Hi monkeys,
I am currently in an uncommon situation, and although I welcome everyone's opinions on this, but especially applies to London bankers or interns as I am a UK undergrad student. This will be a fairly long post, apologies in advance, but might as well be detailed to get across my situation truthfully and get the most accurate advice possible:
- I am 24, in 3rd year (retaking 2nd year in parallel, will go into more detail on this later) and I am studying an undergraduate in banking and finance at a semi-target uni (top 10, not Oxbridge or LSE but a good uni with some decent representation in FO positions in the city)
- I come from a working class background, extreme debt and instances of poverty in my childhood, first generation of my family to go university, rough school where people were stabbed and the prospect of even going to university was a non-factor for most students in sixth form.
- Sports background, Olympic trials in 2018 for team GB squad before having career ending injury, a blessing in disguise allowing me to focus on studies more
- Hard working academic kid my whole life but never quite "got it" and gained AAC at A-level (<1% off a B, frustrating), but took a gap year after uni before going to Birmingham university, but dropped out of due to having to work full time to sustain financially struggling family back home. Whilst I was there I somehow fell into acting and modelling, getting an agent, ended up in some award winning small films and did some big shoots for some brands, never saw it as a career, more like a thing I did surprisingly well at whilst I helped my family and decided where to go next.
-Got into my current uni, did not so well first year as I struggle A LOT with maths, gained a 2:2, and had to skip second year to once again come home to help my struggling family, but this time had more money as within the last 12 months managed to start my start-up selling a new design of sports clothing, gained some angel investment and scaling via subscription model and physical product sales. I am doing my third year with my second year being redone in parallel to it (special uni permission so I don't delay a year) and achieving a high 2:1 so far (better but not great for FO positions). Unfortunately this broke me slightly and had to go on anti-suicide watch at a hospital due to a failed attempt, and was on anti-depressants for 8 months.
-I don't have any corporate or IB experience, done the standard networking, applying to spring weeks, brushing up on technical skill, interview technique but can never even attain a single first round interview for years in a row, ranging from boutiques to BB's. Contacts in the city say I have a "unique" and "interesting" CV but my lack of corporate exposure is my biggest flaw, and since I am not the plug and play target uni type, I won't get a look in.
-In general I am much more the sports/creative type, but there is no money in those careers so I don't see the purpose of pursuing them to a high level, and coming from my background, money appears to be the key to happiness or at least freedom, as all I have seen my whole life is constant money troubles and obviously the pay in IB is good, and since doing my start-up, the ins and outs of company operations have become very interesting to me. Everyone, from family and old friends, tell me to pursue my creative talents but I have seen enough starving artists to be deathly afraid of that. I am an obsessively hard worker but I am struggling so hard to break into IB and the gaps in my CV and the fact I am very old now (relative to other analysts/interns) makes me fear I am a bit doomed here.
Sorry for the life story, my question is this:
- What should I do now? I have one more year left at uni, I was thinking of an elite masters to help with re-branding (Oxford, LSE, UCL etc)
-I was in the finance club at uni, gained a leadership position in it and traded using a uni grant and created a semi-successful startup so my interest in finance/business is clear to interviewers, but my interest in IB (M&A) is less demonstrable
-Should I target regional boutiques for this summer, leverage that experience if I am lucky enough to get it, and get a BB/EB internship for the summer between my undergrad and my masters (and get return offer hopefully)
-What is the most optimum thing to do here? I should I really pursue my natural gifts into the incredibly risky, mad world of acting/modelling?
-I have made solid contacts in the city, BB/EB recruiters, internal heads of FO hiring, BB interns and analysts and a VP alumni, but still never seems to be enough, I get on so well with all of them but everything seems to be slipping away from me.
I can always get up and get back in the ring no matter what, I always have done, but now I want to know what the best/smartest option for me to do is. Thanks for your time guys.