The path to work on Wall Street is a long and rigorous obstacle course.
Young people who aspire to become negotiators, traders or investors must now start upon arrival in college. From there, this is an immediate dashboard to join the campus financing clubs, Hobnob with industry professionals and to fill a curriculum vitae with prior distinctions – while maintaining a perfect GPA.
Steps are an unofficial requirement but not included among students in the best target schools (more those elsewhere with a fortune of being aware). Certain financial institutions – namely investment banks, where most Wall Streeters are starting – now scouts young talents during their second year of college. This means that those who wait or do not learn the recruitment game fairly quickly, may be left behind.
“This forces students to concentrate very early at a time when, in my opinion, they should not concentrate, but actually expanding their perspectives,” said Gustavo Schwed, a NYU teacher who worked in the investment bank and investment capital before moving on to the academic world.
A Wharton student who recently signed an internship offer in 2026 in an investment bank said so: “I am a second year student in college, and it is a bit scandalous that we must decide at this age – I have just been 20 years old – which my first job is outside the university.”
The new financial career path
Business Insider spoke to students, recruiters, finance leaders, teachers and many others of what it takes to build a finance career in 2025. We have compiled what we learned in a series of stories and videos that started to deploy on April 16 and which will continue until May. The series seeks to help students better understand what it takes to enter Wall Street and what to expect once they got there.
Come back here to see the last. We will immerse ourselves on what it is really to work for a hedge fund, how the face of Wall Street has changed and the challenges of entering university clubs had to hang this very important course, among other subjects.
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Article credits
Reporters: Emalysis Brownstein, Bradley Saacks, Alex Morrell, Alex Nicoll, Bianca Chan
Publishers: Kaja Whitehouse, Michelle Abrego, Jeffrey Cane, Jamie Heller
Copy of publishers: Kevin Kaplan
Graphics and art: Alyssa Powell, Annie Fu, Randy Yeip, Andy Kiersz,
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