Are My Career Goals Too Unrealistic?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>In a week, I will be starting my freshman year at a small public college in my hometown. Hopefully, I will transfer to Mizzou. Currently, I intend to major in finance and minor in economics.</p>

<p>I would like to be a financial analyst, preferably an investment banking analyst, but Mizzou is a non-target, so that is probably out of the question. </p>

<p>I don't really care which company I work for, as long as it is in a major city. I live in a very small town, and I really don't want to stay there for the rest of my life. Although, I do like Goldman Sachs, but who doesn't? </p>

<p>If I don't like working as a financial analyst (or something similar), I might try corporate law. I know that law school is extremely expensive, but I'll just have to see about my financial situation at that time.</p>

<p>Honestly, I don't know if I'm setting my goals too high. I don't want to deal with too much disappointment. </p>

<p>If anyone has advice, I would appreciate it!</p>

2

<p>I think it is better to have high hopes than to sell yourself short. If you don’t expect much of yourself, you won’t accomplish much along the way. I’ll admit I don’t know much about your areas of interest, but it sounds as though you won’t be too disappointed if you don’t make it to Goldman Sachs so long as you’re in a big city experiencing new things. People are often very bad at judging what will make them happy in the future. You might find the job of your dreams at a smaller company in a city you love. We all adjust as situations change, and by the time you graduate college you may have an entirely different goal for yourself. Dream big and go with your gut. You will not have failed yourself if you fall short. I believe that exceeding <em>all</em> of your life goals means that you didn’t set them high enough to begin with.</p>

3

<p>I think you are selling Mizzou short. Investment banks would be stupid not to look at a land grant university with 27,000 undergrads, so I’m sure you’ll be able to get your foot in the door as long as you use career services wisely and start preparing sophomore year instead of after you graduate.</p>

<p>As for who doesn’t like Goldman Sachs… I know I wouldn’t love it. Working 100+ hours a week for two years? No thanks! I’ll take half the pay for half the hours.</p>

4

<p>Chrisw: I’m glad you think that someone who attends a public university other than Berkeley and Michigan can succeed in the financial sector. Everyone else on CC seems to believe differently and I guess I was starting to believe it. </p>

<p>I know if I do end up at GS working that many hours, I won’t have a social life, but honestly, I’m not the most social person and hopefully some of my co-workers will be friendly. I’m going to need to make at least $60,000 a year, especially if I’m in NYC.</p>

5

<p>NovaLynnx: You’re right. Most of my peers are content with staying in my hometown and that’s great for them. </p>

<p>My parents don’t like to travel, so I’ve only visited a handful of places. NYC, especially Brooklyn, is really appealing, but I might end up in Houston or Seattle. It’s too soon to tell.</p>

6

<p>There are a couple of things to consider when you’re thinking about careers. You already have your college plans basically figured out, so that’s good. Once you’re there, your career interests will change… maybe slightly, maybe radically. That’s also good (wouldn’t want to remain dead set on one path just for the sake of being consistent).</p>

<p>For the sake of simplicity, let’s say that you waver a bit but wind up coming back to I-banking as your desired career path. While NYC is the center of American banking, there are financial centers across the country, so if you are set on going into the financial industry, keep your geography options open.</p>

<p>Now, let’s think about what is in a company. Everyone has heard of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, etc., but you would be at a severe disadvantage if you applied only to those companies. Just as you wouldn’t only apply to Harvard, Yale and Princeton, you should apply to different levels of companies. And just like college selection, a less “prestigious” company may be just as good or better for you than one of the big boys. Many of my friends work at small, little-known banks and firms, and they love it since they have a lot of direct interaction with executive management, something they wouldn’t get for years at a big company.</p>

<p>The other thing is that Wall Street isn’t everything… the mercantile exchange in Chicago is a big deal, and you might actually see a lot of interest at Mizzou due to its close proximity to Chicago.</p>

<p>As for what you are going to “need,” there are two factors that control what you need. One is how much debt you are in after college (i.e. how much you need to pay every month) and the other is where you live. Since you seem to be approaching college from a financially conscious perspective, you will probably be looking at a max of around $50,000 of debt, meaning you will have a max of around $600 a month in payments for ten years. If you do live in NYC, assume you’ll be paying around $1,200 a month for rent in Manhattan, $200 a month for a MetroCard, $250 in food, and another $150 in miscellaneous expenses. These rough estimates show that you would need about a $42,000 salary to live in Manhattan. I have several friends who have survived on <$30k in NYC, though they didn’t have any loans.</p>

<p>That was just a little hypothetical. To be honest, at your stage, I wouldn’t worry too much about career yet. Wait until you get to college :)</p>