<p>Doubt it’s fake. I also remember there was another cover letter widely circulated around Wall St. awhile ago but can’t remember if it was because it was really good or really bad or funny.</p>
<p>The one that circulated last year was ridiculously braggy, almost a parody of itself. Here you go:</p>
<p>[Awful</a> Cover Letter To JPMorgan Becomes Laughing Stock Of Wall Street](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Awful Cover Letter To JPMorgan Becomes Laughing Stock Of Wall Street | HuffPost Impact)</p>
<p>1/23/2012</p>
<p>J.P. Morgan</p>
<p>Dear Sir or Madame:</p>
<p>I am an ambitious undergraduate at NYU triple majoring in Mathematics, Economics, and Computer Science. I am a punctual, personable, and shrewd individual, yet I have a quality which I pride myself on more than any of these.</p>
<p>I am unequivocally the most unflaggingly hard worker I know, and I love self-improvement. I have always felt that my time should be spent wisely, so I continuously challenge myself; I left Villanova because the work was too easy. Once I realized I could achieve a perfect GPA while holding a part-time job at NYU, I decided to redouble my effort by placing out of two classes, taking two honors classes, and holding two part-time jobs. That semester I achieved a 3.93, and in the same time I managed to bench double my bodyweight and do 35 pull-ups.</p>
<p>I say these things only because solid evidence is more convincing than unverifiable statements, and I want to demonstrate that I am a hard worker. J.P. Morgan is a firm with a reputation that precedes itself and employees who represent only the best and rightest in finance. I know that the employees in this firm will push me to excellence, especially within the Investment Banking division. In fact, one of the supporting reasons I chose Investment Banking over any other division was that I know it is difficult. I hope to augment my character by diligently working for the professionals at Morgan Stanley, and I feel I have much to offer in return.</p>
<p>I am proficient in several programming languages, and I can pick up a new one very quickly. For instance, I learned a years worth of Java from NYU in 27 days on my own; this is how I placed out of two including: Money and Banking, Analysis, Game Theory, Probability and Statistics. Even further, I am taking Machine Learning and Probabilistic Graphical Modeling currently, two programming courses offered by Stanford, so that I may truly offer the most if I am accepted. I am proficient with Bloomberg terminals, excellent with excel, and can perform basic office functions with terrifying efficiency. I have plenty of experience in the professional world through my internship at Merrill Lynch, and my research assistant position at NYU. In fact, my most recent employer has found me so useful that he promoted me to a Research Assistant and an official CTED intern. This role is usually reserved for Masters students, but my employer gave the title to me so that he could give me more work.</p>
<p>Please realize that I am not a braggart or conceited, I just want to outline my usefulness. Egos can be a huge liability, and I try not to have one.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Mark</p>
<p>I didn’t finde anything ‘amazing’ in is cover letter to warrant all of the internet sensation this seemed to cause.</p>
<p>Haters, most of the posters on this thread. I’m really happy for the kid. Success is often a combination of good timing, leverage, and luck. There was obviously something about this kid’s email that resonated with the recipient and colleagues to whom it was forwarded that afternoon. And the criticisms from the posters here? My guess is most are envious, entitled, but mostly scared parents who believe their son/daughter is more deserving.</p>
<p>^
My critique wasn’t about the applicant. Good for him. I took issue with the low bar to impress his future employers. Having minimal skill but a willingness to do anything is the standard application for any manual labor employer. These Wall Streeters are in a bubble detached from the real economy that’s not doing them any favors.</p>
<p>(and those Occupy protesters really bugged me so don’t mistake my criticism as political. It’s more cultural)</p>
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<p>Please. I don’t want my kids anywhere near Wall Street. There is nothing honorable to me about most of what happens there.</p>
<p>My criticism is mostly based on reaction to the hysteria over a halfway-decent (and I do mean HALFWAY-decent) letter being called “amazing.” It is not creative. It is not perfectly written. It is not original. And, as others have said, this is not some rags-to-riches or look-at-poor-me story that should stand out to anyone. The kid has already had a good internship. He has already been in New York and met the people he is writing to. The letter is fine, but the gushing about it is completely unwarranted, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Just more proof that social media has no quality filter…</p>
<p>How about this part ;</p>
