Highest Paying Finance Jobs ($250k+ Career Paths In Finance)

in this video I'm gonna show you some of

the highest-paying career paths of

finance and exactly what you need to do

to get into these types of jobs these

are the same career paths in finance

that can put you on track to making a

quarter of a million dollars in just

three to four years out of school and

today I'm gonna go through each of these

career paths and finance step-by-step

let's go if you're watching this video

you're probably thinking to yourself

what can I do with my finance or

business degree that's gonna maximize my

earnings potential so in this video I'm

gonna cut through the crap and show you

the exact career paths and finance that

you should target to maximize your

earnings potential and at the same time

the types of career paths and finance

you want to completely avoid because

they can totally flatline your career so

what types of careers in finance do you

want you want what I call a tier one job

tier 1 jobs are front-office

analytical type roles where you're

actually doing really interesting work

whether it's working on different

companies working on different deals

doing research etc versus a boring back

office type job where you're not doing

interesting work or maybe plugging

numbers in Excel and you know it's not

gonna do anything for your career so why

are these tier 1 jobs so attractive

number one they come with some of the

highest pay in the industry number two

they're the most prestigious in the

business world number three they can

lead to some of the best eggs and

opportunities which come with even

higher salaries and number four they

come with the best kind of work so

within our career paths in finance we

have three main routes number one we

have the banking route number 2 we have

the asset management route and number 3

we have our stepping stone route now

when you're thinking the highest paying

jobs for a finance

you're probably thinking of stuff at a

hedge fund private equity firm bench of

capital etc now these career paths are

all designed to lead towards those types

of jobs because like I mentioned before

within 3 to 4 years out of school if you

get to the buy-side and you're working

at a hedge fund private equity firm or

venture capital firm you'll probably be

making a quarter of a million dollars

three to four years of school which is

fantastic so again these career paths

are specifically set up to get you to

the buy-side as quick as you can

but again sometimes people will stick in

the roles they have don't want to move

but that's totally fine

but more than likely if you're a finance

major you're a business major and you're

looking for that big bucks kind of job

that's the buy side and we're gonna get

into how to get there in a little bit so

first up we have the banking route now

the baking route is probably the most

lucrative but at the same time the most

competitive route finance majors are

usually trying to go for so who is this

route for primarily this is for students

that are on the younger side primarily

freshmen sophomores and even some

juniors because again the recruiting for

this type of route starts very very

early so you need to be on your game as

soon as possible so why are the jobs and

the banking route so competitive

obviously it's the money if you get a

job within the banking row you're

probably gonna make anywhere from 90

thousand to $140,000 in total

compensation right out of school but

again the requirements are a lot tougher

usually it's going to take a year of

relevant experience whether it's a

relevant analytical type internship or

participating an experience based

program like RI LTS analyst program

usually you have to have a relatively

good GPA and by that I mean you're

probably looking somewhere from 3 5 and

up your school problem needs to be

someone

well known and at the same time you

probably have had to do a little bit of

networking to actually get yourself in

an interview so one of the jobs within

the banking route let's take a look

first off the bat we have Investment

Banking which is probably the most

lucrative and most competitive job for

entry-level grads then we have roles

like sales and trading corporate banking

and even equity research so first up we

have invest of banking which like I

mentioned before is probably the most

competitive yet lucrative role out there

you'll be making a lot of money but at

the same time you're gonna be working a

lot of hours probably in the range of

eighty to a hundred hours a week

sometimes in some cases I've heard up to

a hundred twenty hours a week which is

nuts

but again Investment Banking is probably

the most effective route to go if you're

trying to get to the buy side usually if

you're an investment banking for about a

year - you can do that and then move

over to the buy side from there whether

you go to a private equity firm or a

hedge fund so it's a lot easier to make

that jump to the buy side if you started

in an investment banking now if you're

trying to get more details of how to get

into Investment Banking take a look at

our guide below we go a lot more detail

on this but as a quick overview

investment banking is primarily a deal

based business you'll be working on

things from mergers and acquisitions to

IPOs to debt refinancings to leveraged

buyouts etc so your job as an entry

level analyst will primarily be building

different models whether it's a three

statement company specific model or a

product based model like an M&A model or

LBO model but at the same time you'll

also be working on pitch books to go

over the details of various deals

depending on what kind of department

you're in within Investment Banking you

can be on what's called a industry base

team were you're focused on covering a

different industry like healthcare TMT

resources you can be on a product-based

team like leveraged finance or M&A or

you could be on the capital market side

of things where you're in their equity

capital markets group or their debt

capital markets group all of them are

very very great roles to start into but

in terms of which are probably better if

you're on the M&A lengthen or an

industry based team that's more

preferred than something like capital

markets although Capital Markets is

still a great place to start next up we

