I’ll admit it upfront; I think there are better things for most of you high school and university students than going into finance. Anyone’s free to disagree with me in the comments below.I think too many people watch Wolf Of Wall Street and just get some belief fixed in their head that they have to go into banking, it’s so cool and sexy, blah blah blah. It’s like my friends who want to be doctors. I’m like do you really want to spend all your 20’s in school? “Of course I do,” they respond. “I want to help people!”, as if there’s no other way to “help” people! Likewise, quit acting as if there’s no other way to make good money and gain prestige.I’ll start by talking about who should go into finance. First, you need to be willing to work your ass off. The average banker works between 70 and 90 hours a week. I promise you that’s less exciting and more miserable than it sounds. Top recruiters at BB banks admit people often don’t realize just how much work they are expected to do.Second, you should genuinely be interested in finance, the companies you work with, stocks, sales, and whatever it is you will do. It’ll be way easier to find a job and keep it that way, and it will at least compensate for the long hours. But bear in mind, if you can be interested in finance, I’m sure you can become interested in lots of subjects. If number crunching interests you, you will probably be satisfied as an economist at a tech company. If the way the economy works interests you, maybe you would be a better fit as a researcher for a university. If sales interests you, you can go into any sales job outside of finance, etc. The point is that your interests can be flexible if you let them, so don’t get fixated on what your “dream job” is. Like Mike Rowe from dirty jobs points out, don’t follow your passion. Follow the opportunities and bring your passion with you. Heck, if a welder can make 75K pounds per year, then don’t just ignore that opportunity because it’s not good enough for you.Third, you should go to a target school. I know this is controversial, and of course there is always exceptions to the rule. If you do not go to a target school, of course you can work harder than anyone else, network every weekend, learn everything from technical skills to soft skills, to maximize your chances of getting hired. It’s not that it can’t be done; but at what cost? Why spend twice as hard as you would need to? As discussed here, going to a target school is much more important for business than for engineering such as CS or mechanical. You can still get a great paying job with an “average” degree in engineering as opposed to the equivalent degree in finance.So, is finance, IB, etc. as good as it sounds? Don’t you make a ton of money?!?! Well, the average starting pay including bonus is around 50k pounds, but that’s not as much as you would think. Assuming you work for 50k/ 80 hours a week, that’s about 12.5 pounds per hour. You can get a bloody job at McDonald’s for like 8 pounds per hour. At the equivalent level of effort (80 hours a week), you would make 32k pounds a year from McDonald’s.Granted, after 3 to 5 years in the industry, average salary and bonus increases to 90k pounds, so this leads to better opportunities than McDonald’s. But, keep in mind, only those who stay, and who stay on the top, are the ones with that lavish pay. Many starting jobs in finance have essentially become a checkbox- let me get a couple years in and then get the hell out once it’s on my resume. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, it assumes you get to that point in the first place. If you spend your 3 years at a mediocre uni hoping this is how it will work out, and then you can’t even find a job after graduation, you are out of luck.What about the future career prospects? Everyone knows that the industry is getting more and more regulated and more and more automated. You know what that means for you? Less job opportunities and more competition for the existing people. The jobs with the best security and prospects in finance right now are compliance related. The regulations have gotten to the point of serious liability for those high up in finance. Buy side definitely has an advantage here of being less regulated, but likewise many of the jobs will be automated.Another problem I have with the finance industry is how banks are so damn focused on what university you attend, as if only the good bankers go to target universities. Prestigious schools are for the most part scams, teaching you virtually nothing more than an average university but only accepting the smartest kids (and then getting all the credit when the smart kids go on to do great things). The biggest advantage of going to a top school is nothing more than being around other smart students/ professors, but don’t actually expect a better quality education. And unfortunately, an industry with less job prospects and more competition will only become even more prestige-focused.So, what other job/ career/ industries could you possibly enter into? Anything and everything! Join the tech industry and help automate some of those finance jobs. The average computer science graduate can make very similar amounts to bankers, most likely without working as much. You can still have a personal life, imagine that. In the tech industry alone, there are tons of diversity; you can be a web developer, work on hardware, or work on machine learning. Engineering, like CS, has an incredible range of opportunities, with comparable pay to IB (at least for the first 5 years). Finally, be an entrepreneur! If you’re going to work 100 hours a week, don’t do it for the man; do it for yourself. It’s more risky and perhaps more challenging, but you have the work ethic for it and you get to capture all the upside if it’s successful. I’ll be the first to say that this route has its downsides, but a successful entrepreneur will likely be wealthier than a 30 year old banker. (The key is in being successful.)If after reading all of this, you still feel just as excited about finance as before, then it’s probably right for you. If you read this and have started feeling weary, consider your other options! Anyone who wants to PM asking for more specific advice related to what career path they should follow, feel free.