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I'm convinced that most of the long hours of corporate America can be explained as a form of signaling. This is just more evidence that there are a whole lot of
by gringoDan 8y ago
I'm convinced that most of the long hours of corporate America can be explained as a form of signaling. This is just more evidence that there are a whole lot of bullshit jobs out there. [0]
Anecdotally, when I worked as an investment banking analyst, there was hardly anything to do from 9-5, then 6-8 hours of work was dumped on my desk at 5pm. Half of that work was un-doing changes I made the day before because the VP on the team didn't like the updates the Associate wanted. Organizations are set up to be inefficient in order to signal how serious they are and what hard workers they have.
[0] https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/ https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/
- da02 8y agoWas this the reason or part of the reason you left being an investment banking analyst? What's the educational requirements/qualifications to for an investment banking analyst?
- rohitb91 8y agoNot OP but to get in generally go to an ivy league school, or go to a non target with an amazing GPA, ECs and luck, or have connections.
- gringoDan 8y agoOP here - I agree with this. If you're at an Ivy the banks and consulting firms come to you, then it's just a matter of 1) studying the basic interview questions and being able to speak semi-intelligently about financial topics and 2) interviewing a ton until you find a firm with people similar to you and like your personality. I left because I was depressed during the job and realized I wanted work with fewer hours that was more intellectually challenging. I saw people 2-3 years ahead of me in their careers leaving for startups and thought I'd skip the 2 years of misery and do that straight away.
- da02 8y agoWhat industry/field did you go into afterwards? B2B or B2C startups?
- gringoDan 8y agoI've worked in both. I'm of the opinion that early on in your career it really doesn't matter, you could do either. There are far more important things to think about (company & personal growth trajectory, coworkers & culture, learning opportunities, etc.) when choosing a company.
- swingline-747 8y agoVirtue signaling... while accomplishing little-to-nothing. Fire the Workaholics IIRC was a 37signals blog article that brings some sanity to unreasonable, unproductive patterns.