<p>If you’re interested in working in the Wall Street trenches and wonder what the day to day life is like, there ‘s no better book than “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers” by Lawrence G. McDonald. The author grew up in Massachusetts and writes about his part time jobs while in high school and college. After graduating from Boston College, he gets a job working for Lehman Brothers on Wall St. The book describes his entry level trading desk job and his rise to a vice president’s position in the firm. McDonald goes into great detail about his life at Lehman Brothers and the politics and personalities of the company during the 2007 financial meltdown. This book is a great read! I’ve read it twice…</p>
<p>To go along with the book, get a DVD of the movie “Margin Call” which covers the same territory about a fictionalized banking company (modeled on Lehman Brothers).during the mortgage crisis. </p>
<p>To get a feel for how math whizzes changed the Wall St. landscape, get “The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It” by Scott Peterson (a Wall Street Journal reporter). No math knowledge required…the book looks at the personalities and their complex computer trading programs </p>
<p>If this doesn’t scare you away from a career on Wall St., then good luck to you!</p>