Banker or lawyer? Which is the better career choice?

Banker is pretty vague these days and hard to move up. Do you mean bank manager? Not very rewarding. The market for lawyers is pretty saturated too. I would rather be in a medical or engineering field.

Bankers make MF bank. I live in NYC and do alright, but have some banker friends and it's just a different level the money they take home normally, not to mention those 6 or 7 digit bonuses. It's a ton of hours, but they're the guys buying brownstowns and flying netjets to Vegas for a weekend

Study business and economics. Then go to law school. After law school get into the financial industry as a legal consultant. Work your way into the banking industry from the legal side. Major dollars will flow your way.

Gregor _ wrote:

Economically? Time-wise?

Nurse.

Seriously. RN-NP-PhD. Once you're in a good hospital they'll pay for your upper level schooling. Good pay, lots of jobs.

most bankers and lawyers I've met are douchebags..........you only get to live once....do you really want to spend your one and only life as a douchebag?

I don't know if this is a troll or not, but here is a serious answer.

If your goal is to become rich, lawyer is a poor choice. Yes, you can become well off, but it requires a lot of work. Lawyer's also hit a salary cap and the job market for an average lawyer can be rough. The only reason you should go into law is if you want to be a lawyer. Two types of people really thrive in the legal world: those who want to make a change in the world, and those who can work long and hard. If you honestly want to think about law as a profession, I suggest you go and work in a law firm for a summer to see what really goes on. It is a lot of drudgery and not a lot of glamor.

If you are serious about law then go to a decent undergraduate institution, study a topic you are interested in and do well. Take a year or two after that to do something low stress that you enjoy. I suggest this because if your goal is to be at the top of the legal profession and make a ton of money, you can kiss your vacations and weekends goodbye.

With law school, you should either go to a top-10 ranked school or go to a good state school that will give you a full ride. Some people will dispute this, but I sincerely don't think it is worth going into debt for law school unless you are going to a top school. You can get a great education at a good state school, but there just isn't enough prestige for you to spend both 3 years and pay money.

My story. I went to a top-20 undergraduate institution where I studied Anthropology. Then I took 2 years to goof around before going to a well regarded regional state school. The school gave me a full scholarship for all three years. I got a summer associate position at BigLaw firm in NYC. Worked there for a few years after law school before leaving to join a mid-size commercial litigation firm. Not as glamorous or lucrative as BigLaw, but my weekends are my own, I make more than enough money, and the work is interesting.

My little sister works in a Bulge Bracket institution. She is much smarter than I am. She makes more than I make and she never went to graduate school. Technically her salary is not capped and every couple of years she will make a ridiculous amount of money. Her hours seem similar to the hours I worked in BigLaw.

Big Bucks wrote:

Study business and economics. Then go to law school. After law school get into the financial industry as a legal consultant. Work your way into the banking industry from the legal side. Major dollars will flow your way.

A college friend of mine went this route and became a lawyer for a big bank. Only drawbacks are travelling and having to pay full college tuition for expensive colleges. It must be nice not having to worry about 3 kids in college.

Crypto currency encryption methods.

They need to make a USB device where the currency can be kept off the device.

Good luck, shumuckin's

coach wrote:

Big Bucks wrote:

Study business and economics. Then go to law school. After law school get into the financial industry as a legal consultant. Work your way into the banking industry from the legal side. Major dollars will flow your way.

A college friend of mine went this route and became a lawyer for a big bank. Only drawbacks are travelling and having to pay full college tuition for expensive colleges. It must be nice not having to worry about 3 kids in college.

Feel sorry for people born in US and having to pay off student debt for the rest of their life.

