The new finance career path: Read BI's stories about the challenges of breaking into investing and dealmaking

The path to working on Wall Street is a long and rigorous obstacle course.

Young people who aspire to become dealmakers, traders, or investors must now begin as soon as they arrive at college. From there, it's an immediate dash to join campus finance clubs, hobnob with industry professionals, and fill a résumé with pre-internship accolades — all while maintaining a perfect GPA.

The steps are an unofficial yet unspokenly understood requirement among students at top target schools (plus those elsewhere with the fortune of being in the know). Some financial institutions — namely investment banks, where most Wall Streeters start out — now scout young talent during their sophomore year of college. That means those who wait, or don't learn the recruiting game quickly enough, risk being left behind altogether.

"It forces students to focus very early at a time when, in my opinion, they should be not focusing, but actually broadening their perspectives," Gustavo Schwed, an NYU professor who worked in investment banking and private equity before switching to academia, said.

A Wharton student who recently signed a 2026 internship offer at an investment bank put it this way: "I am a sophomore in college, and it's kind of outrageous that we have to decide at this age — I just turned 20 — what my first job is out of college."

The new finance career path

Business Insider talked to college students, recruiters, finance executives, professors, and many others about what it takes to build a career in finance in 2025. We compiled what we learned into a series of stories and videos that started rolling out on April 16 and which will continue through May. The series seeks to help students better understand what it takes to break into Wall Street and what to expect once they get there.

Check back here to see the latest. We will delve into what it's really like to work for a hedge fund, how the face of Wall Street has changed, and the challenges of getting into the college clubs needed to snag that all-important internship, among other topics.

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_{Article credits
Reporters: Emmalyse Brownstein, Bradley Saacks, Alex Morrell, Alex Nicoll, Bianca Chan
Editors: Kaja Whitehouse, Michelle Abrego, Jeffrey Cane, Jamie Heller
Copy Editors: Kevin Kaplan
Graphics and art: Alyssa Powell, Annie Fu, Randy Yeip, Andy Kiersz,}