If I don't have money to go to a semi-target/target then how do I break into Investment Banking (or be successful at life)?

OK so I'm not going to bore you, 4.0 CC student who has done some great ECs with a difficult courseload. Associate in Science as well. Now I've taken this year off and will apply for transfer to target/semi-targets this upcoming March. Now unlike all of you my shit family doesn't care about my success or future and they're piss broke. Now I did good in high-school and got accepted to some decent schools but of course my parents couldnt afford it so I was an idiot and went to CC to make it easier on them.

So for my list of schools which I am confident I will get into, I will need a minimum of $90-$120k in private loans since fucker Freshman admits take all the FAFSA money. So how am I supposed to break into Investment Banking? It's the only career I want and no other careers pay as well. What should my plan of action? I didn't ask for this situation I was just born into it, not my fault what so ever and I've been a perfect student so far.

Thank you so much.

 
Best Response

You don't have to go into IB to be successful in life. That's a comical view, because life doesn't work that way at all. And appreciate your family for whatever it's worth. It's the only one you have, and you might come to be a better person because of your 'shit' family than your peers from more sophisticated upbringings.

But if you don't want to use some imagination to create a path to success, and IB is your fix, you will need to networking now. Don't go to a target if you don't see it working. But I would elect to choose a decent liberal arts school in a highly concentrated city with plenty of wealthy people and a solid financial district. This would be SF or NY as examples. Being in good proximity with whom you want to network with gives you a very nice leg up on the competition. But lose the woe is me attitude. No one cares and it just makes you seem like a lesser person.

 
iBankedUp:
But lose the woe is me attitude. No one cares and it just makes you seem like a lesser person.

To kick it off I don't have that attitude. I'm making it clear I was born into this shit situation that I didn't ask for and I made the best out of it

iBankedUp:
You don't have to go into IB to be successful in life.

I don't have any imagination to create a business because 9/10 fail. I like IB BC you get the 2 years done, make some amazing money and can move to the buy side. There aren't any other paths that are as straight forward. corporate finance is making $50k (national average) with little room to climb

 

It's not enough to say you're making the best out of it. We all do our best. That's just a standard, so how about not even mentioning it? K?

And I think you'll find that IB is just one career path. Or you won't because you'll be to busy looking down that tunnel. Like, sales guys at FB make more than $100k annually and still get to play softball on the weekend.

I'm not here to tell you what to do, but IB is a decent break. It was a good one for me and I don't regret it. I'm just suggesting that there are alternatives if you'd be interested in seeking them.

 
anonymous9191:
You take out loans? Plus top schools have generous financial aid. The only hard part I think is getting in, not paying for it

You have any idea what the interest rate on private loans are? I can just take out a whopping 100k and pay it off after school. I have to pay for it while I am in school or else the bank will fuck me over. Like I said I basically don't have parents therefore no financial support.

The hard part isn't getting in, in my case. Also top schools don't have financial aid for transfers.

 

You don't need an MBA (at least not yet). Don't waste your time. Your skillset is best suited for finance division within a non-finance company. Don't disparage that! It's a great career path, and since it seems you're not uber money hungry, the lifestyle is MUCH better and you can end up making a lot of money too!

Stay with the firm and then transition into an F500 firm. Then, get the F500 firm to pay for your MBA. That way, you get schooling for free. That's what I would do if I were you.

PS - I think what you're doing is actually a real skillset and leaves you much better prepared for life than the stupid pitch book and mindless modeling shit typical IB analysts do.

 

Dont sell yourself short. With a solid GMAT, quality essays, some impressive ECs, you could be competitive at some of the schools ranked between 10-25. If you enjoy your current position and you see upside growth potential hang in there for another year or two and then head off to b-school and figure out what it is that you want to do with your life. If you hate your current job, start applying to different positions and work at the new company either long-term or for 2-3 years before applying to b-school.

I think you are in a better position than most people so dont be discouraged. Dont be discouraged by people on the board who think high finance is the only route to a successful career. Best of luck to you.

 

Yeah, don't count yourself out so quickly. I've met people at top schools with questionable work histories, but I'm sure they were great people. Just try hard, be yourself, and aim for a top school.

 
kevinftw:
Everywhere I look I just see that unless you go to a top MBA program, then you are probably wasting your money on an MBA . Some background: I have been working since receiving my BBA (finance) in 2008 first as a pricing analyst and now as a "financial analyst" (budgeting, projections, quarterly/annual reports, etc.) for a small software firm. I use the quotes because I'm the only finance person really, as everything finance was outsourced before. That said, we are a very small company, with not much to keep me occupied, so I end up also doing the accounting (QuickBooks - I told you we were small), and various administrative functions (handling benefits & 401k, AP/AR, etc.)