Just go to Europe and study there, who knows, you might salvage a bit of a cultured personality whilst you are at it

When deciding between law and banking, you need to be honest about your skills and whether you will be coming out of a top school in the top 10% of your class or whether you are not a top student and will be happy to just get through school and get a job. Those who are in the latter group will either end up doing insurance defense/plaintiff's personal injury, government work, family law (divorces, probate, trusts/estates) or criminal defense/prosecutor. There is plenty of room in those areas to get work and make a good living without having to spend 7 days in the office. But it is a grind and will take a long career to make decent money and retire comfortably. On the top end of the legal world is Big Law, which is more transactional as litigation practices have been moving out en masse to set up boutiques, and corporate in-house. This kind of practice is very labor intensive for at least the first 15 years. Big Law is also increasingly being consumed with law firm churning where there are constant mergers, break ups and law firm hopping. You have to have a pretty strong stomach to navigate that environment. Corporate in-house is frequently where Big Law attorneys who do not hit the partnership track end up. The corporate world is a ladder climbing world and is even more prone to the stresses of layoffs, mergers and acquisitions. Also, the corporate/Big Law world has a lot of nepotism at its heart. Corporate legal departments throw work to Big Law associates who are the sons/daughters of corporate executives. That helps the Big Law associates make rain and become partners without regard for whether they are the best attorneys.

Banking is a very conservative and very dry world. The money in local and regional banks is good, but not much better than a career in law. The money in national banks is great, but the meritocracy is pretty strict from college on through promotion to VP. The variation in banking is pretty minimal. I know people who work in Ag banking, auto floor plans and traditional consumer banking. The more industry specific the banking, the more you may need some unique skill sets and find something different and interesting. But for the vast majority of bankers, it is mortgages, business loans and consumer lending. That is very much a same donut different day kind of job.

Legal Raccoon wrote:

I don't know if this is a troll or not, but here is a serious answer.

The only reason you should go into law is if you want to be a lawyer.

+1 (lots of other good stuff in that post)

Can't beat banker's hours.

My daughter is a 2L so we have discussed the legal profession and various options in depth. There is a common misperception that all attorneys make a lot of money and that, therefore, going to law school and becoming a lawyer will always lead to wealth. My advice would be to go to law school if you have a high enough GPA and LSAT score to allow you to attend and succeed at a better law school (say top 50) but not to become one of the many under employed attorneys who are saddled with $250k in debt and poor prospects. Yes, first year associates at Big Law firms start at $180k, but how many graduates of lower ranked law schools can get these jobs and what is the bar passage rate of graduates of these schools? Unlike most professions, where you go to law school matters a lot at least for your initial career trajectory

+10000 Who in this world aspires to make their living as a societal parasite?

well there's just one issue wrote:

most bankers and lawyers I've met are douchebags..........you only get to live once....do you really want to spend your one and only life as a douchebag?

Hate the game not the player.

People just get their wheaties pissed in and have to take it and like it. In athletics, the contextual terminology is take your ball and go home.

The bonuses are 8 digits btw and not 6 or 7 annually: work hard play hard you money coveting leeches.

https://twitter.com/craigdmiler/status/1285401125479280640?s=21

Forget banking - Try and get into research at a buy side fund shop and work your way up to being a portfolio manager.

Since a large majority of positions (not all) in both professions require you to morally bankrupt or a leech to society- I'm sure you'd be happy in either career.

Lawyer for sure. High six figures, often 7 figures, if you play your cards right and follow the right career path. Plus it's a fun way to spend your days, especially as a litigator. You get to bash people all day, if you're into that, and the hours are nowhere near as bad as many lawyers pretend they are. (There is a lot of file cranking in the profession).

100% banking (assuming you mean investment banking).

You can enter as a 22 year old, make 160k your first year, by year 4, 350k a year, by the time you hit 30, you can make over 500-600k (and have optionality to move to hedge funds, startups, mckinsey consulting etc).

Big Law requires you to do THREE years of grad school at a high cost. By the time you even start, the bankers are already making more than you with less debt to pay off.

Additionally, the lawyers just do the paperwork for the bankers. Trust me (I work in banking). Most bankers as they become more senior can essentially opine and do the job as well (if not better) than the lawyers do. I have NEVER seen a lawyer understand or hold his own with finance/modeling/M&A/Industry specific areas outside his legal realm.

It's very common for the lawyers to get jaded and come over to banking - but bankers almost never join big law after being in banking for a bit.