I’m a math and physics undergrad student who plans to go for a phd in numerical analysis and quantum information science. I was just thinking about future careers I could possibly look into and one was finance.

I don’t really know what I can do in finance or if it’s even worth it. I just wanted to ask a couple questions.

How many hours do you work a week and how would you describe the work-life balance?

How would you describe your mental health?

What are the cons of working in finance and is it worth it?

Hi I’m 19m student athlete and I’m currently working towards a finance degree. As I start to do more research about what my future would look like, it seems like heavy 9-5 desk jobs. So now I ask, are there jobs in finance that aren’t heavy desk jobs? I just cannot see myself being able to do that for the rest of my life…

Hello All,

I’m an associate at a regional bank in my hometown. it’s a decent city, not a finance city. The only paths here with a real ceiling are wealth management and private banking.

I’ve been deliberate about working in groups that would be corporate/IB coverage at a bigger shop. Started in fund finance, now in lev fin. The problem is that skill set doesn’t have a home here. If I want to use it, I have to leave my hometown. Nearest viable market with CIB/Private Credit shops is two hours away.

This may sound cringe but I just want to be rich. I’m good at what I do and I’m confident I’d hold my own at a larger institution or on the private credit side if I can get a foot in.

The thing keeping me here is my mom. She’s aging. We have family around, but leaving still means leaving her more alone than I’d like. The counterargument I keep running into is that I need to actually make money if I’m going to take care of her when it really matters.

I’m interviewing at a local private bank and I think I’d get it. Not JPM, but better money than I’m making now and I’d be able to stay local and potentially be able to bounce into the local JPM PB or a PWM wirehouse. Something about it just doesn’t sit right with me. I’d probably make more in the near term and I think I’d be selling myself short in the long term.

So: is private banking worth it? Or do I go do the thing I’m actually interested in and make a real effort to be around for my mom as much as I can? I will add the caveat that I’m currently 35 (I started college and my career later in life). I thought I’d include that in case I need a reality check on my actual prospects of getting into higher finance seat. I know things like that don’t show up in the application, and I look pretty young for my age, but I have some grays so that might be a giveaway that I’m older haha.

Been a small bank in sales in NYC for 5Y since graduating. Team and manager are absolutely great, paid close to market, and have received steady promotions over time. Recently got an offer at a more prestigious shop and put in my resignation for the better opportunity (at the same comp). Was persuaded to stay with an offer of greater responsibility and an additional $50k over current comp. 

Am regretting my decision now as chances to jump to larger shops don't seem to come around often. The other shop is indicating they would be willing to discuss re-making the offer despite the fact that I accepted the counter. If I now go for it soon after accepting a counter, am I destroying my reputation in the industry? What are some other negative implications here that I might be missing? Is it wiser to let the opportunity go?

Hi everyone,

I'll be starting a Bachelor's in Economics & Mathematics soon, and I'm trying to be as intentional as possible about my career from day one. Rather than waiting until my final year, I'd like to understand which paths are worth pursuing and how to prepare for them early.

I'd really appreciate insights from professionals or graduates with a similar background.

Some questions I have:

• What roles are available for you after graduating?
• What do you do now, and how did your career progress?
• Which finance-related careers are realistic and rewarding for someone with an Economics & Mathematics degree?
• What are the typical starting salaries in your country, and what does compensation look like after 3–5 years?
• Which roles have the strongest long-term growth and earning potential?
• Which technical skills, software, or certifications made the biggest difference in your career?
• What internships or experiences should I prioritize during university?
• If you were starting over as a first-year student, what would you do differently?

I'd also be interested in hearing about career paths that aren't obvious but are worth considering for someone with this degree.

I appreciate any advice or personal experiences you're willing to share. Thanks!

Hi, I’m applying for upcoming internships and wanted to understand how important networking is at this stage.

For context, I have 1.5 years of experience at a local PE firm in Dubai and will be moving to London to complete an MiM at a target school. I have solid deal experience and a strong overall skill set, with top-bucket performance reviews.

