There are few topics as heated as .

But unlike other controversial topics – crypto, the CFA, or social media censorship – this one rarely generates long-running online arguments.

Instead, it mostly produces comments such as: “Am I too old? Do I have any chance if I’m above the age of X? What should I do with my life if I’m too old for banking?”

There were in the two older versions of this article, and most of them were asking these exact questions.

You probably don’t have time to read them all, so here is the of my responses:

Now that I’ve crushed your dreams, let’s take a look at why banks care about :

If you’re asking this question, you probably don’t know much about the industry, so I recommend reading our guides to investment banking career paths and how to get into investment banking first.

matters a lot because:

Banks have been making a big “diversity push” to attract a wider pool of candidates.

But don’t be fooled: yes, they want people with different ethnic backgrounds, skin colors, genders, identities, etc., but .

There is some “wiggle room” because some people start and graduate from university later than others.

So, for example:

There are other confounders here, such as 5-year degrees in some parts of the world, possible volunteer or work experience before you start university, gap years, etc.

Also, these guidelines are less stringent in emerging markets and in cases where you’ve had highly relevant work experience – such as corporate law – or if you’ve already worked in banking, did something else, and now want to return.

If you have a complicated, confusing, or different situation, you should think about your to quickly assess your chances of getting into this industry.

And before someone leaves an angry comment describing their 45-year-old friend who won an IB job offer after spending 20 years in another career, yes, there are always exceptions and crazy stories.

But the basic point is that , and you should do this with your internships and first few jobs.

As you get older, switching becomes more and more difficult, especially if you want to move into an industry that heavily favors younger candidates.

If you still want to get into IB after reading the warnings and explanations above, you should start by asking, “Why?”

I’m not talking about the BS that you use to answer the “Why investment banking?” question in interviews – I’m referring to your real reasons for wanting to make the change:

“You really want to work on deals” means that you treat deals like you read about them constantly, examine the legal documents for fun, and form strong views about M&A deals, IPOs, and more.

For example, think about all the drama surrounding Elon Musk’s deal to acquire Twitter and look at all the documents I highlighted in my analysis of it.

Would you do something like this for fun?

Do you find it interesting to look at presentations, articles, and documents about this type of deal and then form your own views about it, backed up by numbers and analysis?

If that you, you should skip past the next section and go to the bottom part of this article.

If that’s you, but you still want to do something finance-related for higher pay, you should think about alternate pathways that let you achieve some of the same goals:

Your best options in this scenario are:

We’ve covered these options in various other “career path” articles, which I’ve linked to above.

The main point is that while age may be less important, you to have a good shot.

For example, no PE firm will hire you as an “operational partner” or “consultant” if you have 2 – 3 years of project management experience at a tech startup.

You should ideally have a mid-to-high-level role in the industry with responsibility for a specific group’s P&L and a solid network of contacts at different companies.

I have seen a few people get in at the Vice President level after 10+ years of work experience, but only under very specific conditions:

There isn’t much to say about the specific tactics because networking is networking, and you should be quite good at sending emails and picking up the phone if you’re at this level.

This is a vague question, so the only reasonable answer is: “It depends.”

You will not win an IB Analyst or Associate role if you’re a 40- or 50-year-old accountant, but if you want to make more money while doing something related to finance or deals, there are options.

And if you have your heart set on banking, it may be possible to get in above the age of 35, but usually only in very specialized situations.

If your background does not match the specialized circumstances described above, you should spend your time on other pursuits:

These options are investment banking, but they still take you closer to your goals, and they offer more realistic pathways to get there.

And you’ll never be too old for most of them.

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