help a smart kid pick a career path?

<p>so its approaching that time in my life where i need to start "being responsible", but i have no idea what i want to go into</p>

<p>im an applied math/business double degree at berkeley. im doing pretty good at school with almost a 3.8. i know i want to go into business, i know i am good with people, and very good at problem-solving. what would be a good potential career path? i only dabbed into my business club, as my time is mostly spent on sailing and frat stuff, so i dont have much exposure to the different fields, but heres what i think:</p>

<p>marketing: hell no, *****work for 45k a year
accounting: too structured, not enough creativity
consulting: read, read, read, powerpoint
ibanking: rewards hard work more than ingenuity, plus i like life</p>

<p>i have a friend thats a financial adviser for merrill, he loves it but it seems like its ALL people-skills and very little technical skills</p>

<p>i also talked to a guy that worked for a hedge fund coming out of college, and he actually had a 9-6 workday, got to do analysis AND made deals, anyone where i can find jobs like this?? (that ****er graduated from harvard and got a phone call from the company itself)</p>

<p>thx</p>

<p>You’re obnoxious.</p>

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<p>LOL! THAT’S HILARIOUS!!</p>

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<p>Here’s what your post sounds like:
marketing: brb, assuming that brand managers at FMCGs only get paid 45k a year despite going to Kellogg for their MBA. brb, only caring about money so I can drink Natty Ice with my bros.
accounting: …well I kinda agree with you there
consulting: brb, not willing to put up with grunt work despite the fact that if I put in work now, I can become a CEO later if I work at a good firm
i-banking: Brb, not willing to work hard and not wanting to sacrifice “sailing” and “frat stuff” with my bros so that I can have a good career later on.</p>

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<p>Brb, thinking that Harvard was the only reason that guy is a baller and not because he didn’t have to put in hard work and take a lot of BS from upper management before he got there. Brb, wanting to be handed everything to me and not wanting to work hard but still expecting a perfect job and life.</p>

<p>But anyway, since you seem like a typical ******y frat boy but you have a good GPA from a very good institute, I’d say you should look into trading, particularly on a quant desk if you can hack it. Trading = 14 hr workday, but no weekends, you can make it rain, and the trading floor is very fratty, so you can talk with other bros about how you and your bros totally broed it out that one time while sailing. Plus, if you’re good, it’ll let you move into a hedge fund someday, so you can be like Mr. Harvard Hedge Fund too! Good luck bro (btw, even though my post is dripping with sarcasm/acrimony, I legitimately think trading would be a good fit for you)</p>

<p>yeahhh bro, hella tight bro!!</p>

<p>so i make one reference to my fraternity and now im a dbag</p>

<p>my main point is that i want to find a job that has both TECHNICAL/PROBLEM SOLVING and INTERPERSONAL SKILLS. i dont care about working alot, i just want to do something interesting and challenging</p>

<p>so whats trading like for a beginner?</p>

<p>also thx creamgethamoney, i appreciate the help and the lolz</p>

<p>It wasn’t that mention… It was your whole post, and attitude. Plus just starting NOW to be responsible is pretty lame imho. I’m not sure what you want to go into… try trading, or entrepreneurship.</p>

<p>technical / problem solving and interpersonal interaction sounds like a job description for consulting</p>

<p>ok, my bad, excuse the language</p>

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<p>can you explain? from what ive heard at the beginning its all about research skills</p>

<p>sure, you need to do research on lots of stuff</p>

<p>and:

  1. you need to know how to approach your research / thought process - if i asked you to evaluate “criteria x”, how are you going to do that? it’s not as simple as typing “criteria x” into google - and how will you filter out the extraneous information?
  2. you need to know how to sort out the factors that are truly important
  3. where required, technical knowledge is important, obviously
  4. you need to know how to communicate those factors and help your client make the right decision</p>

<p>Dude, after losing the attitude (or at least the tone, because your post was misinterpreted), seriously, DO TRADING AT A QUANT DESK. You’re at Berkeley, you have an applied math/finance major, you want to work at a hedge fund, I really don’t see how there’s any confusion here. Forget banking and whatnot. You’ll have somewhat decent hours as a trader (if you can deal with 12-14 VERY stressful hours), you can make tons of money, and if you are one of the best, you can move to a hedge fund. Since you’re in the Bay Area, see if you can get into one of the what should be numerous prop trading shops for an internship and see if you like it. Banking will make you an excel wizard, consulting will make you a strategist/powerpoint wizard, but you want quantitative business work, so go for trading on a quant desk. Keep your GPA high, consider a PHD in math and then make huge $$$ after working at a reputable desk at a quant hedge fund. Easy choice as far as I’m concerned.</p>

<p>Are you kidding me? Accountants not creative…Enron, World Com, Global Crossings, Healthsouth, etc. etc etc.</p>

<p><strong>facepalm</strong> do you understand what happened to accountants when they got that creative? Here’s a clue, they got sued up the ass/their firm got sacked. Now, I would agree that there is more creativity in accounting than people give credit for. For example, in crafting an income statement, a skilled accountant will know how to smooth out the expenses to make operating income (the one that matters the most) seem larger than a college accounting student who follows what his professor says to the T. But there’s definitely a HUGE downside to being too creative in accounting and that’s what the poster is alluding to, so I really hope that this was a ■■■■■ post.</p>

<p>pretty sure that it was meant as a joke</p>

<p>HAHAHA nice</p>

<p>btw i looked into trading, it seems solid, few questions tho:
hows the career flexibility?
how does it look to grad school?</p>

<p>pretty much i want to get an mba down the road,and REALLY not a math phd unless i cant help it. i want to move into management when im old, i dont care if im like some boss trader that makes 10 mil per year, if im still doing quant analysis at that point i’d be pretty angry</p>

<p>Entry-level consulting at lower tier firms might be more heavily focused on research, but at the top (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) it is very different. </p>

<p>Someone with your skills at MBB would be sitting in on meetings with C-level execs from day 1, and presenting to them within 6 months.</p>

<p>If you want to be a CEO someday, the only job better than strategy consulting is entrepreneurship.</p>

<p>not at mbb, but i do see my client ceo pretty much every day i’m on site</p>

<p>OP, what year are you?</p>

<p>Also, doesn’t Berkeley offer majors within business? Have you declared a business major but not chosen a specialization?</p>

<p>im a 2nd year</p>

<p>and no, theres no concentrations everyone gets a BS in business admin</p>

<p>Trading has the most narrow exit opps. Basically, if you do trading you continue trading or do a hedge fund. I guess you can also do treasury at a F500, but that’s about it. </p>

<p>But what is your ideal goal? Do you want to make a ton of money and be in a hedge fund or be a CEO? Your posts seem really contradictory/ambiguous. Describe your ideal life after 10-15 years of working and maybe then I can help out.</p>

<p>i never said i wanted to make a ton of money. i like to have fun so i just never want money to be a big issue in life(i guess in todays economy 100k+)</p>

<p>i do, however, want a career path that is challenging, rewarding, and especially dynamic. i dont want to do the same thing my whole life. i do want to solve problems. i do want to be strategic. i do want to manage and lead people.</p>

<p>so how about CEO of a hedge fund ;)?</p>

<p>I’m not speaking from personal experience, but my cousin, who studied sociology, was offered a consulting position at McKinsey & Company during her junior year at Princeton. She definitely gained some very valuable knowledge and experience for when she decided to quit and move on to graduate school. She faced many intriguing challenges while working at McKinsey, made valuable connections, all while being able to enjoy herself. And, of course, the money is a plus.</p>

<p>But, I’m sure no field would commend your offensive attitude; you will be working with people, after all.</p>