Earlier Start in Finance, Consulting Puts Pressure on Job-Hunting Undergrads

Daniel Wang ’26 wanted to pursue a career in investment banking and private equity, so he started submitting applications in January. “I interviewed in February and March and signed an offer in late March,” he said. 

It’s a path that may sound familiar to Princetonians who interviewed for jobs as seniors or internships as juniors. But Wang began his job search in January 2024, midway through his sophomore year, and signed on for an internship that begins in June 2025. 

Recruiting timelines for professional service industries such as finance and consulting are taking place on an accelerated schedule. Anxiety about the job market, peer pressure, and the early timelines are causing Princeton students to begin the job hunt as early as their sophomore fall — before most have even declared their majors. 

“Finance, consulting, and big tech are industries that hire in a specific way, that have the resources to hire across the country, and we’re seeing these timelines move earlier and earlier,” said Kimberly Betz, the executive director of Princeton’s Center for Career Development. 

Jay Kang ’26 interviewed for jobs from sophomore spring through junior fall and signed an offer with Bain and Co. almost a year before his internship. “The first interview started in May, it went throughout the summer and ended in October, and it was brutal,” said Kang. 

The early timelines place pressure on sophomores. Junior summer internships in these fields are the most direct line to employment after graduation, as many companies extend return offers for full-time employment. 

This early pressure to shift into a career in professional services comes with an increased anxiety that Princeton students are pursuing these opportunities at the direct expense of career paths based “in the service of humanity.” This energy can be felt on campus: I was one of just two students to attend a Career Center event titled “Finding Social Impact Internships & Jobs.” The Bridgewater Associates information sessions held the following month were standing room only. 

While thinking about their careers, students might choose to go into consulting or finance for a myriad of reasons. They are often genuinely interested in the fields, and having highly educated, service-minded people in the highest echelons of business beats the alternative. Many students also confess to pursuing these opportunities to build credibility and become financially stable before switching to a career that aligns more closely with their interests. 

“People are at a crossroads as a sophomore, and consulting is a very visible field,” said prospective SPIA major Sophia Zuo ’27. “It’s very accessible, and it just seems like an alternative, stable, profitable option, which is why when students face uncertainty, they pivot to finance and consulting.” 

Although the recruiting process for finance is early, preparation begins even earlier, as early as students’ freshman spring or sophomore fall. They begin attending information sessions, setting up networking calls, and preparing for interviews. “It’s a very visible process — you hear people in the dining hall saying, ‘I had 10 calls already, I called this Goldman guy.’ If you’re not in a finance club, there is not a lot of clarity about how to approach the process,” said Wang.  

The Center for Career Development tracks the postgraduate employment destination of students. Over the past seven years, it has found that around one-third of surveyed students with jobs after graduation are working in finance or consulting. While students tend to jump around in their careers, the data emphasizes the popularity of these industries as a first step after Princeton. 

Finance seems to be leading the early recruiting timelines — and the recruiting incentives. For example, Insight Partners, a venture capital firm that hires from Princeton, opened its recruiting for 2025-26 full-time investment analyst positions during the fall of 2023. Point72, a highly sought after hedge fund, opened applications for its summer 2025 internship in February 2024. These firms can offer from $120,000 to $200,000 in total compensation for first-year analysts, with quantitative analysts making even more. Consulting salaries typically start in six figures as well.

The overwhelming presence that finance and consulting recruiting has on the Princeton campus often makes students who are pursuing other options second-guess their decisions. “I feel like I’ve always been very certain about my career, that I want to do astrophysics,” said Lillie Szemraj ’26. But in her sophomore year, she was feeling left out when students around her started preparing for technical and case interviews. 

Students who are successful in their pursuit of internships and job offers in the professional services make critical career decisions before they have had a chance to really explore their interests. “I think my main gripe about this is that it feels too early — to a point where you’re not allowed to recruit for other industries that you might be interested in and fully explore your opportunities,” said Wang. “It doesn’t give me as a college student the opportunity to explore other offers.”

The Career Center is accelerating its own visibility to match this hastening of deadlines. The center has started participating in FYRE, the First Year Residential Experience, and connecting with students in their freshman year. The center tries to impress upon students that careers are not linear and that students pursue a broad variety of opportunities after graduation. “By aggregate, there’s more students pursuing other pathways, but there’s no way to see it from a student perspective. From an advising perspective, it’s easier for us to see,” said Michael Caddell, the director of administration for the Center for Career Development.  

“I don’t love those early recruiting timelines. I think it puts a lot of stress on the students. It limits their options and creates a false urgency on students,” said Betz. She wants to encourage students to really think about who they are and what they want to do — and recognize that recruiting in college is just the first step.  

Students do not need to start interviewing and securing offers as sophomores to exit Princeton with good employment opportunities in most fields. If they miss the junior summer full-time recruiting opportunities for finance or consulting, they can still join these industries after graduation. However, their chances of breaking in may be slimmer, which might incentivize them to think about some of the less visible, arguably more interesting career paths. 

“Career paths are so not linear,” Betz said she wants to remind students. “You will probably be doing different things when you’re 30 than when you’re 20.”