Do you know what you’re getting yourself into? IBanking/Consulting/Marketing. Similar fancy words and yet…they mean totally different things.

By Andrea Rice (GottaMentor)

Within Investment Banking, I’ve worked in both corporate finance and equity research. I also spent several years doing management consulting. I get asked by people looking at consulting, finance, and marketing how they should figure out what`s right for them, so here are my thoughts.

1. These jobs are very different, so make sure you understand the differences. Investment Banking jobs generally feature intense periods of quick transactions. Quantitative skills are key, especially in your first few years. You have to have strong communication skills. The “product” in corp finance is the transaction or potential transaction, and you`ll work on a number of them over the course of a year. In Sales & Trading you`ll work on many transactions in a day, and at the end of every day there`s a scorecard so you know exactly how good you were that day. Equity research shares a lot of similar problem solving skills with consulting, but you`re producing a stock recommendation and you get feedback each day on whether people think your recommendations are good ones or not. Starting out in research you`ll be working with a particular Analyst (Analyst is the senior role in research) and will not be responsible for making stock recommendations. You`ll provide support to help the Analyst.

In Consulting you`ll need strong problem solving skills. You`ll do research, analyze results, and drawn conclusions about your piece of the analysis. Your projects for major national or global companies will often last months, and typically culminate in a set of recommendations in a powerpoint deck made to the client. You often will not be involved in implementation, and do not get direct or immediate feedback on whether the recommendations were “right” or “successful”.

Many marketing jobs require the same kinds of analysis you would use in consulting, but the work is around a particular product (or service).The range of issues being considered is much narrower than the range of projects you could work on in consulting. The product is tangible, and you get a scorecard (e.g. market share changes, brand awareness) that reflects the impact of analysis and decisions you`ve been a part of.

It`s important to understand the differences between these jobs. I’ve highlighted some of them, but I encourage you to talk to people in these positions. Find them on this site, through your connections, or through your alumni directory and engage them. Ask them about their jobs so that you can understand better if it`s a good match for your skills and experience. Also think about the experiences you have had and what you liked and didn’t like about them. How do those map to how I and others describe these jobs? That will help you figure out what`s a better fit for you.

Also take the job skill evaluations on this site for entry level positions in these areas. They`ll give you a good sense for the skills and experiences hiring organizations look for in each of these jobs, and a personalized action plan on what you can do to enhance your competitiveness.