<p>“It says he may not think he has any unbelievably special skills or genius eccentricities, but it looks like he still has a lot to brag about. When he was at Placer High School, he played baseball, basketball and football, taking his teams to championships as a star athlete.”</p>
<p>Go Placer! :D</p>
<p>You didn’t find anything amazing because there is nothing amazing. Many other undergraduates could have wrote a letter just like–if not the same as–this in 10 minutes.</p>
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<p>lol </p>
<p>I hope the people on wall street are better at making guesses than you are.</p>
<p>Since people are posting without context, I can fill in some info. </p>
<p>Wall Street firms recruit almost exclusively from target schools. These are top schools like HYPSW + other ivies + top state schools (Berkeley, Michigan, UVA etc.) Basically the cream of the crop. Kids at non-target schools (99% of the other colleges) have little to no shot at Wall Street. They have to compete with these target school kids for very limited spots. Not to mention that not everyone from a target ends up getting an offer. It’s extremely competitive.</p>
<p>Applying for an internship at one of the top tier ibanks from a non-target is the equivalent of applying to Harvard with a 3.5 and an average SAT. Not impossible but we all know the chances. Why hire some non-target kid when you can snag a 3.8+ from Wharton to fill in a spot? </p>
<p>This kid is from SDSU I believe. A recruiter that receives a resume and sees SDSU is going to toss it. They’re looking for the big names (target schools, maybe semi-targets). The kid was smart. He avoided that knowing he wouldn’t have a chance and contacted someone within the firm and sent a letter that cut out all the ***<strong><em>. That’s why it’s impressive. Instead of bragging about his achievements and coming off as an obnoxious *</em></strong>, he was very blunt and straightforward.</p>
<p>So in context, he was coming from a school with maybe a .05% chance of landing a job on wall street but it looks like he did it by sending in a cover letter that went against the norm. </p>
<p>There is a lot of misguided hate in this thread but I’m happy for the guy. He’s getting a 6 figure offer out of school. Haters gonna hate.</p>
<p>wall street must get awful letters…</p>
<p>don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for the guy, and his letter was good, but I don’t see how it’s brilliant. emprex’s context does make it look a bit more impressive, but… one of the best letters? that’s a bit… sad.</p>
<p>not hating on anyone, just saying that the letter didn’t stand out to me to such an extent</p>
<p>I agree with most of the comments, but would just add that junior employees at investment banks can spend over 100 hours per week slaving away in their offices. During segments of those marathon work sessions, the senior guys are right there with them. Therefore, being likeable and interesting is an important attribute in a candidate. If you’re arrogant or annoying, it won’t matter how smart you are. They won’t hire you because they won’t be able to tolerate spending that many hours a day with you. It sounds like this guy did have the grades and experience, and his letter announced he was also fun.</p>
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<p>Sorry to be blunt, but you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>First of all, “Wall Street” is filled with many different firms. You have investment banks and then you have hedge funds, private equity, and other asset managers all doing a skilled labor: directing funds for high net worth clients. Just as honorable as any other skilled labor profession.</p>
<p>Now, I assume you mean an investment bank. Let’s dissect an investment bank. You have the support functions, which comprises a very large portion of the work force: human resources, finance, accounting, research & presentation services. All labor and just as honorable, unless you’re suggesting that the working class isn’t honorable. That would be a personal problem so I’ll leave that one alone. Then we have the revenue generating front office positions: investment management, sales & trading, and investment banking advisory.</p>
<p>Investment management professionals invest money for institutional and high net worth clients. Institutional usually means pension funds: so are you suggesting that managing money for people to retire isn’t as honorable as any other line of work, then I think we’d all like to know why. The generally smaller part of this line of business is high net worth clients.</p>
<p>Investment banking advisory is a bunch of overworked salaried professionals providing strategic advice to F500 firms and the like on raising capital through debt and equity (IPOs and bond offerings, the stuff you probably have your money invested in) and on mergers and acquisitions (buying and selling businesses for growth, many times which allow your investments to appreciate in value). </p>
<p>Sales & trading generally has fewer numbers in employees these days and most of it is electronic. This allows asset managers and retail investors the liquidity to trade in and out of the market and redirect their money where they see fit. </p>
