How are these nepo babies in these summer finance internships able to keep up with the work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son attends an all-boys high school and I'm realizing that that the number one skills he's learning there is how to be a guy's guy.
My husband is not but my son very much is and in many ways it's a learned skill.

It's also a bit cringy, though, because being a guy's guy and corporations run by guy's guys is what produces the world that turned a blind eye to Harvey Weinstein for decades (And Trump and Cosby). Hopefully good parenting at home can properly balance the "learned skills" you get at an all boys school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone can do one of these jobs. It doesn’t take a lot of intelligence to understand financial markets and work on PowerPoints. I once was an intern. It’s kind of like how there are millions of kids who would do perfectly fine at Princeton.

The ones who don’t have what it takes won’t get offers after the summer.

Not true

How is this not true? Have you ever been an investment banking analyst? Half of your time is spent waiting for feedback on decks and working on excel models. It’s not very challenging work. I met many analysts who disliked the lifestyle but don’t recall meeting anyone who thought it was too intellectually challenging. It’s just not.

I think they meant "not true" that the the connected kids that are not the cream of the crop won't get offers. I'd agree with that, those "kids" will still benefit from their connections and get offers while high achievers get left behind.

[Anonymous]

All I’m gleaning from this is that introverts need not apply…

Sigh. Family of introverts here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
All I’m gleaning from this is that introverts need not apply…

Sigh. Family of introverts here.

No...just apply for the kind of job that values introverts. There are jobs in proprietary trading and hedge fund quants where you need to be super-intelligent which is valued over schmoozing. That said, you need to be able to break out of your shell in order to argue for trading positions...it's just a different kind of extroversion.

However, even a hedge fund needs the schmoozer person who goes to all the pension funds and gets the $$$s for the hedge fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
All I’m gleaning from this is that introverts need not apply…

Sigh. Family of introverts here.

Umm it's a finance internship. What do you think they do?! They schmooze and talk to others all day long. I can't imagine an introvert ever wanting one of these jobs! If you're good with numbers and are an introvert- go into different types of finance jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really frustrates me as DS is very hard working and going into senior year at Bucknell. Many of his classmates with loaded parents with connections on Wall Street have gotten their kids internships for the summer at companies like JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, even Goldman Sachs. Kid feels discouraged. He has a 3.8 gpa, good extracurriculars but got shunned away in favor of kids whose dad golfs with the vp of wealth management and has a 3.0 gpa and subpar involvement in college besides frats. It makes me feel like I'm wasting my money on bucknell as these schools only pay off if you have prior family wealth and connections to launch your career in investment banking and finance. Also, how are these kids who barely ut the work in during the school year manage to work these long, long hours in these internships? Are these repo babies given a pass if daddy is there at work today supervising?

The problem is your son didn’t understand the point of attending Bucknell…it’s not to get a 3.8 (but that’s great)…it’s to become friends with the rich kids you lament…and get hooked up with a job.

Basically THIS. Also, you didn't strategize very well. You have a kid with zero connections? And you sent him to Bucknell? He would have had a better shot at Finance from a true target recruitment school like NYU, or from a school that has a powerful and active alumni group like BC. There's so much you don't and didn't understand OP, and it is still playing out now. He probably isn't going to land IB when he graduates, but he could land wealth management if he keeps grinding; he has to focus building connections this year rather than on his studies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Frat bros want to hang out with D1 athletes because they want access to beautiful college females. They also want to hang out with musicians, and DS has both of them.

The frat bros arranged DS to meet their fathers and DS was hired after five minutes with a handshake

This is so, so gross and sounds like it was written by a “frat bro” who never grew up or a dad who was never popular in college and is proud of the fact that his kid is. “Beautiful college females” are not things that exist for your son to trade on, they are actual people with agency. Is your wife there just as your adornment, too?

I have three kids who were D1 athletes, two work in finance, and none of them had this experience at all. My finance kids networked to get their jobs, but they did it by reaching out to the alumni networks at target banks AND they had the grades to back up their credentials.

Complete BS. Go to YouTube and you can see how D1 athletes welcome income college freshman females on campus. It is sad but true. You get away as a D1 athlete that most people don’t. That also applies to jobs and internships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH went to Bucknell and works on wall street as do three of his frat brothers from there that he’s still in contact with. I wouldn’t worry about it. Bucknell kids do very well. He should be networking with his friends next winter/spring to inquire about opportunities though.

Also tell him to work the alumni network.

Exactly. I am a Bucknell alum, and there is a lot of outreach done by Career Services to alumni. Bucknell loves to note its “overlapping alums” in a certain field in a particular geographic location - your son should ask to be put in touch with alums in his desired field (of which there are a ton from Bucknell).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son attends an all-boys high school and I'm realizing that that the number one skills he's learning there is how to be a guy's guy.
My husband is not but my son very much is and in many ways it's a learned skill.

I have a DD who is a guy's guy. No snark. She can hang with the best of them thanks to her dad and her upbringing. It is definitely a learned skill.

[Anonymous]

Never heard of the term "nepo babies".

[Anonymous]

I'm an i-banker. I don't hire interns, but I do work with them. The amount of work we give to interns is next to nothing compared with a normal workload. At large companies, the vast majority of people (and junior people especially) do pre-work and re-work and have to take everything through multiple layers of review.

It is a lot easier than you might think at the junior levels. I'm not surprised that the companies value "relationships" or "fit" over aptitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never heard of the term "nepo babies".

Go ahead and forget it. It was a throw away line for clicks:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an i-banker. I don't hire interns, but I do work with them. The amount of work we give to interns is next to nothing compared with a normal workload. At large companies, the vast majority of people (and junior people especially) do pre-work and re-work and have to take everything through multiple layers of review.

It is a lot easier than you might think at the junior levels. I'm not surprised that the companies value "relationships" or "fit" over aptitude.

Yes, but the problem is that judgment of “fit” and those “relationships” are often influenced by racism and sexism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

I agree. The European education system is way more meritocratic and fair

No way.

There are like no Asians, blacks or Jews of any meaningful numbers in European education

It just looks more fair because there’s way less diversity

That is not true at all re Asians (Indians) at Oxford and Cambridge. The #s are like nothing youd ever see at US Ivies etc.

“The proportion of UK-domiciled students admitted to Oxford who indicate in their UCAS application that they identify as Asian has risen from 8.3% in 2018 to 13.9% in 2022.”

American elite schools are 2-2.5x that rate now for Asians

That’s not mentioning Jews and blacks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
All I’m gleaning from this is that introverts need not apply…

Sigh. Family of introverts here.

Introverts make great buy side people though

Lotta Asian introverts that work way better finance jobs than “ib”

Jane street is not “extroverted “