For ambitious, high-achieving college students interested in business, Investment Banking and Consulting are often touted as the only two routes to go down. 18 to 22-year-olds are asked to make the tradeoff early on in their career: work 60-90 hours a week in a high-pressure environment in exchange for robust training, accelerated careers, and a six-figure salary right out of undergrad. In just two years, you’ll have the opportunity to exit into prestigious universities for your Master’s degree, or other even higher-paying jobs that people who didn’t do IB or Consulting would have taken years longer to reach. 

These two paths are appealing because they offer a structured career path, intellectual challenge, and the opportunity for brand building. A smaller portion of students go down these paths simply because they don’t know what they want to do for the rest of their careers, and these two options offer exposure to different industries and high-level corporate decision-making.  

In Investment Banking, you hone a strong technical foundation in financial modeling, valuation techniques, and quantitative analysis. You’re taught to assess risks, forecast outcomes, and evaluate investment opportunities. In Consulting, you hone a strong reasoning foundation in problem-solving, strategic thinking, project management, and communication. You’re taught to solve complex problems, develop strategic plans, and optimize business operations. While these descriptions are just broad strokes, it’s no surprise that through these paths, some individuals go on to become C-Suite executives of Fortune 500 companies.

For many college students though, the all-consuming lifestyle, lack of autonomy, monotonous workflow, and high stress of these career paths are not suitable. There’s a steep learning curve and highly competitive entry for what appears to be a trade between your health for lessons learned, all at the high risk of burnout. And unless you sincerely want to climb the corporate ladder for your long-term career, it makes sense why people are not willing to make this trade. If you’re nodding your head to the things I’ve been saying, trust me, you’re not the only one. 

I attempted this approach of trading suffering for personal growth by enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps after my first semester in college. While I had many different reasons for joining, one of them was seeking growth through challenge. My mindset was that if I put myself in an extremely difficult situation that would push me to the edge of my limits, I would learn what I was capable of, develop resilience and that nothing in the future would be as difficult as what I have already endured early on in my career. While I am very proud of becoming a U.S. Marine and learned a lot, it made me realize that suffering — even in a controlled environment — is not the only way to challenge oneself and expedite learning. While growth through pressure is a great thing, there’s a difference between healthy stress and harmful stress. 

If you are genuinely interested in working in Excel spreadsheets all day, and excited by the concept and day-to-day work of being an investment banker, then go for it. But ask yourself and save yourself the burnout and worst case quitting later on.. If you are doing IB for prestige and exit opportunities, I promise that the repetitive tasks, endless revisions, data entry, lack of autonomy, and all-nighters will get to you. You will be exhausted, hate your life, and eventually learn that suffering through monotony does NOT equal growth. While two years seems like a short time that you’re willing to sacrifice, just consider the alternative. If you’re an outgoing person who enjoys interacting with people, consider the relationship side of finance. You still begin with a six-figure base salary, and the opportunity for lucrative bonuses, but instead of working in data collection before eventually working in the client-facing side of investment banking a decade later once you’re finally a Managing Director, or just quitting after two years, you instead start your career doing what you’re naturally talented at. You sit in on client calls, support portfolio reviews, and go support prospecting at networking events from the very start. Imagine how fulfilling it is to get positive reinforcement, mentorship, and feedback by proactively learning on the job by applying your natural curiosity and talents. You can still grind 80 hours a week, the only difference is that if you are a person who is not naturally excited by spreadsheets and technical analysis, you are spending those hours doing work you enjoy, not just monotonous tasks that drain your energy. It is the monotony, lack of autonomy, and genuine lack of interest that kills people’s mental health. Not the hours. If you enjoy what you do, the work doesn’t feel as painful. The hours go by faster. That’s the difference, and why I sincerely urge you to consider private wealth management instead. The point is that suffering is not directly correlated with growth, despite how much we want to convince ourselves that it is. 

For the reasons I’ve listed above, Private Banking and Private Wealth Management attract a different set of people with a different skill set and life goals. Instead, in these careers, you hone a strong interpersonal foundation in emotional intelligence, human behavior, and social dynamics. You’re taught to articulate yourself, build rapport, develop social networks, and cultivate trust. The best part is that unlike Investment Banking and Consulting, in this career path, you’re given the freedom to choose. You choose your work-life balance, what work you do, who you work with, how much you make, and where you work.