Late night thoughts as I spread comps…..
Does anyone else feel like a lot of people commenting on this forum are generally:
(i) overly risk averse, and
(ii) short sighted / not thinking critically enough about what the “right” career for them actually is?
There is so much discussion here around prestige rankings, firm A vs firm B, or a 10k salary differences between similar banking jobs.
Are we not solving for entirely the wrong thing?…
I get that prestige matters early in your career. It helps pad the CV and creates optionality.But over the long term, is it really going to be the dominating factor in whether you are successful? I doubt it.
Surely the better thing to optimise for is the overlap between:
1. Where there is genuine job market alpha / structural growth
2. Where your talent and interests actually line up
And I’d argue point 1 is more important than most people realise.
The large-cap PE shop with 12 rounds of interviews is not necessarily where the alpha is. In fact, I’d argue the interview count is often inversely correlated to opportunity.
I put myself in this bucket as well. I feel like I sleepwalked into a BB IB and then PE because it was the obvious “high-achiever” route. But for at least 95% of people, I’m not convinced this is actually the optimal path. It is just the most legible one.
Prestige and earning a bit more than your mates feels good in the short term, but does it really move the needle? Does it really give you the best chance of achieving your full potential?
Maybe we should spend less time checking where the comps are trading and more time reflecting honestly on ourselves, thinking harder about where the real opportunity is, and figuring out where we are actually likely to excel. It’s not meant to be easy.
Congrats on UBS!
Bump. Build on the stream. What is your inkling?
I’m considering entrepreneurship. Have an idea for a small market in FinTech (not big enough to need/get VC funding but a start). I’ve been around entrepreneurs a lot and it’s cool to see the energy they get from building something. I also think it’s never been a better time to start a business. The tools available today are excellent + there’s such a structural undersupply of good start ups/scale ups relative to VC/growth dry powder. It’s kind of funny when you see all these v bright ppl in VCs and PEs overbidding for businesses because of the market today. Need more ppl on the other side….
Thank you for such an honest take. I really resonate with it.
I have always just defaulted to herd mentality with the fear of falling behind and being disrespected because of prestige. I am starting full time in IB this summer in NYC. I know it will be a brutal 2 years, but it is not the hard work that I am scared of, it is more of what I am working towards. A few months from now there is going to be on-cycle recruiting, and all my friends are doing it.
I sat by myself outside all day asking myself a question I feel should be obvious... I don't care that PE is the fast track towards making a lot of money. I am not there for the money. Maybe I am soft to say I want my next job after IB to allow me to work less hours so I can go back and have hobbies and do a side gig. For me, I did content creation, but had to stop so I can do well at the IB role at hand. PE will never give me that chance to come back to my creative outlet. Though PE is 2 years, and if the skills I gain out of PE are extremely valuable, I would push aside my desire for flexibility until a bit later. Then I ask myself what these skills are for. I do not think I have a knack for investing so I would never have my own fund.
All this to say is, what is in it for me to do PE truthfully? People from PE go do startegy/ops (things I am more interested in) but could I still do that out of IB?
DM me if you have any advice. Id really appreciate it :)
Which areas do you think have the most structural job growth / alpha going toward?
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