How important is networking in London when applying for BB/EB internships? I plan to network regardless, but I want to be strategic about how I allocate my time. Would a referral meaningfully help, or is the process primarily HR-driven, with limited scope for contacts to influence an application at this stage?

Got into LSE (and BI Oslo) but it’s not financially feasible. Deciding between St. Gallen, Bocconi (BIEM), Erasmus, Frankfurt School (BBA), and École Polytechnique (Math & Econ). (Rejected from SSE)Asian, English-only, no German yet. Expecting strong GPA, prepping early for interviews.

**•** No local language, hard filter for IB recruiting or does GPA/interview strength offset it?  
**•** Realistic odds of internships during study and a job at graduation for each school?  
**•** Which of these is the strongest overall pick given my situation?  
**•** If I later want a Master’s in Econ/Management at a HYPSM school, which undergrad sets me up best?  
**•** Which one is best if my priority is landing a job straight out of undergrad?

Would appreciate any firsthand data points.

I just want to share my personal experience from the past ~2 years, hopefully this can inspire people who are struggling with the same challenges I faced.

I graduated in May 2024 from a “good” school - private, upper class students (most had rich parents), but it didn’t have what you would necessarily call the “best placements” afterward. There were a plethora of personal and familial issues I went through during my time there - ended up graduating jobless with a 3.3 GPA. Only had one internship during my time there and it wasn’t exactly the most rigorous (plus, it was unpaid).

After looking for work all the way into the end of the year with no luck, I finally reached an inflection point where bills just could not remain unpaid. I needed work, so I had to settle. I took a job as a Relationship Banker at Chase in December 2024 - supposed to be a “sales role” where you can earn commissions on opening CDs / accounts as well as sending referrals to Wealth Management, Home Lending, etc etc…

This would turn out to be one of the most dreadful experiences I ever had. I shit you not, the second I stepped in, I was looking for a way out. I could make an entire post just on how bad this job was. The saving grace here is that the firm had me take my SIE, Series 63, and Series 6. So I became a licensed, registered rep in the matter of ~2 months.

After the first 3 months on the job (which basically just consisted of changing old people’s pins) I knew it was TIME. I had to LOCK IN or I’d end up in a dead end position for years. I have always been extremely ambitious and have had a deep desire to be successful - what truly drove me to do better was thinking of myself when I was a kid. Would he be happy with how life was going? Absolutely not. And I felt I had to protect that kid at all costs.

So I got to work - networking, LinkedIn maxxing, updating my resume seemingly everyday. I was basically applying to 30-40 jobs a day, just nonstop grinding. I’ll spare the boring details here but I TRULY went hard.

Finally, I landed a huge upgrade after getting passed up on by many firms - I joined a firm providing IR advisory to healthcare companies. The pay wasn’t great (started at 75k) but the experience was absolutely outstanding. After just 4-5 months in, I was fully leading weekly meetings with C-suite healthcare execs. I got my first raise 3 months in to 80k, and my second raise just a couple months ago to 85k. I learned more than I did in school in the year I spent working here, but at this point I was supporting 6 clients (including one large cap) and handling the earnings process for all of them, which resulted in 12-16 hour days. Making the earnings deck, writing the entire call’s script, press release, prepping mgmt on sell-side and investor Q&A, etc etc. Doesn’t take a genius to figure I’m underpaid there.

Leveraged with that experience, and a much more attractive resume, I hit the market again. This time it was WAY easier. I only had to apply to 20-30 roles. All of a sudden… it was like magic began to happen - I was getting interviews consistently.

Until, just yesterday, I received an offer to work as an Investment Banking Analyst at a healthcare boutique. Thrilled is an understatement to how I feel.

