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Banking has corrupted my friend's values
 

Imperialian's picture
ST
(Baboon, 173
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 12:04am

My senior used to be a very nice guy back in university. He does not drink, smoke or womanize. He chose to focus his time fully on his studies and ended up with a good GPA. He has a long term girlfriend from college and he promised to marry her once he has some savings.

When choosing the career path to go after graduation, money was of real concern to him as he wanted to repay his education loans fast so he joined an investment bank. The application process was not easy but a good GPA from a good school certainly helped.

Then I noticed the changes in him. He picked up smoking. He told me that he had to smoke. His boss would go for smoking breaks and he realised that gossips and office politics would be discussed during these smoking breaks. Not wanting to be left out in those discussions, he took up smoking. It also helps in entertaining clients as well because some clients smoked.

Ok, he may be considered a social smoker. Then I realised he has become a womanizer. It all started from innocent settings, a colleague asking him to join him at the bar for drinks after work. In school, he managed to refuse these requests from his friends but he realised he can't refuse this anymore, especially if its his boss who is the one asking. His colleagues picked up chicks at the bar and he watched as amazement as girls who are prettier than his girlfriend went home with some of his colleagues.

The turning point however was when he visited strip clubs. Sometimes his colleagues would ask him out, sometimes he would go there because of clients, sometimes brokers servicing his bank would also ask him out there. As a junior, he has no power to say anything and would go where the boss and his colleagues went. Bit by bit, he started having wild thoughts, that finally accumulated into him turning into a womanizer who has no qualms with dancing with strippers, tipping them, getting their numbers and even bringing them home.

Granted, this does not happen on a everyday basis, but I am quite shocked to see my friend turn out this way. I know the working environment will make you a different person but I don't know that it will corrupt so much. The person I pity most now is his girlfriend.

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moneymogul's picture

So your friend now properly

IB
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 12:15am

So your friend now properly appreciates the female form and socializing? Sounds like his balls dropped. Getting married that young is a joke anyways.

JustADude's picture

cool story

(Baboon, 146
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 12:17am

cool story

seville's picture

Does his gf have any idea

 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 12:20am

Does his gf have any idea this is going on?

TGICapitalism's picture

Don't hate the player....

IB
(Baboon, 119
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 12:42am

Don't hate the player....

Husky32's picture

Which bank does he work at?

(Gorilla, 588
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 1:19am

Which bank does he work at? I'm assuming it's either a BB or a boutique in NYC. If the firm has a fratty culture and he's in M&A then yeah changes are to be expected when you're working those hours, otherwise if he's working 60ish hours in capital markets or ER then it would weird that he has changed so much just in order to "fit in"

ghosterizer's picture

Troll?

(Chimp, 9
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 1:53am

Troll?

The Boxfish's picture

thrad rated

(Chimp, 2
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 1:56am

thrad rated

Powa23's picture

Banking is a tough industry.

(Orangutan, 291
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 2:23am

Banking is a tough industry. Can't stay in it for too long. I'm planning 2-3 years and I'm out.

Emo_Rhino's picture

I can't comment too much

(Monkey, 30
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 2:51am

I can't comment too much about the strip club part though I have heard stories about them.

The smoking part and the bar part are very real. I have seen many fresh graduates take up smoking so that they can be part of the 'clique'. Your career comes first before your values. Drinking at bars after work is also something you cannot refuse on a permanent basis. Besides getting to know girls, you get to form closer relationships with your colleagues, as well as the opportunity to network with bankers from other banks, something that may be useful one day if you get retrenched.

TNA's picture

Man, I never thought drinking

O
(Human, 13,467
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 1:32pm

Man, I never thought drinking and hitting on women would be something people should be concerned about.

I am going to assume the OP is Indian because of the "my senior" comment. So yeah, I can see how the boozing and whoring probably goes against your morals. Unfortunately, banking isn't the most righteous field. The smoking bit is pretty nasty, not sure why he would get into that. Honestly, a smoking habit seems like a huge liability in a job where you have to be glued to your desk all the time. I've been on 3 hour long management calls and if you need to smoke you are screwed.

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newfirstyear's picture

Sounds like a BS story.

ER
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 1:35pm

Sounds like a BS story. Brokers taking out IB to strip club....that makes zero sense.

BTbanker's picture

Yeah, the only thing I see

IB
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 1:38pm

Yeah, the only thing I see wrong is the smoking.

"A man generally has two reasons for doing anything. One that sounds good, and the real one." - J.P. Morgan

rogersterling59's picture

If boozing, going out,

AM
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 2:06pm

If boozing, going out, chasing tail, hitting a strip club occasionally and having a cig from time to time are bad things then I think a lot of us are in trouble... but seriously, he has a great job and is 22-23 years old, this is the point in his life where he is supposed to be living it up

I would agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

kidflash's picture

it's only 'corrupted' if your

IB
(Gorilla, 665
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 4:09pm

it's only 'corrupted' if your friend isn't happy with who he is right now

Imperialian's picture

I just said he joined an

ST
(Baboon, 173
 
Points)
 on 12/29/12 at 4:47pm

I just said he joined an investment bank, he is doing trading cum structuring by the way at the bank.

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