’ve always been very dubious about doctors’ diagnosis of “disorders.” The mind is very powerful, and if you keep telling yourself bullying turned you into some socially dysfunctional shmuck, you will definitively be just that. So stop letting that define you.

I hate networking but the only way I have gotten better at is by going to more networking events it forces you to talk to people.

I use the Waking Up app, from Sam Harris, a great way for a quick meditation session that resets the mind and body. It takes some sessions to get there but it actually helps. it took me about 20 sessions before noticing change.

DM me if you want a free month to try it you. I know a lot of people in IB and RE that use the app with good results.

Heard a lot of people throwing around beers and benzos as ways to brute force your social anxiety down while you're still gaining confidence. I've waxed poetic about a benign, non-psychoactive drug called Propranolol on here for years. It doesn't affect you cognitively at all but blocks almost all of the physical manifestations of anxiety by stopping adrenaline absorption. Great for the shakey voice/sweaty palms that can occur in nerve-wracking situations like presentations or interviews. I had pretty significant anxiety when I was younger but have largely been able to over-come most of it just by continuously having to rise to the occasion and speak at bigger meetings with greater frequency while advancing in my career.

Stay with the shrink if they know their stuff and offer quality advice and wisdom, get a Propranolol prescription and ease your way into it. Once you shake the anxiety off you'll feel so free it'll shock you the amount of charisma you can come across with. Best of luck!

You’ve got to trust your preparation. Look at relevant questions ahead of time and know what role the person your talking to occupies. Put in the grind work and it will help with your confidence.