Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s clear that your kid doesn’t understand how to get these jobs. It’s not as simple as applying. It’s also not as simple as “nepo baby.” Unfortunately, career services at even better privates are oftentimes almost useless and don’t help students plan their future and act accordingly.
+1 not speaking about bucknell, but at my DS’s school, certain frats basically control the “best” investment clubs, and kids work for each other’s dad’s firm in summers (so you can’t check linkedin and see family connects). My DS is pre med. We don’t have the connects for IB.
OP here. I find it awful how boys club the finance world continues to be in a country that is all about “equality” and the American dream anyone can achieve if they work hard. It’s a quite socialist mentality how these kdis are born into a certain class where they will be guaranteed admission to a decent school as long as parents have the money and can float through 4 years of undergrad by getting cheat sheets from frat brothers and inevitable summer internships every year. Both husband and I are from a different country and are not used to this whole frat, athlete dominated society of Wall Street who get these high paying jobs from their dad’s friends not from actually working hard. In Ireland where we’re from, you either have the smarts or you don’t to get into these universities and obtain these jobs. For example, a 3.0 kid at a rich kid school like bucknell would never be able to get into the most sought after Irish colleges like trinity and university college Dublin. The kids in the finance majors at the mentioned schools are there for their high Leaving Cert marks(Irish version of a levels).
Send your kid to Ireland and work your connections there! Maybe he can get a great EU job.
OP you don’t seem to understand the big picture. I say this as someone who is Irish (but didn’t go to Uni there) and met her Irish dh when we were both working on wall st.
First of all, if your son wanted investment baking, Bucknell was not the right choice. I don’t know if any banks that actively recruit there. Princeton, Williams, Duke, etc would have been better choices. All the banks recruit on campus at th top feeder schools. Each one probably hires 3 or 4 summer interns from each school, and it’s an active pipeline with decent grads going back for the recruiting events. At somewhere like Bucknell, your son is going to have to actively reach out to every connection he can find. He should use the career center and find contacts for all Bucknell alums who work at any firms he’d be interested in. He needs to then look them up and find something to slightly personalize each email. He should do the same with all alums from whatever team or fraternity he’s in. If he can’t do these basics, he’d be a bad hire anyways.
You also seem to be confusing baking w/ wealth management. If he can’t schmooze and work connections, then he’d be terrible at wealth management. You seem to think he has an out bc he wasn’t born with connections. I am talking about working his Bucknell connections. See if any alums from his hs are in the field and reach out. Talk to his favorite professors and see if they have any former students to put him in touch with. If he can’t do these basics, he’ll stay bottom rung in wealth management, and it’s not for him.
Some of the best hires I’ve seen have been first generation college grads, but they have the grit to really make the effort and have done great. It’s not about the connections that were handed to you.
For investment banking, 9 times out of 10, the kid who you are writing off as having a low gpa or being a lacrosse bro or whatever will be a better employee. The work isn’t rocket science, and even the summer analysts go through intense training. Anyone can do the actual work. The kid who has played club and then college sports and is used to little sleep and juggling things isn’t going to bat an eye when something changes last minute and we have two almost all nighters. The 4.0, regimented, book smart kid will crumble. I’ve seen it over and over. I want the kid who will be at ease with clients and can make small talk on a plane or at a restaurant. You either have this or you don’t, and it’s hard to teach a 22 year old this.
As far as leaving cert, don’t even get me started. It’s such an awful system because it doesn’t take into account anything with interpersonal skills, writing (other than a stupid little thing they can practice for), interviewing skills, executive functioning, etc. My dh and I have tons of Irish grads reach out. 4 out of 5 from the top schools end up being absolutely terrible. They’d probably be good for a math phd or actuarial job but zero chance they’d even make it out of the summer analyst program.
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