My why to make my career move is similar goals and a lot more money in more but eventually the same amount of hours I work.
I think analyzing financial statements is interesting sometimes and when I am reading /listening to economic stuff I enjoy it, but really I went into finance for the money. Now I am asking myself what would motivate me to work in corporate credit, which is my end game, and I'm thinking more money, getting to work on bigger deals which I presume involve more thorough analysis and more thorough comprehension of the economy. Getting into the nitty gritty of the micro is interesting but the macro is way more intersting. Also, I want to make more money and be around smarter people.
If you could rank and assign a % to each reason you work in finance what would it be?
Even my boss can't describe what I do. When there's a mystery, I solve it (check out the hook as the DJ revolves it) Seriously, my job is about as much fun as possible. I fix things in quant investments.
what kinda things? Is it the problem solving that makes it fun?
I actually design/redesign the funds. Most people around here want to work for Goldman. GSAM wants a meeting with me to try to pitch a new product. If I say yes (I rarely do) it kicks up towards the board.
Do you spend a lot of time debugging or what do you mean ?
Occasionally. I don't really program, so mostly I say "This is an unexpected and incorrect output. We should be getting XXXX." I design and change the design of quant strategies among other things. Don't expect to get a role like mine, at one of the five biggest firms in the industry I'm one of two in this role, and I get more of the fun jobs.
90% money 10% interest
Money honey.
It's semi-interesting but honestly I'm not a fan of working a traditional office job. Not sure how I've stuck around this long. Even if I like the work, being in the office and wearing a suit isn't my cup of tequila. Working on getting some extra money under my belt and either going into academia and/or starting my own business in a few years,
Best ROI for my skill set. Plain and simple
In an ideal world, I'd probably be in a Ph.D. program right now preparing myself to become a full-time professor and researcher. Unfortunately, reality hit me with how bad a decision this would have been. But my goals were the same: I wanted a thinking job where I could have fun and I could be good and I could be paid for being good. There were some candidates for me but I ended up sealing the deal with the first bank that interviewed me. I can gladly say that to this day there seems to not have been a single month where there wasn't some radical event that I could take ownership of and put my name all over it. I'm still early in my career but this was true even before Corona was on the horizon and it is still true right now because as we speak I'm in the middle of the next big project.
Hopefully, this remains the case forever as my brain starts melting at even the tiniest sign of mundanity. But if that ever happens I know there is a broad spectrum of positions I could move to, even inside the same bank, if I needed it. And there is always the possibility of escaping to grad school for a few years which would be much more palatable to me as a veteran professional.
As others have pointed out, it's mostly the money. I've never met anyone who has a 'true' passion for finance, the way people have passion for medicine, law or science. With that said, I do find it very interesting, I want to go into RE development, so a little different from traditional finance, but still it's a lot of fun looking over deals, looking at different situations, and managing the various things that go into building a skyscraper seem like an interesting challenge. When the time comes (hopefully) to do my own deals and build up my firm is an exciting thought as well. If it was all about money, I don't think I could stay interested long enough to do well and earn anything meaningful.
Who have you met that has a passion for law?
Haha my cousin, she’s a lawyer and very passionate about it. She represents a lot of people who’ve been abused, so it’s that as well.
Like everyone I went to undergrad with. Nobody really has a passion for corp defense work but with a law degree there are a lot more interesting / altruistic paths vs finance.
The money.
easiest return on my parents’ investment
I find investing pretty neat
The answer I'll give to this over dinner?
I realized halfway through pre-med that the cost of money + time invested into pursuing a career as a surgeon had a horrible payback period and wasn't something I was truly passionate about. Instead it was something that I was moderately interested in and chose to pursue without any real idea of what the fuck I was doing going to college. Tried out some business classes, fell in love with finance, and never looked back.
Answer if I'm being honest with myself?
Orgo Chem made me feel really shitty and being a doctor sounds depressing as fuck... Spent a semester or two in identity crisis partying my ass off then realized all the above stuff + I like a chill white collar job with skills that are applicable to a variety of career paths that all pay well and offer me the freedom to pursue whatever other shiny pastimes catch my eye.
I don't know why peopl become surgeons, you make probably 1/2 as much as you'd make in PE, and you don't start making money until 30 lol
+ you won't have your loans paid off for even longer. In high school I interned with a neurosurgeon who had a private practice and he hadn't finished paying off his loans in his mid 50s. Fuck that noise, especially with the Bernie-bros coming around the corner trying to act like their fat multivariate-gendered asses somehow have a "right" to your labor. Maybe if they weren't such unhealthy cunts in their 20s and 30s they wouldn't be dying in their 40s and 50s.
You don't think there's personal satisfaction in saving lives?
99% intellectual curiosity 1% money.
Living the way I do, I realized I actually only need to make 40~50K/year to sustain it while still saving some money. It's not like I'm stingy or anything.
But the job gets blood pumping through my brain for an intellectual hard-on 24/7.
Weren't you a CB analyst?
Data scientist. My position is kind of weird. In other firms, I guess I'd be called a quant. But my sector within finance is definitely not something that a lot of people on this website would be familiar with. It's just too niche, so I don't want to reveal it since you'd be able to find out who I am.
To make things simple to understand, I work on both sell side and buy side related quantitative projects.
30% Compensation
50% I like fucking around in powerpoint
20% Toxic masculinity (I'm tougher than you because I'm wasting my 20's)
To make the world a better place
money, power to influence, interest
plus pre-med didn't work out the way I wanted
Money + Connections = Excellent Exit Opps
M&B
Men and balls?
Models & Bottles
To leave the world better than I left it
cocaine
Because I hate spending time with my loved ones and friends and hobbies apparently
I originally chose it because I needed a career where I could make good money fairly quickly in life that wasn't illegal. I also like doing something that others see as relatively prestigious. Like, I am not defined by my job but I would be foolish to say that prestige is meaningless. It isn't my first choice if I could do whatever I wanted, but life don't work that way.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Because life is better with more money than less money
I'll use this during interview.
Money but in hindsight maybe tech would’ve been a better trade for me
Money right?
"Cocaine is expensive"- Dana White
Money and money only. I make over $200K a year and work 30-40 hours a week. I’m able to put some of my bonus into other businesses investments.
At one point I used to really enjoy transactional work but it’s not interesting anymore. I also hate the culture.
What do you do and how did you get there, if you don’t mind me asking? How do you work 40h/week in IB?
I’m in Corporate Banking at a bank that has Corporate & Investment Banking under the same umbrella. I’m on the sales/relationship side. I managed to build up relationships and establish a client base with companies in a pretty cyclical industry so the fees have kept coming in over the last year or two.
My MD just let’s me do what I want because I’ve figured out an effective way to bring in deals/fees and manage relationships without working a ton of hours.
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