Is it worth leaving an investment banking job for pursuing civil services?

moor

Be it harvard or boston or stanford or cornell...nothing matters...i know people who have qualified and wil qualify from unknown institutions and also seen people of top institutes fail.

Once you are in the field,it doesn't matter who you are/were.
What matters is the end result,which depends upon several factors,some of which are beyond control.
For upsc - success =99 p.c. perspiration and 1pc of the combo of all good things that may happen for an individual.

-Courier her course materials , ncerts, std books, mock tests xeroxes and optional books.
-Give her threads regarding how to prepare while working.
-Dont force to resign from job
-Ask hire to join any online prelims test series and mains test series which has sectional tests so that she can step by step evaluate herself.

If she is serious, she can make it in 2017. She is harvard grad so obviously brainy. Such people just require proper guidance and a littleWho knows she can be next GA! Leaving such a lucrative job is the most stupid decision if you have huge debts and bills to pay. Also, It requires an extreme determination and a crocodile skin to sustain in Indian society.

However, if she wants to leave job and have huge debts, she can easily get job in Gurgaon, Noida and NCR region. There are lot of financial startups and companies who pay huge money to people. She will be hired easily. Moreover, proximity to New Delhi and family will aid her in prep.

BombayPirate

hi guys,my sister is an investment banking associate with bank of america ,MERILYN LYNCH in new york
she is earning a package of close to 300,000 us dollars

however,my parents are trying to suggest to her to come to india and prepare for the civil services..
i am against it knowing how tough it is for a general category aspirant and that its is no guarantee that even if she clears the exam,she will get a very good state
she is a harvard graduate and has high student debt also so foregoing job isnt easy

it would be nice to know what NRIs on this forum think ,or enlightened people in general

thanks

i will try to give you an unbiased perspective since i have a government job, and i am somewhat civil servant.

i also thing that i can answer this because many of my college mates are working in i banking in london and usa. i am a bit on the higher side of age and i am more realistic now at this age than i was when i was 24-25.

few things keep in mind -


1. be very clear why you want to join civil services, if it is prestige then yes there is prestige . but that prestige will largely be from people in tier 2 towns and state capitals.. you will get prestige in the whole state if you become ias or ips.
2. there is more to working life than prestige. for example, what you have to do on daily basis at work is a big component of the quality of your life. "working in rural areas, getting toilet built, indira awas survey" sound good in theory,, but it is not easy to execute. the difference is like travelling uber from end noida to dwarka vs changing three DTC buses in the month of june to travel from noida to dwarka. what will you prefer?
3. a lot of people who are in allied services - that is below ias and ips are having prestige but there work is nothing to do with much building the country or social service. it is mostly like prvate sector job.. my friends who have got through revenue service say that things have changed a lot in irs - they have no diescretionary power and everything is automated.
4. the quality of life your sister wants has to be decided by her. we indians have a fantasy for cracking a competitive exam and making hero out of those persons. even if you see people who are cracking any government exam - even very low level exams, they will be hailed like a hero.. though that person was having much higher caliber to do something outside the government
5. on forum itself i have seen mbbs people aksing whether to do SSC or not. this is ridiculous. u are wasting your life if after mbbs you are thinking of ssc just because it is a government job - no matter what strata of society you come from..
6. so for an i banker, i dont think that it is a wise choice.
7. i come from a very humble background and my sarkari job is fine, but those coming from a prosperous background or leaving very good career.. be sure that in next ten years a lot of people will leave the job to go back to private.. this is what i think

kumargajo

Worthiness is relative.... so it will depend on what parameter you want to judge. Since you have written about pay, top notch education, high profile white collar job , urban city with standard life .... so considering these as your parameter i will say NO it's not worth at all.

trying_tobawesm

@sunnysingh
let us not overhype this exam or civil service whatever u want to call it,,,, if u had said ur sister is IAS it was more believable than 3 lac dollars at merrill lynch and harvard grad,,,i am saying this to point out what she has already achieved,,,assuming that what u said is true,,,,, any given day a brainy person can make changes to society and also earn prestige. Look at elon musk, nadella, pichori,,,n number of examples, where they can make money and are also in position to serve society at a much bigger scale than a IAS can. A simple honest person with some skills in problem solving can serve the public well by joining civil service. A totally brilliant mind needs much bigger ecosystem to realise the potential than civil services where routine work and procedures will bog one down,,in any case there are many openings for lateral entry at top of table be it rajan, pangariya, arvind subramaniam,,,

but i also feel this is ur way of asking shall u try for harvard and leave this upsc thing,,,,,go for it

upsc_cracker

depends on the person

IAS, IPS and IRS are better than any corporate Job

Career trajectory at IB
-->at age of 32-35 Rs 1 crore+ annual package (even in India) great but with 1-2 divorces, 1 heart-attack, Diabetes etc etc (general trend 17 hours *365 with literally no holidays with cut throat competition in stressful environment hardly in anytime for ones health or ones family but yeah some still are able to balance everything and don't necessarily end up the general path)
-->But again if anyone is for money no other job can match it Investment banking


But yeah Harvard MBA is different league, one can realistically become CEO in fortune 500 provided ready to play along corporate culture tough choice to leave aside job with such massive education loan but in case an IVY League person makes it to interview 200+ Interview score is guaranteed

PS: I may be biased against Investment Banking profile as I am more inclined towards better work-life balance

moor

Don't people get scholarship for harvard mba like MS+P.hd. AT the same institutes

GumnamBanjara

I watched 'Gaurav Agarwal's' video about how he left his investment banker job and started preparing for civil services. And later how is life as civil servant.

My conclusion: If you have very strong 'Empathy' , then only its worth it.

Iceberg

In short it all depends on her, where she would want to see herself 5 years down the line? Is she content on glitzy lifestyle of Western world or she started realizing that money matters till certain level only. Or may be other motivation to come back to India and contribute her energy to make her country at par with developed nations.

PS: I left my $100,000 pa Job. But it was 100% my own decision and at times I do feel I took wrong decision.

Chaturchhacha

can any one tell me that what is the procedure of getting into harvard ??

moor

can any one tell me that what is the procedure of getting into harvard ??

Whats your age n background.my neighbour is a harvard alumnus,i can tell u.btw i am also a stanford alumnus.Masters in computer science.