Want To Land A Career In Finance? Our Interactive Guide Shows You How

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

A career in finance offers many benefits: It tends to pay well, is prestigious, and can lead to a jet-setting lifestyle. Breaking in, however, can require years of toil, planning, and determination.

Say you want to be an investment banker who advises tech giants on corporate acquisitions: You will probably want to start applying for internships in your sophomore year of undergrad. Getting an internship, meanwhile, may mean getting into the right campus clubs as early as freshman year.

Complicating matters, the path to a job in finance is not as straightforward as it once was. There are now many more opportunities to start training with hedge funds and corporate buyout firms in college or upon graduation. Navigating these pathways, however, requires even more planning and labor.

This is the latest in a series of stories exploring the paths to a career in finance, how they are changing (due in part to the growth of hedge funds and private equity), and how these shifts are affecting young people and the industry.

In this story, Business Insider has compiled an interactive guide breaking down some of the paths one might take to work in investment banking, hedge funds, or private equity — some of the top career paths of today's young people. The guide harks back to the choose-your-own-adventure books you might remember from your childhood: Didn't apply for an investment banking internship in your sophomore year? Here's what you can do next, etc.

Give it a spin! And please let us know what you think by reaching out to our junior banker reporter Emmalyse Brownstein, who can be reached via email at ebrownstein@businessinsider.com, or the encrypted app Signal/SMS at (305) 857-5516.

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This story was researched and written by Kaja Whitehouse with the help of Michelle Abrego, Emmalyse Brownstein, Bradley Saacks, and Alex Nicoll. Interactive development by Annie Fu. Illustrations: Getty Images; Alyssa Powell.