<p>Interesting article by Ezra Klein on why so many grads from top schools head into finance. His thesis: they're not very well prepared to pursue anything else:</p>
<p>Harvard?s</a> Liberal-Arts Failure Is Wall Street?s Gain: Ezra Klein - Bloomberg</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Being very smart and hardworking are the most marketable skills I know of.
If ANY employer is looking for more than this after 4 years of undergrad, they’re delusional.
They go to Wall Street because they can… and will get paid.</p>
<p>I don’t buy the author’s own explanation for this - the financial and social determinist (combined) explanation makes the most sense. How many kids have you seen on CC ask about income after graduation with few other considerations? A bunch. Society is skewed towards rewarding non-productive industries and it’s a terribly sad reflection on us.</p>
<p>IMO, ivy grads aspire to wall st because they are aspirational by nature. That is what led them to seek an ivy degree at 17.</p>
<p>"Money makes the world go around.
The world go around.
The world go around. </p>
<p>Money makes the world go around
That clinking clanking sound. </p>
<p>Oh, money, money, money, money
A buck, a yen, a crown or a pound
It makes the world go round."</p>
<p>There are a lot of reasons why someone would work in finance, and surprisingly enough, not all of them apply to every person. Some people are interested in finance and have been since high school, and maybe someone else just wants a green card, etc. But for the vast majority of Ivy League students, I think it’s just the prestige, and an easy and familiar application process that makes Wall Street so attractive. Maybe the pay is a part of it too, but I’m not so sure since Teach for America is also incredibly popular. </p>
<p>Also, I don’t think working on Wall Street gives you the skills they claim it does. I’ve done a few internships, the only skill that could possibly be directly applicable to a job not in finance is excel. And maybe the ability to work extremely long hours, if you consider that to be a skill.</p>
<p>The order of events may be a little different: Students with an interest in finance may be especially likely to apply to Ivy League and other top schools if they realize that Wall Street recruits primarily from these colleges.</p>
<p>"Why do so many Ivy grads head into finance? "</p>
<p>Because the NBA wouldn’t give them the time of day . . . UNTIL NOW!</p>
<p>LINSANITY!</p>
<p>Why do you rob banks? Because that’s where the money is.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>To paraphrase Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks:
“because that’s where the money is”</p>
<p>That’s where the money is, that’s where the people like you are, that’s where people obviously value people like you, that’s in the large, exciting cities where you want to live, that’s who is willing to invest a lot of money to train you while paying you a lot of money, that’s who has has created a prestige-based branding system that you understand instinctively because it’s exactly like the prestige-based branding system for colleges, and that’s who comes to your door (practically), interviews you, wines you and dines you, and makes you an offer long before companies in any other industries have started to analyze how many new grads they might be willing to hire for next year.</p>
<p>Also, everyone dresses nice and has good personal hygiene, and that’s where the money is.</p>
<p>If money is so important, then why is Teach for America similarly popular with Ivy League students? Just last year, 18% of Harvard seniors applied for Teach for America.</p>
<p>Because 82% of them don’t.</p>
<p>The answer that best applies to my kid is that the big banks were the only companies who came to campus trying to recruit econ. majors. He would have gladly interviewed with other companies, and did send out resumes to other companies but no bites. </p>
<p>The prestige, money, and living in New York are nice perks, but NOT nice enough to compensate for the 80-120 hour work weeks. But it’s a job that pays the bills (and paid off the college loans) and many other young men his age don’t have a job.</p>
<p>Many of son’s friends from undergrad are working in i-banking and now after a year and a half are being recruited to the boutique pe companies. When he told me how much they will be making salary + bonus I seriously did not believe him at first (so it is the money!). Yep, they are off to buy/lease new places in manhattan. Blew me away. And some of his friends that are working for Teach for America will be leaving in the fall to start at Yale, Harvard and Columbia law.</p>
<p>Several of his classmates in med school also came from the Teach for America programs. And the poster who said about the finance companies on campus, yep true too. Other companies are also there as well, recruiting for the management training programs, J&J, certain beer company, healthcare management…</p>
<p>Fortunately all of son’s friends are either employed (well!) or are in med/dental/law school. So the article’s author I think has the reasons wrong, at least for son’s circle of friends from his undergrad.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>[qutoe]The order of events may be a little different:
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree, but have a different take: the iBanks only recruit at the top tier schools. Podunk State kids need-not apply.</p>
<p>re: TFA…while it may pay the same as Starbucks, TFA looks REALLY good on a resume. If one has no other options other than retail in this economy…</p>
<p>It’s funny: I didn’t read the column before I made my last post, but I think the author and I were saying approximately the same things. It’s a bunch of things together: money, social, convenience, prestige, training, location. </p>
<p>TFA has a bunch of those things, too. Not so much money (although the TFA money is surprisingly not bad) and not always location (but . . . at least in the past TFA has had huge cohorts in major cities), but all the rest of them are nailed, and the sense of moral superiority that TFA provides substitutes for money quite nicely, especially for a limited number of years. And some people really WANT to help those less fortunate than they, which TFA makes very easy to do (and finance doesn’t, because you don’t ever meet anyone who isn’t vastly more fortunate than you).</p>
<p>bluebayou: What makes you think TFA pays the same as Starbucks? My kid got union scale, $45,000 her first year and a raise the next year. Plus health insurance. For nine months of work. Of course, the net was less, because she had to pay (on a discounted basis) for an MEd., and she had to work through the summers on training and graduate work, so the pay had to last for 12 months. Still, it was way more than minimum wage.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not at my daughter’s college. She was an econ major, and she found a job in a different field through on-campus recruiting.</p>
<p>The author’s premise is that Harvard grads are woefully unprepared for employment. I call Bullschitszu.
Also, if some of our populous doesn’t “make bank,” pay a lot of taxes and donate, who will fund TFA? They should get some moral superiority, too. I wouldn’t want to deal with their crap; nor would I want my kids to do it. I’m glad someone is doing it, however.</p>
<p>Because we as a society are skewing more materialistic and individualistic all the time.</p>
<p>Those kids are symptoms showing what we value.</p>