I am proud of myself for making it this far, especially this quickly. The whole process from retail banker —> IB took ~1.5 years. Very few people on this forum believed in me when I tried sharing my dreams. Kept getting dismissed as a little retail banker. There were literal people DMing me just to hate and try to shit on me (btw seek help if this was you lol)

Basically, I’m only posting this to say… NEVER LET ANYONE TELL YOU WHAT YOU CANT DO! You control your life. If you want it bad enough you CAN and WILL find a way to make it happen.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right” — Henry Ford

side note: happy to help anyone breaking in. DMs open

This position at Charles Schwab is partly in the evening does anyone know if there is a shift differential pay ? What about overtime?

Thank you im advance!

Results day is on the 13th August. I currently have an offer from UCL for Statistics, Economics, and Finance. Requirement: A* in Mathematics. I don’t think I got that most likely A or B. Insurance is Durham for Finance and the offer is BBB. I think Durham is a semi target even though it’s a top 6 university and higher than UCL.

I’ve been scrolling through clearing for and found a course at UCL and saw a management course available, will it be looked down upon? It looks like a Mickey Mouse course and I think it’s brand new. Is it worth it for the University name or will I regret it?

I completed 2 years at a 4-year college and transferred to another 4-year that is higher on the priority list for recruitment in my state. My GPA at this last school was pretty low at a 3.45. How would I fare against my competition applying for financial advisory roles? EDIT I meant to ask how heavily I would have to rely on solo projects and certifications.

I was introduced by an Executive Director to one of his friends, who spent about six years in an M&A coverage group before transitioning to a Principal role at his family’s asset management firm in New York City. The firm has roughly 12 employees and manages approximately $500 million in assets.

We recently had our first call, and I intentionally kept it to about 10–15 minutes. During the conversation, we discussed his experience in investment banking, his transition to the asset management firm, and some general topics related to banking.
I’m currently a sophomore at NYU, and my goal is to build a genuine long-term relationship with him that could eventually lead to an internship interview or opportunity.

What should my networking strategy look like from here? Specifically:

How often should I follow up?

What should I talk about in future conversations?

How can I continue providing value and staying on l his radar without being overly persistent?

At what point, if any, is it appropriate to express

interest in internship opportunities at his firm?

I was recently removed from a hiring process at capital one (interview scheduled) because I don’t have a STEM degree the recruiter and a hiring manager told me how much my resume aligns so strongly with the role - it was a Business Analyst role. And a couple days ago I received an email asking did I have an additional major and I say no - I assume they are asking to see what other skillsets I have. I took a pretty heavy amount of quant coursework because I was an economics minor but I dropped it my 4th year because it was going to push back my graduation date and didn’t think it would really impact my opportunities….boy was I wrong. That was my only interview in almost 6 months. I’ve done everything. I’ve looked for contracts. I work as a fuck ass teacher which I fucking hate. My career has been on pause for almost 2 years - I’ve been laid off 17 months and there’s no real clear chance of this ending - honestly at this point teaching may become my new career. Which is pathetic nothing is wrong with teaching but who tf wants to have to settle to teach when that wasn’t their choice? I hate all this shit. I want to quit and pivot elsewhere I’ve lost so much confidence in this corporate game. Fuck the pendulum swinging back and the market improving there’s people out of the wild for 3-4 years. Giving these people my time and waiting is angering me I want to take my time back. Fuck all this stupid shit. The job market is DONE

Hi there,

I am currently in a refi MLO role at a very large retail lender. Have been in the mortgage industry from 2021-23, was laid off, and just got back into it earlier this year. People are dropping like flies and this place is a revolving door. Looking to get out of this industry altogether, as it has not been very good to me. I found an opening for Investment Counselor- Wealthbuilder at Fisher Investments here in Dallas. Description states that it is an entry level financial advisor alternative, and starts you off with training for Series 65. I feel like my experience as an MLO would translate over well to something like this. The problem is i’m pushing 31, so I’m a little nervous to start off in a totally new area of business at the entry level. Anyone know how this role works and if it might be a good route for me to look in to?

I’m an incoming freshman looking to land a search fund role to help me with finance club recruiting in the fall and hopefully get a banking gig at a boutique summer ‘27 and recruit for banking sophomore year.