have our group of corporate banking

sales and trading and equity research so

obviously these roles are a lot

different than each other but I grouped

them together here primarily because of

the exit opportunities that you can get

from them now these are still really

really great jobs to have but the eggs

in ops won't be as good as the types

you'll get from Investment Banking so

can't you go direct to the buy side

after going through one of these roles

yes

but sometimes it requires getting some

experience in investment banking or also

pursuing an MBA and using that to

leverage into the buy side so what are

these roles so starting with corporate

banking it's somewhat similar to

Investment Banking but there's also a

lot of key differences

so within Investment Banking you're

primarily working in a deal based

environment whereas corporate banking is

primarily focused on the credit side of

things so for example in leveraged

finance which is part of Investment

Banking you're primarily working on

high-yield debt issuances that would be

used for different mergers and

acquisitions transactions leveraged

buyouts etc whereas in corporate banking

you're primarily working on more

investment grade type products whether

it's a term loan or Evolver etc now with

corporate banking obviously you're going

to have lower pay but that comes

with better hours which might work for

someone that wants that better lifestyle

sales and trading is pretty much what it

sounds like you know you're doing a lot

of trading work during trading hours it

can be really really intense because

obviously you're doing this work in real

time but at the same time compared to

Investment Banking the hours can work

better because when the markets are

closed that you're trading in you're

pretty much done so if you prefer to

handle quick periods of intense

situations where you're doing this

trading work versus kind of the fixed

long hours of Investment Banking sales

and trading might be for you

but like I said you're not gonna have

those eggs and opportunities like you

would with Investment Banking then we

have equity research which is again

pretty much just like it sounds if

you've ever been on Yahoo Finance or

just kind of looking through Google and

you've seen a report that let's say this

goldman sachs analysts put out a price

target on Tesla that's their equity

research department where they're

literally just putting out research

reports on the different companies that

they're covering now key thing here is

it's kind of tricky to get right into

equity research out of schools so this

might not be the best thing to look for

in terms of an entry level opportunity

but if you can equity research obviously

can lead to a full time by side world

occasionally depending on where you are

but sometimes it might require that

baking experience ahead of time or going

through your MBA first so as a recap the

banking route is probably the best

career path in finance to go after

number one if you still have time on

your side and you know you're a freshman

sophomore or junior and can make sure

you're prepared ahead of time because

once you miss the recruiting cycle it's

a lot harder to get into after and it

might require a stepping-stone job which

we'll cover a little bit later on number

two you're absolutely gonna need to have

some sort of relevant experience on your

resume to show that you've done work

similar to this and that you're not just

a complete newbie who's never known

anything about the space so those are

things like having an investment banking

internship already having a tier-one

type analytical internship that's still

relatively close to Investment Banking

or going through a program like our

invest like the street analyst program

where we literally teach you what you

need to know for these jobs but at the

same time give you experience doing this

work so you have something to put on

your resume number three

you're gonna need to have a pretty darn

good GPA so ideally you want to have

something that's three five and up as

banks tend to have the cutoff at about

three five sometimes you can still do it

at three two and up as that's kind of

the next tier in terms of a GPA cutoff

but it gets a little tougher then

anything below a three two and you're in

a much trickier spot you're probably

going to need a really really strong

connection to get you in for an

interview or you're gonna need to go

through a stepping-stone job first which

we're gonna cover in a little bit number

four you'll probably need to go to a

relatively decent school the more alumni

that you have in the industry the better

it is and the more people that you're

gonna be able to network with and number

five obviously you're gonna have to do

that networking so you have people on

the inside of these companies pushing

your resume through to actually bring

you in for an interview moving on we

have our second career path in finance

which is the asset management route so

what is the asset management route it's

kind of similar to the types of

requirements you would need for the

banking route so again gonna need to

have some relevant experience on your

resume you're gonna have to have a

pretty good GPA you'll probably have to

have gone to a pretty well-known in kind

of school and obviously you're gonna

have to do some networking to even get

in for an interview

so within the asset management route

it's primarily where you're going to be

working in the acid

departments of a big bank you know like

a JPMorgan or at places like fidelity

and Blackrock where they're managing

their own assets and you'll primarily be

doing work in terms of researching

different companies doing research on

different industries doing work with

portfolio management etc so again it's

really really interesting work that's

obviously a lot more relevant to stuff

that you're gonna be doing on the buy

side where you're actually working at a

hedge fund private equity firm venture

capital firm and doing the same kind of

at the same point the total

compensation that comes with this is

also pretty darn high you're probably

going to be making anywhere from 85 to

$110,000 in total compensation right out

of school which again makes the asset

management route a pretty competitive

