What to Do to Put Myself in Good Position?

<p>At this moment, I'm a HS senior into 2 top engineering schools (that places like Citadel, etc... recruit at) and am reading more about IBanking. Besides getting above a 3.5, what should I be doing between now and Junior summer internships to put myself into the best position to get one of these aforementioned internships?</p>

<p>Citadel does not do investment banking, it does trading. You should check what it is they recruit for. At most of the schools for undergrad recruiting it is only for back office positions. The only schools Citadel recruits at for actual trading internships are Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Harvard, Penn, and Princeton. That is not to say you cannot make it if you don’t attend those five schools, but it will be a lot harder.</p>

<p>Keep an extremely high GPA (above 3.7 or 3.8 if you do not attend one of those five), network like crazy, and get a solid internship the summer after sophomore year.</p>

<p>Hm…seems I need to look into this a bit more because it seems like there are a ton of different positions these companies recruit for that all seem similar.</p>

<p>The one thing that scares me about IBanking is the 16 hour work days, 6-7 days a week. I want to get married and raise a family, and although the money is very attractive, I just don’t know about it. Are there any jobs at BBs involving math or computers or technology where I would get a very nice pay (not necessarily the IB $500k) but the hours wouldn’t quite be 100+ a week? I see all this analyst, associate, quantitatives careers, but I’m not sure if they all fit into the “investment banking lifestyle”. I’ve been looking at being an Actuary, which is great hours and great pay, but I hear it’s a bit dull (might not be for me because I love math) although that’s more insurance, but I’m sure BB’s could use risk managers as well.</p>

<p>Obviously I don’t have to work at a BB either - there are plenty of IB firms, but would the pay/lifestyle be anything similar?</p>

<p>For IB, the long hours is a part of the culture. However, Sales & Trading at BB pay just as well as IB, but you usually work about 50-60 hours each week. However, when you are at work, it’s very intense.</p>

<p>At the extreme of trading, you have prop trading. If you are at a top firms (JSC, etc.), you would work for about 45-50 hours each week, but it’s extremely intense (which explains the short hours, no human can keep up that intensity for more than that long). These positions usually pay better than IB, but you need even more stellar qualifications than for BB IB to get them.</p>

<p>Outside of the BB, elite buyside firms (Bain Cap, Blackstone, Bridgewater, DE Shaw, etc.) have investment positions that usually entail 60 hours/week. These positions also usually pay better than BB IB. However, they also require much higher qualifications than ones required by IB at BB as well for undergrads (i.e. summa at Harvard, Wharton, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, etc.), since these positions are the ones sought by people who have already worked in IB at a BB for a few years.</p>