Why have you focused on IB so early in life- and what is it about the field you find interesting??? And do you know what the career path is all about?
I am counseling a kid (about to be a college grad) who was devastated not to get an offer for a fulltime investment banking role. We had a ludicrous conversation (I asked him to put the specifics of I-banking aside for now, and just tell me what he likes to do, what he finds interesting in life, what he DOESN’T want to do) and the second thing he said was “Whatever else happens, I don’t want a job where I’m sitting at a desk doing spreadsheets all day”.
That is the life of an I-Banker for several years. Did he think that if you’re advising a pharma company on the acquisition of a device company you’re flying around to site check operating rooms around the world to watch the device getting implanted? You are doing scenario analysis and then redoing it with new information. Interest rates going up? Redo every assumption. Interest rates going down? Redo every assumption. An important component is fabricated in China? Redo every assumption. The device company has a manufacturing facility in Vancouver? Redo every assumption.
Spreadsheet city.
Make sure you understand the lifestyle and the day to day of the career before you twist yourself into knots trying to get there.
Pay and prestige. I know it sounds basic but thats why im deadset. I dont really know what I wanna do at all, so in the meantime I wanna get as much money saved up as possible so when I discover my passion in life I can just focus all my time, energy and money on that.
Honestly I dont mind doing that, I kinda like doing spreadsheets. I did them in my accounting class and I thought it was kinda peaceful and it calmed me down a lot.
Im not gonna lie here nope. I just came here for college admission chance + what to do over the summer to improve my apps. Havent taken an actual look at the applications themselves yet.
It won’t be peaceful when the Managing Director is looming over your desk waiting for you to finish, and you’ve already been at work since 5 am and it’s now 9 pm and you are exhausted.
you SERIOUSLY need to learn more about the field before you put heart and soul into your college applications with the sole goal of getting a job at an investment bank.
Nobody has every described ANY element of I-banking as peaceful.
You can always find something to do - a job is always a good idea - but one or two things over one summer is not going to really move the needle on apps. The top colleges like to see deep commitment to ECs -every year or every summer, for example.
Okay, forget investment banking then. I know I wanna major in finance because I don’t mind doing that type of work, compared to say Spanish or Science where I can’t stand being inside the classroom. And IB just so happens to be the top finance job. Open to other careers tho but IB would definetly be my number one option just because of how much it pays and how fast you can move forward in the career trajectory. I don’t think I would be able to work 5 years of corp finance without getting a promotion.
Ah I see. Thanks for your input. Should I bother at all or just focus on the essays for college applications themselves? I was thinking of starting a community service thing with music because I enjoy doing that and it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle for me to do.
So when we went to an NYU admissions event some years back, they said essays don’t often move the needle on applications, but one example they gave of one that did was someone who was very open about wanting to go to stern to get a high paying job. While there was an argument for praising the honesty of the applicant, they ultimately felt that someone who had this as their sole goal wasn’t someone who could add value to the class they were trying to put together. Just as an fyi.
Obviously I will not say that on my app. I will probably talk about my passions in music as well as being a teachers assistant. But the main reason people go into IB is for pay and prestige. Why else would you put yourself through all that?
Some people do actually find a lot of satisfaction from the work. It’s hard to do that job those hours day in and day out when you don’t. Are there people like that, sure. They were some of the most miserable people I’ve met.
