Why invesment banking (and any other career path)

Lol so you can steal other peoples unique and personal reasons to sound genuine in an interview? No chance, buddy, I don't think anyone here is that stupid but nice try

To whose of you pursuing a career in investment banking (IBD), what made you commit to this career path ahead of say management consulting, advisory, sales and trading or asset management.

May as well open it up to everyone I guess. For those of you pursuing other careers in finance, what made you choose your given path?

I noticed many just end up there cause they couldn't think of anything else to do.

Haha, this was part of the reason I initially applied to Spring Weeks. I'm at a good uni etc but I didn't have any passions in particular - I get interested in most things I work hard at - so I figured why not just do something that lets me work really really hard and get paid well at the same time. I was also worried I'd regret not applying to banks if I later I became interested in them, as it's a lot easier to get in as a grad than later on (and a lot easier as a first year to get a Spring Week than a third year to get a Grad position)

That said, I've always thought economics was cool. I study economic history at uni and this also gives you a really different and quite useful perspective on financial markets. And since I applied to Spring Weeks, I've done work experience/reading at more places (inc advisory, which I thought was the same as management consultancy, surely?) and I haven't found the actual work there anywhere near as interesting as I have found banking. Btw, I'm interested in corporate banking and possibly DCM, not IB (I'm not going into the reasons for that as those are CVable )

soo much waffle

Let's be real. Most people will have very similar motivations for going into IBD

There would be no point in him getting other people's 'unique' and 'personal' reasons, simply because it's unlikely to match his individual story and journey to banking. If your CV says one thing, it's very hard to try and conjure up an alternative narrative.

You can't mould other people's story into your own, it'll get seen through quickly in interviews.

I'm leaning towards IBD largely because I'm keen to go into politics in the future, and the industry provides a solid grounding for it. My other reasons are far more generic, and probably not worth discussing.