Banker or lawyer? Which is the better career choice?

Banking. More specifically, 2-4 years in banking then transition to buy side. Yes the banking years are a lot of hours, though if remote work stays around a bit longer, that truly makes it a much easier job. Top buy side jobs are harder to get than a Super Bowl ring, but mid tier buy side jobs still pay $200k+ in your mid twenties and are usually lower stress / less hours. And as you progress in your career you'll work less and less. Senior level finance people really just network for ~5 hours a day and then spend a little time sending emails and looking over junior personnel's work. You'll honestly even be encouraged to continue running / doing other hobbies because a lot of people network through running, cycling, tennis clubs, skiing etc.

And you can live almost wherever you want. Obviously there are LOTS of these jobs in SF / NYC / LA / BOS, but there are also amazing firms around Atlanta, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Salt Lake, Denver, etc.

As others have said no need anymore to go to business school and go into a massive amount of debt. And if you ever get into a sticky situation where your employer blows up worst case scenario you start your own fund with your own cash because you'll be that rich.

Lol at the poster who said we're doing illegal stuff? Maybe 10+ years ago or at a dying hedge fund but that's so so rare today and most of these jobs are in private markets.

I got drawn in this past year to go above and beyond in my role, thinking that I would get a promotion and a salary bump to the higher end of market range.

Well, I got just above an average bump with an average bonus. No promotion, and was give a 3 (meets expectations) even though my boss said I performed at a Senior Engineer level.

Makes no sense.

Point is, figure out how to put in minimal effort to fulfill your role and nothing more. No point in burning yourself out for what will amount to nothing.

A lot of investment bankers are lawyers too so both?

I also see a lot of people here (Australia) that used to be director level at banks in DCM or something going to smaller early stage asset financing companies to head up funding and get some equity

Many lawyers are douchebags? How about most would be a better fitting. Even your later ramblings after the post above you gloat over your supposed intellect and wealth that you have earned. You should have just stated, "Yes, I'm a lawyer and of course that makes me a douchebag." Fair enough.

- All lawyers lie. Don't state that you don't. It's what you do. Maybe you don't technically lie, but morally and ethically (traits lawyers don't have) you lie consistently.

I’m sure both professions make decent money. I work with a lot of attorneys and can say they are by far some of the most miserable human beings I’ve encountered on earth. Dealing with them makes me run into the woods to go fly fishing and shoot whitetail deer. So there’s that I guess.

Two tough choices here. It would be nice to have a third.

I think most on here have commented on the secular oversupply issues in law. My brother, 2nd in his class at a tier 1 law school, has made a great living but regrets going to law school-too many hours and too much supply. By the time he realized this, age and sunk costs compelled him to stay. He is a twin and his health is much worse than mine. He thinks his innate math ability and accounting knowledge made more of a difference than his fancy accomplishments, but it is a grind even with some unique skills.

Fintech will change the nature of banking and certainly over long periods of time, trust, the main product being sold in banking, will in some sense be replaced by algorithms. I doubt whether bankers will ever wither away, but many posters on here don't seem to really understand what a banker does.

Bankers are salespeople, first and foremost. If you don't have a sales mentality, you won't make it. Selling trust is very hard to do, particularly when you might not believe in the product (1/3 of IPOs underperform after the first day's trading).

The high salaries are the result of the small number of people who can actually do banking, particularly wirehouse investment banking. One needs some financial sophistication and a huge drive to close deals-the set of people with the intellectual chops who can also sell is rather small.

I have a Ph.D. in economics. I chose this because I did not want to sell for a living and found out in the end, ironically, I still have to sell a little at the back end of our sales process! But I watched my Dad get rich selling for a living but his insecurities ate him up. Not for me.

I would strongly recommend a STEM degree. I was fully funded for all the programs I applied-biostatistics, stats, epidemiology, and economics. I had just a basic math degree, but I was prepared for a lot. I think math is even more valuable today as it involves computation. Back in my day, we only took one programming course (easy, today it might be hard) as resources were too expensive. It was a closed-form solution for everything.

One final note. I was a pretty good D1 runner. The sport encouraged inward concentration and individualism. If you are going to be a salesperson like a banker, you need a more outward orientation. The skills developed by running will help, but your worldview will have to change.

Not a lawyer or banker but my understanding is that much of the world's wealth gets invested in the US to the benefit of all Americans because of the credibility of it's legal and financial systems. I assume that most lawyers and bankers play by the rules relative to their foreign counterparts. Please educate me if my assumptions are wrong.

From an economic point of view, banker, but legally speaking, lawyer.

What do you mean banker?

You can work in banking with an undergraduate degree, so by this means it seems better. Apply to law school if you burn out.

Software engineer for financial institutions is clearly the winner here. Engineering, in demand field, high pay, same banker's holidays.

brien evans wrote:

Software engineer for financial institutions is clearly the winner here. Engineering, in demand field, high pay, same banker's holidays.

Yeah but working at FAANG you prob make about 2x more.

Swaglord_the_realest_!69 wrote:

brien evans wrote:

Software engineer for financial institutions is clearly the winner here. Engineering, in demand field, high pay, same banker's holidays.

Yeah but working at FAANG you prob make about 2x more.

You might also work 2x more.