4 ms·

Realistically, what happens when you try this hard for a job? Is it worth it? Does something bad happen? Is there a reason most people don't do this kind of

Realistically, what happens when you try this hard for a job? Is it worth it? Does something bad happen? Is there a reason most people don't do this kind of thing?

Frocer 19y ago
Investment banking and strategy consulting are two of the most competitive fields to get into right out of college / biz school. Reasons being the pay is ludicrous. What the writer described is not uncommon for people who want to break in the industries and didn't attend a core hiring school. Is it worth it? Depends on who you are I guess. You are rewarded with high salary and bonuses, you are working with some of the smartest people, but you are still restricted in a corporation environment. Why don't most people do this? Who knows, may be they don't have the drive like the writer, or they simply don't know about these fields.
- timr 19y ago
  That doesn't make sense to me: if people are climbing the walls for positions, the salaries shouldn't be astronomical. Something else must be at play.
  - fallentimes 19y ago
    They need something to attract the talent and make them "climb the walls" for the position, especially investment banks where the work can be extremely tedious.
  - npk 19y ago
    Mean Salary at Goldman Sachs last year was $650K. Obviously, the distribution is non-gaussian, so the median salary is significantly lower. Meaning, you start working at GS for $100K/year, because, in a few years (if you're good) you'll grow to the $1M+ category. On a risk-adjusted basis, ibanking is the most lucrative profession.
    - timr 19y ago
      I'm not disputing that the salaries are high; I'm saying that the high salaries do not fit with the demand for the job. There has to be another filter at work. Specifically, I suspect that luck plays a highly significant role.
      - wallflower 19y ago
        Luck and Survival... Jungle smarts. Desire to become BSDs Liar's Poker is an excellent first-person view of the NSFW work environment at Salomon Brothers. But don't read LP - read Fiaz's top-rated (34-point) personal story of becoming a trader: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413 "After racking up some rather hefty losses, I was determined to quit at one point during month four, but because I had a habit of waking up at 4:30 am I simply "forgot" that the night before I told myself I would quit and spare myself further humiliation...by then I was warned that I was now on the red list of traders ready to be cut."

Realistically, what happens when you try this hard for a job? Is it worth it? Does something bad happen? Is there a reason most people don't do this kind of thing?

Frocer 19y ago

Investment banking and strategy consulting are two of the most competitive fields to get into right out of college / biz school. Reasons being the pay is ludicrous. What the writer described is not uncommon for people who want to break in the industries and didn't attend a core hiring school. Is it worth it? Depends on who you are I guess. You are rewarded with high salary and bonuses, you are working with some of the smartest people, but you are still restricted in a corporation environment. Why don't most people do this? Who knows, may be they don't have the drive like the writer, or they simply don't know about these fields.

timr 19y ago
That doesn't make sense to me: if people are climbing the walls for positions, the salaries shouldn't be astronomical. Something else must be at play.
- fallentimes 19y ago
  They need something to attract the talent and make them "climb the walls" for the position, especially investment banks where the work can be extremely tedious.
- npk 19y ago
  Mean Salary at Goldman Sachs last year was $650K. Obviously, the distribution is non-gaussian, so the median salary is significantly lower. Meaning, you start working at GS for $100K/year, because, in a few years (if you're good) you'll grow to the $1M+ category. On a risk-adjusted basis, ibanking is the most lucrative profession.
  - timr 19y ago
    I'm not disputing that the salaries are high; I'm saying that the high salaries do not fit with the demand for the job. There has to be another filter at work. Specifically, I suspect that luck plays a highly significant role.
    - wallflower 19y ago
      Luck and Survival... Jungle smarts. Desire to become BSDs Liar's Poker is an excellent first-person view of the NSFW work environment at Salomon Brothers. But don't read LP - read Fiaz's top-rated (34-point) personal story of becoming a trader: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413 "After racking up some rather hefty losses, I was determined to quit at one point during month four, but because I had a habit of waking up at 4:30 am I simply "forgot" that the night before I told myself I would quit and spare myself further humiliation...by then I was warned that I was now on the red list of traders ready to be cut."