yet lucrative route to go after so how

does the asset management route stack up

against the banking route so there's a

couple things here so the trickiest part

about the asset management route is

there's less opportunities available so

there's lots of investment banks out

there but there aren't as many big asset

managers which are gonna have the same

prestige and lead to the same exit

opportunities like an investment bank

would as you'll see a little bit later

on I refer to smaller asset managers in

the stepping-stone route but the thing

about those is while the work might be

interesting it's not gonna lead to the

same exit opportunities as it would if

you're at a big asset manager whether

it's a fidelity Blackrock or working in

the asset management department of a big

bank like a JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs

those roles can lead you right to the

buy side whereas small asset managers

they're not going to get you into those

roles as easy and you're either gonna

one have to know someone who's gonna be

able to get you in to go get some

banking experience ahead of time or

three go the MBA route and use that to

leverage into a really really solid buy

side route but we'll cover this a little

bit later on in term

of the small asset managers so moving on

to our last career path and finance and

probably our most important one which is

the stepping-stone route so if you're

like me you probably screwed up in

school and a lot of us when you're in

college you don't realize how much you

need to do to actually land some of

these really really good roles in

finance just like me so that's where the

stepping-stone route comes in the

stepping-stone route and the jobs within

it are basically jobs that you want to

get into which can help redefine

yourself and position you from one of

the better jobs within the banking route

or going direct to the buy-side so how

do we get into jobs like this but first

off we need to identify our weaknesses

here if you're looking at different

career paths in finance and you think

you need to go the stepping stone route

there's a couple things you're probably

trying to overcome number one you're

probably late to the game meaning you

didn't start early enough preparing to

land a job in the banking realm and

that's okay there's still ways to

overcome being late whether you're a

senior in college and you're scrambling

to find a full-time job or you're out of

school and don't have a job or are in a

role

you don't like isn't taking you anywhere

I think your career number two

you might not have the best GPA if

you're like me you probably didn't have

the best GPA in college because you

might slacked off you might have partied

too much too etc it happens there's

still ways to overcome that number three

and probably the most important thing

here is you don't have relevant

experience so you're applying for jobs

that are in the banking route and you

have no relevant experience on your

resume that shows that you've done stuff

related to those jobs there's no shot

you're gonna get an interview so these

three things we need to overcome and

there's different ways to do that so in

terms of things you can do to overcome a

weak GPA

lack of experience not going to a good

school take a look at our post below

where we literally go through the things

you can do to overcome your weaknesses

lack of experience etc it'll

dramatically help you out even if you're

on the younger side and you're trying to

get an internship when half the

internships these days still require

some experience so it's worth taking a

look below but if you're at this point

you think okay I might have some

relevant experience I can use here my

GPA isn't all that bad and I think I can

do something to get myself on track here

this is when you want to take a look at

some of these stepping-stone jobs so

what are the jobs within the

stepping-stone route so within the

stepping-stone route we have four main

buckets number one we have credit number

two we have the big four number three we

have lower tier asset managers in number

four we have corporate develop so let's

start off with credit what is credit

it's basically where you're going to be

doing work analyzing a company's

creditworthiness

now this can be jobs like working at a

rating agency like a Moody's S&P or

Fitch where you're working on different

companies analyzing their

creditworthiness building models etc it

could be working in a credit risk

Department within a big bank where

they're literally doing the same type of

thing or it could be working in

commercial banking where essentially

you're doing this type of work for a

small kind of lesser-known bank whereas

if it was a bigger Bank doing bigger

deals that would be corporate banking

like I said before but again starting

off the credit is a really really good

space because you can use what you

learned in credit to leverage it into a

job down the banking route whether it's

investment banking or one of the jobs up

there and within the credit bucket here

you're still probably gonna be making

anywhere from seventy five to ninety

five thousand dollars right out of

school which is pretty darn good for

roll next up we have the big four and by

big four I'm referring to the big four

accounting firms like PwC KPMG etc now

within the big four I'm not talking

about the typical accounting based jobs

like auditor tax which is usually what

you do when you're an accounting major

I'm referring to the more finance space

islands which are valuation and

corporate advisory valuation is

literally where you're putting together

valuation assessments on different

companies different deals etc and

corporate advisory is where you're

literally doing advisory work on certain

transactions kind of like you would at

an investment bank and the nice thing

about these types of jobs is the work is

pretty darn relevant to those types of

stuff you would do at an investment bank

or one of the jobs within the banking

route so by going the big four route

you'll be able to use what you learned

to leverage into a job over in the

banking route now within jobs like this

you're still probably making a decent

amount of money and usually you're

starting compensation will be anywhere

from seventy five to eighty five

