<p>Seems to be the general tone of this forum. I ask because it's been a fear of mine since my oldest went to college and moving to NYC or London for finance has been her dream. I saw that she lost a lot of scholarships to peers with less impressive numbers, and they always put physician or "run a non-profit" as career goals. I take banker and "pre-med" to be just about the two biggest cliches there are for 17-20 y.o., in that both are extremely narrow and competitive fields. More often than not both sets of kids are more than likely consultants after finishing up at a competitive undergrad. In the shadow of the recession, I guess I didn't know just how bad this comes across.</p>
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<p>It is awesome! Why would you be embarassed about your child’s dream? Enjoy.</p>
<p>Banking can be very rewarding. Helping other people achieve their financial dreams can be great. There are bad bankers, but there are also bad doctors. Hopefully your child will be good at whatever it his he/she does.</p>
<p>Don’t over think it. As they say, haters gonna hate!</p>
<p>Depends on the prevailing culture of a given school or local environment. </p>
<p>At my public magnet HS, having aspirations for going into banking/finance or business/organizational consulting was regarded as a complete positive. In my time there, this perception was accompanied by dismissive comments about perceived “naivete” of those going into activist or charitable non-profits or “do-gooder” occupations like K-12 teaching. </p>
<p>It was completely flipped at my LAC when I was there. Only the dismissive comments about aspiring banking/finance people and business/organizational consulting was more about them being “bourgeois capitalist tools” or something along those lines. </p>
<p>Very interesting to have been exposed to two wildly contrasting environments with near opposite perceptions on this very issue. </p>
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<p>Best to be honest and follow one’s dreams. Nothing at all wrong with living in and exciting city, doing exciting work, and earning a nice living. Sounds pretty good to me.</p>
<p>Consider the many parents who have to put up with sneering or jocular remarks about the supposed future unemployability of their kids who majored in something that is not obviously lucrative. Should they be embarrassed?</p>
<p>Probably less embarrassing than telling people your kid runs a crystal meth lab or is a pole dancer.</p>
<p>Is this poster for real?</p>
<p>“Banking” (investment banking) and pre-med are both very common cliches, true, but I think they mean different things. I think wanting to be a doctor translates into wanting respect, wanting to help people, wanting to be smart, wanting to be well-paid, wanting a clear career path, being willing to work hard, being smart, being a rule-follower, and being science-oriented. It’s not the most creative thing in the world, but I don’t see anything wrong with any of that. And most kids have a very good idea from personal experience of what doctors do. Wanting to be an investment banker translates, first and foremost, into wanting to be inordinately rich. That’s pretty much the only thing most high school kids know about investment banking – that young bankers are paid ridiculous salaries, for which they have to work hard, and that if they survive in the industry they will out-earn movie stars and CEOs. The kids who have this ambition also want to be smart and are willing to work hard and want respect, but most of all they want to feed at the trough. And they have practically no idea what being an investment banker entails, besides wearing expensive clothes and snorting cocaine off the stomachs of models (which is how the movies portray them). So it’s more than a little difficult to respect a kid with that ambition set, even if I like them otherwise.</p>
<p>I have known plenty of investment bankers, by the way. None of the great ones started out wanting to be investment bankers; they mostly stumbled into it from some other passion.</p>
<p>@happy1‌ That’s an eloquent way to put it. I like the focus on the city living, exciting and fast paced work place and a nice living. Thank you. I just feel like a lot of people hear banker these days and think Wall Street scum. Anyone read the NY Times’s comment section lately? Yikes.</p>
<p>“Best to be honest and follow one’s dreams. Nothing at all wrong with living in and exciting city, doing exciting work, and earning a nice living. Sounds pretty good to me.”</p>
<p>I think it’s great. Financiers help fund our economy – how many companies would never start without a bank taking a chance on them? The repercussions of that alone (less competition, fewer jobs, crappier products, higher prices, etc.) would be disastrous.</p>
<p>Banks fund people who are willing to take on risk. In a (mostly) Capitalistic system, they are indispensable.</p>
<p>OP, you need to hang out with different people. 
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<p>Being a banker is very rewarding and can be done in many locales. City or country living, there is a banking job for you!</p>
<p>“Is this poster for real?”</p>
<p>My thoughts exactly. The OP has posted on another thread that she sends her kids to private school so they don’t have to share the school hallways with riff-raff. [-( </p>
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<p>Walter White made this a cool career choice</p>
<p>I am an accountant and I tried to interest both of my (strong in math) kids in finance but neither took the bait.</p>
<p>Really, nobody cares, unless you or your kids exhibit a snobby attitude.</p>
<p>Sort of wish my kids would get interested in something practical like banking/finance–instead of liberal arts, painting, film, etc. Wanna trade? Would you be more “embarrassed” to say your kid is an art major?</p>
<p>@atomom‌ I would absolutely be embarrassed about art. But the finance thing is embarrassing for different reasons. I think the medicine set definitely oozes a level of prestige and nobility … computer science is hot right now … I can see how finance or banking could seem money hungry and sleazy, especially in light of the recession and the foreclosure crisis. I suppose it depends on the circles you’re in.</p>
<p>One would think a parent would redefine the circles they’re in if the circles look down on their child’s ambitions and aspirations. But hey, we can’t be all supportive and tune out the onlookers when it comes to our family. </p>
<p>If your child is interested in something that’s not criminal or immoral, why be embarrassed? Every single profession or field has its stereotypes, some positive, some negative. There is no such thing as universal approbation. If one expects universal oohs and aahs for your kid’s vocational choice, prepare to be disappointed.</p>
<p>It is true that “Wall Street” has suffered a decline in societal respect from its postwar glory days. But what institution hasn’t? It’s partly because of the change in culture (“Greed is good”) and the pressures of globalization. But there are good, mediocre, and bad people in every industry.</p>
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<p>And yet:</p>
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<p>– John Adams</p>