<p>Now, the financial crisis brought up conflicts between two lines of work: proprietary trading and financial advisors. There were groups of people within firms that thought it’d be a good idea for their own groups to advise clients to buy **** that their proprietary traders were selling like mad men in order to boost their own bonuses. That is dishonorable, but a large part of what goes on there? Ignorance. There is room for a lack of integrity (and error: yes, not everything about the financial crisis was on purpose) in just about every line of profession, even other high impact ones like science and engineering (weapon design, anyone?). What’s the common thread here? That lack of integrity usually involves an outside source, such as overzealous American consumers with no intent to honor their debts (subprime crisis) and governments (“defense” spending). </p>
<p>If your kid wanted a position on Wall Street, then I imagine you’d support him or her and I suspect that maybe you’d read up like you’ve done on colleges and other institutions of higher learning before offering your own opinion. We’re all here to learn about different opportunities out there so let’s no trash others’ choices without some semblance of rationality and reason to back it up.</p>
<p>^Nice. I just got lectured at by an undergraduate finance major who already wants to veer off the path of working on Wall Street (yet is still, by his own admission, very motivated by money).</p>
<p>You have no right to insult me or assume what I do or do not know about career opportunities in finance. You have no idea whether I, or someone I care about, might have suffered at the hands of profiteering financial speculators. Nor do you have any idea how I define the word “honorable” or what that means for my dreams for my children (or theirs for themselves).</p>
<p>What you do have is a lot of nerve. Hopefully some day you will learn how to communicate in a way that encourages discussion, not stifles it.</p>
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<p>Sorry if you feel insulted. My primary goal was to educate readers who might otherwise be swayed by a parent’s misinformed opinion. </p>
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<p>Right… like the sweeping generalization you made on an entire line of work?</p>
<p>My decision to work or not work on Wall Street is contingent on my own informed experience and desires out of life, not because “there is nothing honorable about most of what happens there.” And yes, as a taxpayer, consumer, and employee, many of my decisions have been and will be going forward economically motivated.</p>
<p>You really don’t get it. What <em>I</em> think is my own opinion. It IS informed; otherwise I would not hold it. Again, you have no knowledge of what I know or don’t know. (And by the way, your bias is evident in your position…so why should anyone give more weight to your opinion?) Also, I hate to break it to you, but there are a lot of people who share my feelings and are equally disenchanted with what goes on in the world of finance/investment banking. Why don’t you go after some of the other posters with equally critical comments? Or, better yet, admit that there are some valid reasons why people are suspicious of the big Wall Street banks/consulting firms/hedge funds/et al. Clearly, the industry is not the “be all/end all” for you either, or else you wouldn’t be thinking about alternate career paths.</p>
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<p>Your words. Actually, from reading your other posts, you sound like someone who has given a lot of thought to what you want out of your life. That’s commendable for someone at your stage in life. I hope your time in Prague gives you even more perspective, and that you lay off attacking people your mom’s age. :)</p>
<p>Good for him (I suppose, it obviously spoke to the readers for some reason)
But if that passes for an amazing letter on Wall Street, I’d hate to see the other ones.</p>
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<p>What is the “most” you refer to, since you pound the table so voiciferously that you have an “informed opinion.” OK, show me. What backs up your “informed” opinion re “most.” Have you ever worked on Wall Street? Have you ever raised capital for a young, growing company? Have you ever provided a fairness opinion on a multi-billion dollar merger, putting your firm on the line for lawsuits? So, what, exactly is the basis for your “informed opinion”? Some New York Times op-eds about Bernie Madoff? If you intend to bash Mr./Ms. Kunderam specific evidence above with only the sweeping generalization that your opinion is “informed,” you get tossed out of court unless you provide your own evidence. And, as Mr./Ms Kunderam has tried to school you, “Wall Street” is not only populated by some notorious hedge funds, but also by people who go about their daily work moving the gears that finance your lifestyle.</p>
<p>I have used that upfront honesty in dating…it works on a 50/50 basis. sometimes honesty sells you.</p>