Taking the plunge
Hi all,
I have the fortunate opportunity to work for an EB next summer after going hard at recruiting the past year plus. However, now that the dust has settled, I am realizing that my going into banking was the result of following others and getting lost in the wave of undergrads pushing towards high paying jobs.
My passions lie in start-ups and creating value. Obviously a few years in banking will open up opportunities for me in VC if I stick with it. From a career perspective, this makes sense, but I would like to start my own company while still young.
Has anyone been in a similar position as me - being stuck between adhering to the status quo and risking it all to start my own venture? Any advice?
Many thanks
delete
You don't need to "risk it all" this early in your career. If I were you I'd get some experience and money and then start your own thing if that's what you want to do. Unless you have a very clear idea of the venture your want to start, I think you're best off doing banking at least for a little. One or two years isn't much in the grand scheme of things and the IB exp will stay with you throughout your entire career.
Optionality
cool your jets pal, you've barely taken off your trainer wheels. might be good for you to put in a few years somewhere to get a feeling for professional life before diving into a new project. sometimes best not to write a book before you've learnt to read.
Give IB a chance and learn and build a good network before you take the leap, so when you do you’ll be better off.
Have a HYP friend who interned with me at a top group EB/BB, he was the best summer analyst and got a return offer and turned it down to work on his startup idea. He didn’t have funding, didn’t even have a team, just an idea.
This is not me telling you to do that after your summer stint, but I supported my friend unconditionally, offered my help whenever possible, and wished him luck. You’ll learn after your summer stint if IB is the right career for you. After that, it’s up to you to decide how you want to start your work. If you come up with an idea that you believe could be world changing but never decide to act on it and live the first two years of your life with no sleep, grinding out pitches, thinking “what if”, then don’t put yourself in that situation and chase your dreams.
I think the IB analyst experience provides a genuinely valuable skill set and a lot of people here will say not to be rash and waste such an experience chasing an idea that will probably fail, but the opposite is also true. Why work yourself to the ground if there’s even a slim chance your idea could work. If you know you want to be in the startup world, and your idea fails, it’s relatively easy to stay in the startup atmosphere and start a new company or join an early stage one. After all, to paraphrase every LinkedIn influencer ever: successful people have failed many times before their first breakthrough.
hows your HYP friend doing?
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