<p>Well, so far this forum has been nothing but bashing of how bad/good ibanking is. I have to say that all of that information has been very helpful.</p>
<p>Im going to be a freshman at Rutgers and was wondering what fields of Finance would be best to go into.</p>
<p>Any help would be appreciated</p>
<p>thank you</p>
<p>Depends on what best means for you</p>
<p>Well, i would have to say that i really enjoy working as a team and prefer not to be sitting and staring at a computer.</p>
<p>At the same token I dont think i would enjoy a sales job. </p>
<p>Right now im trying to find a career in finance which would not require the crazy 80-100hr work weeks of ibanking but still pay a good amount of money. Anything 6 figures after a few years out of college would make me more thank satisfied.</p>
<p>Suggestions are welcome</p>
<p>ya, same, im interested too.. any ideas anyone..</p>
<p>anyone...??</p>
<p>There's an area of finance called Investment/Asset Management. This is not the same as being a stock broker. Mutual funds and hedge funds generally fall under the category of asset management. Most of the major banking firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc. also have investment management divisions. Pure asset management (mutual funds & hedge funds) is considered the "buy" side of investment banking because salespeople at ibanks try to sell bonds, stocks, and other financial products to asset managers. Basically, a client gives money to asset management companies, and these companies invest the money. This area of finance invovles valuing and researching different industries for stock investing and valuing the various other investment instruments (bonds, options, futures, etc.).</p>
<p>The problem with mutual funds and hedge funds is that they don't hire very many undergrads at all. In general, mutual funds and hedge funds hire recent MBA grads or people who already have solid experience in the world of finance (usually past ibankers). There are entry level positions for recent undergrads that mostly involve research, but these can be hard to come by simply because pure asset management firms don't heavily recruit undergrads. </p>
<p>Another way to get into investment management is to apply for investment management positions within major banking firms. The hours for asset management are much lower than ibanking hours even for the investment management divisions that are within major banking firms that are known for ibanking. The pays is considerably less, but still pretty decent.</p>
<p>saying u dont want to work that long but still make good money is like a oxymoron, u have to work hard to make money. other than that, i think asset management employees' bonuses are based on how much they make, so that could mean ur bonus could be huge if you make a llarge amount of money. trading is also good for less hours and more pay. i was reading a message board on vault.com, a 26 year old made a 3 million dollar bonus because he brought in like 30 million dollars of revenue.</p>
<p>if working really long hours scares you, I would seriously consider doing something else. There is no finance job that will NOT require severely long hours because everybody wants to get into finance.</p>
<p>There's no such thing as a free lunch. The longer and harder you're willing to work, the more you'll get paid.
I'm sure somebody's gonna bring up sales and trading, but a) you've never seen stress like they put up with (trust me, you haven't), and b) the multiple-nights-a-week entertaining clients and, for salesppl, the travel is brutal</p>