<p>The market meltdown is already having an impact on newly recruited grads in i-banking and career prospects for seniors.
I just read this item in the Harvard Crimson</p>
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<p>At colleges such as Harvard, recruiting typically begins over the next few weeks. This is a pretty bad time to be holding college fairs.</p>
<p>They could become nurses.</p>
<p>The problem is that hedge funds typically hire few new grads. They are also not immune to the overall market issues. There is no way they and other private equity firms can make much of a dent in the hole the investment houses will leave. We in NYC understand tough times are here. Newly minted grads will have to look elsewhere, and in this recession will have to be very creative.</p>
<p>Indeed, Mini!
S’s chums are not interested in i-banking (not an econ major in the lot of them). Unfortunately, a few don’t know what they want to do after graduation. But this may shrink econ enrollments at quite a few colleges.</p>
<p>Not much consolation, but as students of economics they shouldn’t be surprised of the ups and downs of the business.</p>
<p>Don’t be surprised if the number of applications to popular graduate and professional degree programs jumps through the roof in the next few years as graduating seniors can’t find jobs. I’m confident that law school applications are going to go through the roof.</p>
<p>I -bankers are male prostitutes. Female prostitutes sell their bodies. Male prostitutes sell their souls.</p>
<p>In the last few years, large law firms have started paying their first year associates obscene amounts ($140,000-$160,000 a year, for NO experience) because they were afraid the investments banks would lure away the brightest and best. My firm decided NOT to jump on that particular bandwagon…so glad we didn’t!</p>
<p>there’s always a need for accountants.</p>
<p>Hey, dstark, I know of at least one female college graduate who went into ibanking. and I have read about male prostitutes (rent boys, gigolos, toy boys).</p>
<p>Just like inexperienced 20 somethings got rich fast during the early dot.com era, so did the hedge funder and IBers.</p>
<p>Frankly, I am not so sad to see this bust up (although I hate the repercussions for the economy). Time for them all to get a real job now. They’ll survive, and even learn to live without brand new everything and granite countertops.</p>
<p>I am very surprised to see the investment banking hate on such an overall intelligent site. Do you guys think people become corporate lawyers, accountants, actuaries, dentists, consultants…for the love of the job as opposed to making a good living?Yet a job in banking would be considered far more creative and rewarding than those in many other arenas. If you love numbers, the art of the deal, thinking about whole companies that are more than the parts alone were worth and many other challenges, there’s no job that will use your skills better.</p>
<p>My sister is a teacher, she and most teachers I know do the job because they can get off at 3 and have summers off. They are choosing a life style just like bankers and lawyers are, just different ones. Is one really better?</p>
<p>Sure, there are bad bankers just as there are bad everything else, but come on, there are no more bankers doing it for just the money than people in any other high paying job.</p>
<p>^^ Agree. Besides that, the price they pay is huge. No life of their own for several years. Living and breathing the job. No time to spend all that money they make! I can’t tell you how many kids at my son’s school have abandoned the idea of IB once they actually started taking the courses and the reality of the whole thing sunk in. And these were the kids heading for the truly big bucks.</p>
<p>The complaints on bankers (and I’d be happy to include lawyers here) are that they take from society without really improving it. The last decade showed a transfer of wealth from Main St to Wall St. With Wall St screwing it up so bad after that that Main St has to now bail out Wall St. There are more than a few people annoyed that people would get paid huge salaries to fleece the rest of the country.</p>
<p>I have no problems with accountants, actuaries, dentists and consultants - as long as they provide a useful function to society in making a product, preferably for export or providing services commensurate with their compensation.</p>
<p>I agree with BCEagle. Some of the Ibankers and fund managers got obscenely (and I mean, obscenely) rich by fooling around with other people’s money. Yes, and a whole lot of them fleeced the country. Providing a service is something altogether different than taking advantage of people, which is what many (though not all) of big money managers have done.</p>
<p>I don’t mind if they need to work at Home Depot or Walmart for awhile.</p>
<p>Again, there are bad people in every line of work. Personally I’m offended by how my dentist fleeces everyone. An owner of a dental lab told me the other night that dentists pay about 1/15 of what they charge patients for an implanted tooth. But heck, the guy had to go to school, do fairly well, take some risks in opening the office and buying the equipment so I guess he’s entitled to live well.</p>
<p>Bankers have to do exceptionally well in school, work obscene hours, give up their social lives for years on end and risk losing jobs in downturns like the one we’re now seeing. There is no security, one bad deal and you’re gone. They burn out and have shorter careers than most. Why begrudge them doing well when they can?</p>
<p>Your dentist isn’t going to pile up $600 billion in loans and then stiff the lenders.</p>
<p>“Don’t be surprised if the number of applications to popular graduate and professional degree programs jumps through the roof in the next few years as graduating seniors can’t find jobs. I’m confident that law school applications are going to go through the roof.”</p>
<p>My husband said the exact same thing yesterday.</p>
<p>The best time to go into banking is on the heels of a correction. We’re far from there yet. </p>
<p>I don’t particularly enjoy the prostitution reference. If it means that something is being used other than in the way it was intended or ought to be used, OK. If so, I’d include the ACLU, most defense lawyers, and a lot of the media, and frankly a lot of the government programs. I suppose prostitution is in the eye of the beholder, eehh?</p>
<p>Let your investment banker put in your dental implant, and then you’ll see the difference. It’s not the cost of the implant, but the years of skill and training. I have an MBA, and a law degree myself, and I know quite a bit about investment banking since I used to be an M&A attorney years ago. At the latest iteration, it appears that there is absolutely no ethical fiber left. Just sell the customer any old crap, and if you get stuck holding the bag, too bad.</p>
<p>I would think there must be some serious disclosure issues on these sub prime syndications. I wonder if the prospectus said that there is absolutely no way that you will ever get paid back dollar for dollar (let alone get a return). Or that if the real estate market goes south, you will be burned, badly. Where is the SEC on that?</p>
<p>I suppose that a lot of the little people in the industry get a bad rep from the big crooks, which is too bad. In these times, it is good to remember my mother in law’s advice. The little one they hang, the big one they let go (loosely translated from her native language.) Don’t be the little one.</p>