The software company, albeit provided a higher salary, really wasn't the best of career moves in terms of raw finance experience, so now I am wishing to position myself for a position with a financial services company, preferably as an analyst, with room to climb up into Senior/managerial roles. I figured going back for the MBA can make up for my lack of experience since obtaining my BBA. I did well in undergrad (3.5 GPA) but it was a non-target school, and with my not-so-good work experience, even with an amazing GMAT score, I doubt I can get into a top-tier B-school. I am going to aim for them, but, realistically speaking, if I can't get into these schools, will it be worth it still pursue the MBA from a top 30-50 school? I don't need the $500k+ salaries of an IB'er, but I do wish to have an otherwise successful career. Any encouraging words (hopefully there are some!) would be great, as I feel like I'm digging myself a hole of self-doubt/hopelessness. Thanks and sorry for the novel-sized question!

Firstly I would say that don’t worry and stay positive. Whether you should go for the GMAT or not is entirely dependent upon your passion for further studies and your future goals.

Juggling between work and studies is tough so you need to define a significant time for your GMAT preparation. Sometimes taking few days off work for preparing for the GMAT can help a person tremendously. If you have time this may not be a bad idea. Take practise GMAT tests to see how you are doing. If you cannot do that don’t worry. What might work instead is to set aside 1-2 hours at night on weekdays and major part of your weekend to study and prepare for GMAT- in this case we will suggest a good 3 months preparation.

However we recommend you to keep taking practise tests to gauge your performance. It will help you in identifying your weak areas and you can focus on them accordingly.

Thanks! Kavita Singh FutureWorks Consulting

 

Stop whining and start working your butt off. Start networking with people, learn all you can about IB there are plenty of sources online. You do not need money to break into IB neither you have to be from a TOP school to get in. Yes it is true that it is easy to break in from targets but their are plenty of folks on the street who are not from target. you can go to a state school and still break in.

The amount of time you spend writing these posts and whining about the unfortunate situation, instead write e-mail to bankers make connections. Hard work will get you anything you want. and STOP shitting on your family dude.!!!

 
Future.Monkey:
Stop whining and start working your butt off. Start networking with people, learn all you can about IB there are plenty of sources online. You do not need money to break into IB neither you have to be from a TOP school to get in. Yes it is true that it is easy to break in from targets but their are plenty of folks on the street who are not from target. you can go to a state school and still break in.

The amount of time you spend writing these posts and whining about the unfortunate situation, instead write e-mail to bankers make connections. Hard work will get you anything you want. and STOP shitting on your family dude.!!!

I have read almost all the Rosenbaum work and I am very confident of the work that entails IB and would kill the interview. Also I am not fucking whining I state I was born in a shit situation I didn't ask for and made the best of it. This forum has also made is clear that getting in from a non-target is not possible. You see the success stories of those nontargets who made it but what about those who didn't?

 

Get awesome SAT scores, be involved in extra curriculars, get good grades, and visit the open house programs for the schools you want to go to. If you don't get into a 'target', transfer after the first year or two of college. If you don't get into a target, realize that A LOT of wall street didn't go to a target. Intern, network, talk to people, and stay sharp.

Also: Georgetown is the most heavily represented school, so don't get hung up on Harvard.

One last thing: it's just a job. If you don't get the job you want, you can reapply, go to grad school, or transition to another firm. But it's just a job, a source of income, and you should not lose sight of that.

Get busy living
 

This is so dumb and you sound like a moron, so I doubt an elite school is in your cards anyways. If you go to an elite school and can't pay back your loans within 5-years max, then you really went wrong somewhere.

I went to an elite school with half a scholarship, but my parents had no money for my college and weren't paying. I paid back a total of $90k+ in loans in a little over 4 years post-undergrad, and this was with an engineering salary (solid, but not banking). I also managed to save over $65k for retirement and I lived a fun life, exciting life.

 

Hey fucker I am not a moron and I said semi-target and maybe some targets, I'm not aiming for elite ivy. How the fuck did it go wrong somewhere. I cant pay for it because I don't have financial support from my family, not my fault.

You went to an elite school from freshman year, good for you, this is not my case so get off this thread since you're being a rude person for no reason.

 

If I hear "woe-is-me" one more fucking time I will go insane. What the fuck does that even mean? Is it supposed to be a condensed version of "wow it is me?"

What is "woe-is-me" about this post any fucking ways?

 

Assuming this isn't a troll...

