Listen to my advice and listen closely...

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NYCAnalyst

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After reading, off and on over the years, I feel compelled to post.

Many of you seem focused on securing jobs in the percieved glam areas of finance: Investment Banker, Hedge Fund Manager, Prop Trader, Venture Capitalist, etc. It is obvious from many of the posts, that many of you have no clue what these jobs entail.

There are many niches of finances that are very lucrative....that are not the above mentioned positions. In these niches, no you will not likely make $10 million a year, BUT with persistence and hard work, you can easily attain a six figure salary and then build from there. For me, that is fine. Others who feel they need to be masters of the universe, will not be satiated.

To reiterate, finance and investing encompasses literally hundreds of niches and areas. Find a niche, work your tail off, and the money will come. Trust me. I know.
 
i agree as well


















































as long as it's not Accounting



Post Edited (Friday, April 29 @ 2:25 am)

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Very true, am there already. In fact, work any job in finance and you can't really not be earning 6 figures by the time you hit your 30s. You will specialise as a matter of course, there are no generalist jobs. My advice, work out both the destination and the path you want to take. Try and make it. Make sure you get a healthy pay rise each time you move. 20% minimum. That is the only opportunity you have to give yourself a pay rise.
 
what also seems to help a lot is the high turnover rate and the entrepreneurial spirit of BSDs who leave their big IB jobs to stake out their own claim, helps create opportunities for the next generation. You don't see many 60 year olds in Finance, do ya?
 
And for God's sake stop dreaming about being an investment banker.

It looks glamorous. It looks exciting. It looks high profile. But except for the money, it is one crappy job. It is a dog's life.

Trust me I know. Imagine how you feel working 72 hours non-stop and haggling with the banks and the target on minute details. And for anyone who is starting out the junior role is nothing more than a spreadsheet or powerpoint monkey.
 
The vast majority of jobs in corporates are crap. You rarely hear somebody saying they love heading to the office each day. You might as well get paid good for what you do so you can get out of the rat race asap.
For me, working like a dog for twenty years and then getting out of it and enjoying yourself is better then working fourty years and having a crap retirement.



Post Edited (Friday, April 29 @ 7:41 am)
 
only trick with that one Abroad is that people in this field tend to like living in big houses and drive a 7.65iL, so your monthly nut would still make it difficult to retire early. You COULD retire at 45, but you'd have to sacrifice the high standard of living you established for yourself (and more so if you have kids to put thru school)
 
I guess I overlooked a pretty big point there,
My dreams are crushed, :)
 
NYCAnalyst,

I couldn't agree more ... in fact no matter you do in your career life, one has to find where their passion lies. If you love what you do, you will naturally become one of the best (if not THE best) ... the money will then roll in automatically. If you love what you do, you will work hard without even realizing that you are working hard .... you will slog but you will not sweat...as long as you do what you love.
 
I work in I-banking and I could not envision doing a different job. I, however, always need to be in the thick of things (even at 2 am on easter sunday). The personality required to do the job is possessed by a very small group of really sick bastards and is not a pleasant experience for many. You make good money and if you stay with it you are gaurenteed to be a millionare.

One day, when a deal falls through and you have the weekend off, you will attend your son's high school graduation and get to introduce yourself as his dad. But at least he will be graduating from a prep school in connecticut and be a spoiled brat with a coke problem because you have been buying him off his whole life.

Its a pretty sweet life.
 
i want nothing more for my son then to be able to go to prep school, bang hot chicks, and have a coke problem... sounds like a great life...

I definately agree with all of these posts - I think that massochists love IB - same reason why rowers love to row - for the pain and ridiculousness of saying, i woke up at 4am and was on the water...

Some would say I go to a tough school, and I can tell you that complaining about the amount of work you have is pretty much the de facto standard for conversation. But its not really complaining, people like being able to tell someone they have 4 tests this week and 2 problem sets and a lab - its more like hidden pride of the amount of work youve burdened yourself with. Yah, it sounds like it sucks, but everyone secretly enjoys it.

I feel this is the same thing with IB and all areas of finance - people laugh at me because i will have to wake up at 5am for work.. and sure ill complain about it to them every day of my life... but that is just so I can brag about it secretly - its a great feeling to know that you are hardcore.
 
I agree with Xab's and ralphmacchio's comments.

I think that it's a myth that a guy can end up retiring by age 45 after a career in IB.

You often feel the need to live the lifestyle. Therefore you blow a lot of your hard-earned bonuses on useless toys like fancy cars, watches and the like.

To compensate for the lack of attention you give to your children (illegitimate and legitimate), you spoil them rotten and max out your credit card. The kids think that everyone goes to prep school and that every 18 year-old kid gets a car for his birthday.

Your wife will probably turn into a gold-digger. "You make good coin, why are you so cheap? If you're such a hotshot I-banker, why the hell are we living in some rabbit-cage of a condo?" So you blow some more money to keep your wife happy (also it's your way of compensating for the fact that you're at the office 70-90 hours a week)

In the end, any extra money that you make from the job is eaten up by useless toys, taxes, your kids or your wife.

Don't forget that if you get divorced, the child support payments are related to your income. Thus you'll be taken to the cleaners regardless. That blows.



Post Edited (Friday, April 29 @ 11:04 am)
 
"I think that it's a myth that a guy can end up retiring by age 45 after a career in IB."

Depends on how you want to retire. Like you say, people who have high incomes tend to escalate their standard of living to match. If you were a rock star, you could retire at 45 with 5-10M in the bank and a house paid for. Which is enough to retire on for most reasonable individuals. The problem is that most rock stars are not reasonable individuals. The reality is that the rock stars are the guys who love what they're doing, and don't want to retire at 45.
 
Some doctors and med students have the same masochistic condition.
 
its a paradox, since people who would retire early and happily live a modest lifestyle with their nestegg, usually don't have the characteristics to work like a pyscho into the wee hours of the night on a deal, banking 6-7 figures a year. Look at Bill Gates, he coulda retired 15 years ago as a billionaire and sat on the beach (his own private beach) the rest of his life, but the same force that drove him to build Microsoft is the same force that prevents him from retiring all together (although at least he's transitioned from getting involved in the minutia of running the company, to becoming the "strategist" with less defined time commitments)
 
ist prob the same reason why buffet is still going.. if you are really good at what you do and like it alot - why ever stop?

I dont get all this talk about retiring.. my grandfather worked until 87 - and not because he had to.. because he liked coming into work and it kept all the synapses firing..

i have all intentions of doing the same...
 
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