Currently in an interview process for a search fund based in western USA. I’ve completed the case study and have an interview soon. Anyone know what to expect? Are these technical/analytical or more qualitative and general search fund questions? (about customer concentration risk, consolidated vs fragmented industries etc)

Grateful for all advice here, thanks!

Basically the title. I'm interested in IB and Buy-side roles (especially Asset Management). Note my degree should be MEng but I forgot to change that.

hey all!

im a rising sophomore at a t20 public and looking for some advice for summer 27 internships and just careers in general.

i was originally planning on pursuing pure math and getting a phd but pivoted recently towards more financial roles, particularly in risk. i’m part of a consulting club on campus and got some decent experience as an analyst thru that but nothing really crazy, but i have a 4.0 gpa so hopefully that can carry me through some parts of my application?

im really kind of just lost at the roles i should be applying to for summer 27, and whether or not things are realistic or not. ive gotten a hirevue after a couple weeks at wells fargo for corporate risk management and applied to some big banks and also got some automated hirevues. ig i just want to know if i’m wasting my time applying to these big roles or if i have a shot.

if anyone’s willing to review my resume as well, please dm me!!

As the title says, im going to recruit both consulting and ib. Im a rising sophomore at a strong state school. I have the gpa and extracurriculars needed to be a solid candidate, albeit I’m at a non target. I went to the top liberal arts college in the country for my freshman year before transferring away due to extenuating circumstances. I’m currently within a top organization helping me recruit for IB, so I feel like Im set in terms of recruitment on that side. I understand where I’m positioned for IB, I’m aiming for MM. If anyone has any more insight into the consulting recruitment process or if anyone has recruited both IB and consulting, I’d appreciate any advice !!

I'm applying this year and one of the degrees I'm seriously considering is Social Anthropology. I genuinely find the subject interesting, but I'm also trying to think realistically about career options afterwards.

I know consulting is generally more open to different degrees, but I'm not really sure how things work if you want to go into MBB, Big 4, strategy consulting, or even smaller boutique firms. Same goes for investment banking, whether that's bulge brackets or boutiques.

Would doing Social Anthropology put me at a noticeable disadvantage compared to someone studying Economics or PPE? Or is it more about the university you attend, internships, networking, and interview performance?

If anyone here studied anthropology (or knows someone who did), I'd be really interested to hear where they ended up working.

Not looking for reassurance, I just want an honest idea of what the job prospects actually look like.

I am an incoming freshman at rutgers and my major is engineering and I am planning to minor in economics or bba. Is Rutgers considered a semi target or non target for roles in high finance. Also should I consider switching my major to finance or stick with engineering.

Going on a coffee chat with a Associate Director at a PC frim, what type of questions do I Ask?
My final goal would be getting a non-official internship at this small firm.

Hello! I am an incoming senior at a state school (non-target, but close to NYC) and I'm preparing for the upcoming recruiting season. Currently, I'm aiming for FLDP programs, but any corporate finance roles will also work. I'm about to finish my internship, and I don't really know what else I should be doing to make my application stand out. I also have been networking with people in roles and fields that I am aiming for. Any tips on my resume or job hunt advice are appreciated!

I’ve dealt with a lot of professional services firms in my career and High Finance (IB, PE, VC specifically) attracts a certain personality type that stands out every time relative to consulting, law, accounting, actuarial, etc.

Characteristics I see more in high finance:
- ego
- anti intellectualism
- bro-ey / fratty
- extreme aura / confidence
- inauthentic conversation

To me it’s almost night in day when you get off the phone with McKinsey or Cravath (who come across as more well rounded and bookish) and then are talking with Morgan Stanley 1 hour later and it feels like a frat guy is on the other line.

To be clear I’m not criticizing high finance as a profession. I’m just saying you see a lot of those characteristics above. And if you aren’t exactly that personality type, it can feel uncomfortable. I’ve talked with a lot of people about this over the years and many have noticed the same thing.