If you're confident in your own ability and can replicate your CC success at a target school while juggling internships and networking commitments, just take out the loans. If you're responsible with your money and save your bonuses, there's no reason you won't be able to pay them all off in 3 or 4 years - that's what I did with a similar debt load. And even if you don't get IB, you'll be able to land some other respectable job where you can pay off your debt. It's going to be pretty hard though and, to be blunt, you don't strike me as someone who has the emotional maturity to succeed in banking.

 

Thanks for your advice. It's great to see someone of your caliber believing in me. I'm just going to take out the loans. Thank you so much!

EDIT: wait a second, what do YOU consider a target school? If it's Ivys then I'm SOL in your case.

 

1) Lose the shit attitude if you really want to work in IB. Recognize there are lots of opportunities besides working in finance and your borderline-obsessive thought that "IB is the only job I want" is pretty ridiculous. 2) Get into any reputable school and graduate with degree in business/accounting/engineering whatever 3) Apply to Oracle as a Sales Business Rep, work 1 year and kill it 4) Go to sales at a better startup firm for 2 years, kill it, apply to top MBAs 5) Graduate from top MBA and enter IB as an associate

 

Oracle hires hundreds and hundreds of new grads from semi-targets each year at 55k base + 30k bonus if you hit target. on track for 100k within 3 years. They don't give a shit about prestige or major. They hire comm, econ, science, arts, anything.

Or recruiting companies will take new college grads and get them on track for 100k within 3 years easily. Hires out of very 3rd tier state schools. If you're good, you can make 200k+ in 2-3 years.

 

Goldstein, why do you keep making these accounts to ask the same fucking questions multiple times a month and when you get an answer you don't see me to listen. Fucking hell mate, just follow whatever the advice a lot of the guys in the industry are telling you. IB isn't the end all be all. I actually wonder if you even want to get into it for the right reasons, it seems that you jack off a lot of the prestige factor of it, especially in terms of schools. You can't change the school you're going to, you have to make do with what you have. I could've gone to a pretty reputable semi target which would have made things infinitely easier for me but instead I will be attending a non-target because it was cheaper. This doesn't change how I will approach things. I will just have to work a lot harder but it's still very much possible to reach my career goals. Realize this. You will be fine if you just work hard. At this rate, you're not a guy people are going to like, much less want to work with.

 

Sales.

Wanna know why you make so much in IB? Because you're "selling" your advisory services or financial services. You can make fucking bank in tech sales if you're selling B2B.

First year out of college you can make 100K+ in a low COL area easily, and 120K+ isn't unheard of. If you were to put the same 80-100 hours IB works into a sales career, you'd make 200K+ selling almost anything.

Wanna know the best part, sales doesn't care about your pedigree. Can you produce results? Good.. you're hired. The best route? Getting into either medical device, enterprise tech, or IT/Security sales. The higher the price ticket for the sell, the higher you make normally.

Feast or famine baby, but if you're willing to work so hard to be in IB for the money, there are better options for making some sweet income.

"It is better to have a friendship based on business, than a business based on friendship." - Rockefeller. "Live fast, die hard. Leave a good looking body." - Navy SEAL
 
GoldsteinPyramidScheme:
Never heard of a sales job that pay 6 figures. Where are you getting these salaries from and are you sure they don't care about prestige or my major?

Lots of sales jobs pay 6 figures. You have to be a rockstar at networking and selling though.

I'm not that into sales, you have to be into it.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I've never heard of a sales job in tech where 6 figures wasn't obtainable. Everyone in my office right now is making north of 100K+.

Now that's tech (SaaS) but other careers have similar payouts. Pretty much anything B2B. What most people think of when they hear sales is B2C. Now that is truly either a 40K or 200K job. B2B is much more stable and better if you want a true career in sales.

"It is better to have a friendship based on business, than a business based on friendship." - Rockefeller. "Live fast, die hard. Leave a good looking body." - Navy SEAL
 
Schlongberg Sachs:
OK so I'm not going to bore you, 4.0 CC student who has done some great ECs with a difficult courseload. Associate in Science as well. Now I've taken this year off and will apply for transfer to target/semi-targets this upcoming March. Now unlike all of you my shit family doesn't care about my success or future and they're piss broke. Now I did good in high-school and got accepted to some decent schools but of course my parents couldnt afford it so I was an idiot and went to CC to make it easier on them.

So for my list of schools which I am confident I will get into, I will need a minimum of $90-$120k in private loans since fucker Freshman admits take all the FAFSA money. So how am I supposed to break into Investment Banking? It's the only career I want and no other careers pay as well. What should my plan of action? I didn't ask for this situation I was just born into it, not my fault what so ever and I've been a perfect student so far.

Thank you so much.

What's wrong with taking out loans to go to a good school?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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