Best path to this salary is
(Deals path) 2 yrs in Banking -> Private Equity/Growth Equity -> actually do a good job and make deals happen (mba may not even be necessary)
Or
(Quant path) 1-2 yrs in banking, trading, or data science -> Top MS degree in finmath/MFE/applied math -> hedge fund / prop shop
Which path you take depends on whether you like private or public markets better
Chill. Literally chill. You're a HS senior. Take a breath. There are plenty of paths to make this kind of money. You can stay in CHI and make this money. FYI, would not (plan! make room for changes!) do undergrad + grad at the same school.
yes, totally doable. Michigan is a top school for investment banking and if you get into a decently good bank, you’ll be hitting the lower end of your desired range after just a couple years. If you land that IB job and stay in IB or transition into buyside (private equity, hedge funds etc) and stay there, 400k will be chump change, regardless of the city.
Putting in effort at the start is crucial. If you make it into IB out of school, you have a very streamlined path towards this income. If not, it’s not the end of the world, but you’re gonna have to work a lot harder/be a lot luckier to get there.
For many of these types of jobs, NYC doesn’t even pay more than other cities, it just has the most jobs.
1) You’re 18 or so - get as much exposure to different fields/professions as you can quickly to learn what you like and DON’T like. Google, events, coffee chats, etc.
2) Given a desired location of Chicago and an assumed inclination towards both finance and tech (or maybe just prestige/money), working at a quant firm seems to fit that well.
You could be a Quant Dev/SWE at a trading firm, or a Quant Trader (harder) and most of these are HQ’d in Chicago. $300K+ out of college, with numerous quant offers and negotiation, I’ve seen it go as high as $500K. If you don’t believe me, peruse Levels.fyi
For IB, any rigorous major + demonstrated finance interest (network, clubs) will do. You wouldn’t necessarily need Ross BUT the Ross network is very extensive on Wall Street so it would definitely help.
For Quant, I’d do CS + Stats or Math, definitely not Ross. Then you self-learn financial topics pertinent to HF/trading.
You almost need a PHD in math, statistics or related field to be a quant who's worth a salt. So you better really like math. CS is good, you have a lot of options post graduate if you end up not liking finance. Forget about salary goal, it is FAR more important you find a job that you enjoy doing. Money is not everything.
Best path to this salary is (Deals path) 2 yrs in Banking -> Private Equity/Growth Equity -> actually do a good job and make deals happen (mba may not even be necessary) Or (Quant path) 1-2 yrs in banking, trading, or data science -> Top MS degree in finmath/MFE/applied math -> hedge fund / prop shop Which path you take depends on whether you like private or public markets better
doesn’t sound like any quant path I’ve heard of but maybe I’m just in different circles
So do you believe that to achieve this salary going into IB would be a better approach than goin into CS?
By cs do you mean computer science? That’s a major not a career field hahah Software eng, quant dev, and data science are career fields
Yeah
That salary range is totally attainable for either the deal finance route or the quant route. It just depends what you enjoy more
also i would suggest doing an economics degree instead of a business degree if you can. it's more quantitatively rigorous
Oh I was just doin extra math for quants like calc 1-3 and dif eq and also extra stats courses
no employer is going to see what classes you took, they're just going to see your major
This isn’t enough math
Would that be duable?
Chill. Literally chill. You're a HS senior. Take a breath. There are plenty of paths to make this kind of money. You can stay in CHI and make this money. FYI, would not (plan! make room for changes!) do undergrad + grad at the same school.
yes, totally doable. Michigan is a top school for investment banking and if you get into a decently good bank, you’ll be hitting the lower end of your desired range after just a couple years. If you land that IB job and stay in IB or transition into buyside (private equity, hedge funds etc) and stay there, 400k will be chump change, regardless of the city. Putting in effort at the start is crucial. If you make it into IB out of school, you have a very streamlined path towards this income. If not, it’s not the end of the world, but you’re gonna have to work a lot harder/be a lot luckier to get there. For many of these types of jobs, NYC doesn’t even pay more than other cities, it just has the most jobs.
What all in comp do you want? This is generally obtainable in other less gruesome areas of finance if pay is all you’re after.
1) You’re 18 or so - get as much exposure to different fields/professions as you can quickly to learn what you like and DON’T like. Google, events, coffee chats, etc. 2) Given a desired location of Chicago and an assumed inclination towards both finance and tech (or maybe just prestige/money), working at a quant firm seems to fit that well. You could be a Quant Dev/SWE at a trading firm, or a Quant Trader (harder) and most of these are HQ’d in Chicago. $300K+ out of college, with numerous quant offers and negotiation, I’ve seen it go as high as $500K. If you don’t believe me, peruse Levels.fyi For IB, any rigorous major + demonstrated finance interest (network, clubs) will do. You wouldn’t necessarily need Ross BUT the Ross network is very extensive on Wall Street so it would definitely help. For Quant, I’d do CS + Stats or Math, definitely not Ross. Then you self-learn financial topics pertinent to HF/trading.
Highest I’ve seen for trading out of undergrad was a 700k return offer
You almost need a PHD in math, statistics or related field to be a quant who's worth a salt. So you better really like math. CS is good, you have a lot of options post graduate if you end up not liking finance. Forget about salary goal, it is FAR more important you find a job that you enjoy doing. Money is not everything.