Warwick or Durham: Economics

I also did IB

How important is IB for you?

That's the thing. Not much right but I don't really have my heart set on anything in general. I'm hoping to keep my options open and see where university takes me.

It's possible that this current lack of actual passion for IB means that I won't get in anyway when up against the hundreds of other applicants who wanted to be bankers from the age of 10.

Unless you're absolutely set on IB, I would take Durham instead of Warwick. Durham is just such a nicer place.

You could go into IB with Warwick, but tbh do you really want to? When I first heard about IB I was like $_$ but looking into it, it's really a terrible, terrible profession. Especially if you have no real interest in finance.

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/life-after-investment-banking

same thing can be said about law, consulting, politics, journalism.. your career is what you make of it not what some sensationalised piece on the internet has to say about it.

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But it's true that front office IB necessarily has objective things that make it worse than other professions. 100 hour weeks, low pay/hour starting out, boring and repetitive work unbecoming of graduates from top universities who are used to being challenged intellectually (unless tweaking PowerPoints and fiddling with Excel is something you find exciting), cutthroat competition, unbearable pressure, etc. It only gets '''''''''''''exciting''''''''''''' at the senior levels when you do client interaction.

Maybe it's bearable if you actually have an interest in finance, but if you don't and you just go into it for the money it's hell. And I'd wager that most of the young wide-eyed top university graduates had never even heard of investment banks before university, they just see the money and go 'Yep, that's for me' without thinking.

It's true that other professions are not necessarily better. But you can definitely get much sweeter deals elsewhere. You could sacrifice some pay for a little bit of free time and enjoyment in the work. I suppose you could do that in IB if you go for boutiques, but really who does that? If you have an interest in finance then you naturally want to go to the top banks, and if you don't have an interest in finance then by going to a boutique you'd just have less money for the same monotonous work, except a little bit less of it.

front office is not just IBD, so long hours don't apply uniformly. And 100 hour weeks are used as hyperbole when in reality it's maybe a couple bad weeks out of the year and much of that time being downtime.

truth is any entry level career will suck ass.. whether that is corporate law (word monkey for 70-80+ hours a week), politics (bum kissing, getting lunches, barely getting paid), fashion (no pay, crappy working conditions, barely any real work), generic grad scheme (cog in a wheel, significantly less meaningful work, still treated like an intern).. It will all be terrible in some way shape or form and there is no way of getting around them other than paying your dues.

Maybe after a few years of working in an environment where you learn a lot through being put through the grinder you'll have access to the cushy, meaningful work that you're alluding to - that's how it's always been. Uni grads having grandiose ideas of what they'll be doing upon graduation will merely just find themselves in for a harsh reality.

If you like finance but don't want to do banking because of long hours, you go into a finance grad scheme..

Moral is, there's no point complaining about the bad sides of an entry level job; entry level jobs are meant to suck in some way, shape or form.

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But IB sucks ass a lot more than the others, I mean 100 hours are unbearable for most, but I guess the only people that get into IB in the first place are the ones who can handle it and enjoy it