So confused about my life.. help.

College Majors Business Major
1

<p>Hey there everyone. I'm currently a rising sophomore at UC Berkeley, and I'm applying to the Haas School of Business in a few months.</p>

<p>But I'm really, really confused about my major and life.
I'm super excited about doing math, and I really want to pursue a career in the investment banking, actuarial, or consulting field.</p>

<p>However, I'm not the most outgoing person ever. In freshmen year I visited many, many clubs but I did not like any of them, and was disgusted (is this too strong of a word?) by what they did and absolutely hated stuff like drinking and hazing. As a result I ended up just studying my freshmen year, but ended up with pretty bad grades (3.4 GPA) due to family issues.</p>

<p>Now I'm really, really confused. I've always wanted to pursue investment banking because it's what runs in the family and I love mathematical work - so I assumed having good quantitative skills would help me be a banker of some sort.</p>

<p>But I've realized - I'm already so far behind without an internship this summer. I'm just taking a few classes at Berkeley over summer and plan on teaching some Japanese at a local place for some allowance.</p>

<p>=----=</p>

<p>Here's the real question however - enough of my banter.
If I'm a slightly introverted person and dislike going out so much, should I pursue a career in the IBanking field? Or should I settle for something like actuarial work or consulting work? I have a feeling I could potentially pass 2-4 exams for the Society of Actuaries (FM, P, FME). I heard actuaries can make around $70k or higher if they land a somewhat good position out of college.</p>

<p>I don't plan on living a spectacular life (although I wouldn't mind having a spectacular one), and I just want to be modest - yet I want to earn enough money to support my parents when they get old as well. Because they've raised me with all their energy, I want to be able to support myself and my parents. To do that, I feel like I need to work my way up to a 6-figure salary..</p>

<p>ANYHOW.. I'm still confused. Should I pursue a career in investment banking if I'm a sort of an introvert, or should I go for actuarial work? I'm majoring in economics and mathematics at the moment. I've started to take upper division classes so I (think) I'm on the right track for quantitative learning/practice. But the real problem is that I don't think I'll do so well in interviews and clubs that are required to land even an interview for middle~top firms and banks.</p>

<p>Man.. I wish I was more outgoing. Another option is for me to break out of my shell and disregard all others' opinions about me and pursue investment banking like a true champ - but I'm not sure if I can suddenly do that considering I've lived a very quiet life for the past four years. Not to mention, my love for listening to music in bed doesn't help my career pursuits either.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance, if you read the whole post, major props to you! :)</p>

2

<p>Read the whole thing! Unfortunately, I’m a rising high school senior, and am not too educated in the careers you are interested in, but I believe the issue you presented is not only requiring of that knowledge.</p>

<p>On that note, I’ll address the other part of your post, the possibly the more subtly stated (or completely blown out of proportion by me, if so, my apologies)- that involving the inside. I would say in my earlier years of high school I could relate to being introverted and not really outgoing, but my emergence from the hold of that was a product of maturity with age and faith (in other words: realizing what really matters in life, in which the answer I found after searching was the eternal and lasting, a relationship with God-the rest of my post won’t be structured around this, but if you are interested or want to know more, you can pm me). </p>

<p>I could easily have seen myself going down the same path, and ending up where you are, although I’m interested in other careers in business (which is why I ventured to this forum : D). I am thankful to have strayed from that path to a more driven, a more passionate, a more joyful and love-filled path, but I don’t know if I can give any practical advice that can help you achieve that (other than living for Christ, but I’ll try to give some other advice).</p>

<p>First off, what wasn’t really a focus early on for me, but in growing up I’ve seen as crucial, was friendship. People. Growing closer to people and pursuing friendship has demoted certain other interests (like video games) to the point where at times the desire or enjoyment of them has been nonexistent. In your case that may be “listening to music in bed,” which a friend can contribute to the dismantling of (well, if you build friends that would say something in the case of you harming yourself/ that care about you). This of course is made helpful by seeing through the lens of replacing a bad habit or something non-beneficial with something better, instead of just trying to stop it. A solution could be involving more people in your life, which can help to break down that “shell” and give you encouragement along the way- I mean, these forums are great, but do you feel like you have someone in real life that can help you come to some conclusions- it may help to search for some if you don’t? (which sounds weird and completely impractical, but can be done with effort on your part, involving going out of your way and communicating with people a decent amount-making the steps to grow closer)</p>

<p>I don’t know if anything I can say will help you change, but just try to put yourself in those positions to take risks or deviate from your comfort zone- do the things you’ve grown to be repelled by that you know in the end are good for your growth or just in general.</p>

<p>My purpose in this is not to sound insincere, and I’ll try to help you further if you think it will help you. I’m not sure as to how much time I can invest, but if you send me a pm I can give you my number and you can call me, and I can try to encourage or motivate you if you have some things in mind that can help break down your shell (wouldn’t be able to push you into a career though, since I don’t know much about your choices and even less about you).</p>

<p>Typing is easier than talking, and I’ll be willing to help you through that, but if you think that the more helpful route towards change is doing something out of your comfort zone like calling some random 17 year old kid from Southern California, then go ahead and seize the opportunity. Again, if you don’t see that as beneficial, don’t do it, but just wanted to give you some options, as I can’t really help you with any of the other specifics of your post : /.</p>

<p>Again, sorry if the above was completely off the mark. I don’t know a lot about your problem, nor do I about how to fix it, but was willing to try to give some advice. If it won’t solve your problem, you may see some of it as useful to your life anyways, or disregard it for the reasons you may have to do so. Send me a pm if you think I can help you or don’t if you are looking for something else. </p>

<p>Thanks for reading my post, as I was just trying to help (also I see that its been a day and you don’t have a reply, but am not regular to this subforum so don’t know when it would be considered dead) : )</p>

<p>Side-note: Took too long to type this so it logged me out and deleted it all when I tried to post, but I had it copied and pasted in another tab when it was close to done, so it is only missing small revisions that I usually like to do to my posts, and hopefully not anything major. Too tired to reread again, but I think its ok.</p>

3

<p>Investment banking isnt for everyone… even if you love math. IB requires 90-100 hour work weeks and over 7 days. thats over 12 hours a day. IB is also very stressful. there is a reason why a lot of 40 year old IBs look like they are 50-60. it is very stressful and very fast paced. if you can handle the stress and work load, plus the fact that you will miss out on raising a family the way you would want, then Investment Banking could be for you. </p>

<p>you go to a good school so recruiters will always be around. go talk to one of them. </p>

<p>good luck!</p>