thousand dollars right out of school

next up we have the smaller lower tier

asset managers so if you remember from

earlier on in the video

I was referring to the bigger asset

managers like fidelity Blackrock and the

asset management departments of the big

banks now the main difference between

them and some of these smaller guys are

the exit opportunities so while the work

might be the same as some of these

smaller lower to your asset managers

you're not gonna have the same exit

opportunities as you would by working at

one of the bigger names so within the

smaller lower tier asset managers we

have things like working on a search

fund where you're like helping a private

equity company find companies to buy

we're also talking about small private

equity and small hedge funds where

you're literally doing the same types of

work as you would at a bigger name but

you're not gonna have the same exit

opportunities

and the same compensation like you would

at one of the bigger guys we also have

things like investment management where

you're literally working in the asset

management department of an insurance

company to almost offset their

liabilities and do work there which

again is really interesting work but

it's not gonna have the same exit

opportunities as you would by going the

banking route so within some of these

smaller asset managers you're probably

gonna make anywhere from 60 to 80 K

right out of school but that can vary a

lot especially if you're working at a

pretty well-known but smaller private

equity or hedge fund last but not least

we have corporate development now

corporate development is a pretty

under-the-radar a really really solid

role to go into essentially what it is

is you're doing mergers and acquisitions

org for like a fortune 500 company or

like a small roll-up so the work you're

doing is really similar to the types of

stuff you're gonna do at an investment

bank but again you're working for a

company internally and you're doing the

work in there the nice thing about

corporate development is you're also

gonna have a much better lifestyle so

you're gonna have a lot less hours and

you wouldn't have an investment bank but

at the same time you're not gonna have

that same kind of pay like you would at

an investment bank and within corporate

development you're probably making

anywhere from 75 to $110,000 at a school

so again this is a really great route to

go because at the end of the day you're

doing the same types of work that you

might be doing at an investment bank and

you can leverage the types of stuff

you're doing at a corporate development

firm or you know within a fortune 500

company to get into something like

banking so if you decided to go the

stepping-stone brow what are the next

steps in terms of actually getting to

the buy side so kind of like I mentioned

before there's a couple different ways

you can go number one

you can use the job from the

stepping-stone route to leverage into a

baking job which from there you can use

to get into the bias

number two you kind of stay in your job

for a while

go get your MBA at a top 10 top 15

school and use that to leverage it to

getting a job on the buy side or if

you're good enough and you got good

enough connections use exactly what you

did within your job to go direct to the

buy side that's a little tougher and

again like I said you might need to have

some pretty strong connections and be

really good at what you do but it's not

totally impossible so as a quick recap

who is the stepping-stone route for it's

for those of you out there that number

one might be late to the game you're

maybe in your senior year and you know

you didn't prepare enough to land one of

the jobs in the banking route or you're

out of school and don't have a job or

you're out of school in a job you don't

like and you need to redefine yourself

number two for those of you out there

that might not have the best GPA to

immediately qualify for a job in the

bank hero and number three for those of

you that don't really have the relevant

experience to get a job in the bank

you're out right away so like I

mentioned before I would definitely take

a look at the post below where we cover

the types of things you can do to

overshadow a weak GPA lack of experience

etc it'll help you out a lot so as a

quick overview when you think of the

highest paying career path in finance

that's the buy side and I know I've

mentioned it a bunch of times in this

video so it's probably important just to

cover briefly so if you've ever watched

the show billions or you've heard of

these hedge fund managers who make crazy

amounts of money that's the types of

stuff that you're gonna see on the buy

side and like I mentioned before there's

three primary categories here you have

hedge funds you have private equity

firms and you have venture capital firms

and at the end of the day your job

primarily is going to be doing work in

terms of analyzing different companies

to invest in doing work on analyzing

different industries

cetera so there's lots of really really

interesting stuff you can do when you're

on the buy side and again it comes with

some of the craziest pay especially as

you move up the ranks but in terms of

what you'll make as the first year

analyst at one of these buy-side firms

you're probably looking at anywhere from

125 to 250 thousand dollars in total

compensation so for those of you diehard

finance students that are really really

looking to get into one of those really

cool investing types jobs that's why I

keep mentioning that you want to make

sure you're on the right route to get

into the buy side because at the end of

the day that's what the majority of you

probably want so if you liked this video

feel free to hit like and subscribe to

us by clicking the button below so that

way you get notifications about future

videos that we end up posting but now

I'm going to turn it over to you are

there any career paths in finance we

might have missed or is there more

things you would have liked us to cover

feel free to let us know by commenting

below and if you're looking for more

types of posts like this feel free to

head over to our site at tier 1 wall

street comm where we have plenty more

free information in terms of what you

need to do to get into jobs like this

[Music]