So back when I was applying to colleges I thought it would be a good idea to do some community service so I became a mentor to a young South Korean immigrant boy. He's getting ready to enter his freshmen year at a non ivy target/strong semi target and wants to do banking and a career in finance. As someone who is on his way to American citizenship and already has permanent resident status, he is still a citizen of south korea, and thus has to complete his 2 years of military service before he turns 30. He might not enroll in college this year and might just join the army. I've had several south korean friends who would take a 2 year leave of absence from school to do their service, graduate at 24 from school, and be a first year analyst. Essentially, those two years were a waste of time from a career standpoint (although might have made them stronger summer analyst candidates). He's turned to me for advice and I'm still not sure what to tell him. The following options are:
1.) Enroll in the South Korean army this fall, and graduate from college in 2023 as a 24 year old (probably making him a very strong and mature freshman as well as solid candidate for summer analyst recruiting right from the get got as a frosh in 2 years)
2.) Go to college for a year or two, take a leave of absence, and then return and graduate. I don't see much advantage to this.
3.) Do his service after he graduates and try to leverage that as work experience so that he doesnt have to come in as a 1st year analyst. (This is my personal advice and what I see as his best option.)
4.) Graduate, do a 2 year analyst stint, followed by two years in the South Korean military, do an MBA, then come in as an associate.
5.) Say fuck South Korea, renounce his citizenship, file for political asylum, and never see his family in that country again.
Thoughts? Also don't discount the real possibility of a war with the North in the future, so the quicker he gets his service out the way, the better?
What do I tell the kid?
So I served in the Singapore Army for 2 years before entering college, and I'd suggest him to do it first. Honestly, the perspective and the mental discipline you gain is well worth it. He can even use the 2 years to figure out what exactly he wants to do and get a head start compared to the rest of his peers.
The thing is how will he recruit if he graduates and then completes his service? I doubt banks would hold his slot for two years and he will probably forget everything he learnt in college, atleast from a technical standpoint. And if he joins a frontline unit, the training is brutal and going from that to IB means 4 years of torture all squeezed in together.
American banks eat up having people from military backgrounds. The way I see it:
Undergrad > army service > FT recruiting
Sigh
Most people I know at my school have done option 2, and while I'm not entirely sure why, there are some possible advantages, such as, the friends you meet as a freshman will still be at school as seniors when you return, adding to your network, helping you with school work, what classes to take, clubs to join, possibly giving you a leg-up on other sophomores.
Also, it might be nice for him to experience college before going to the military, and to let him experience a little freedom away from home to enjoy himself before having to do mandatory service, and to at least know what to expect on his return.
But out of all the options, I would say 1 or 2 would probably be the best. Just anecdotally, most of the people I know who are in banking and have done military service have done option 2.
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