How do you feel?

blackstone:

What makes you want to land a job at Wall Street and be an investment banker? Do you ever think about what the financial industry is doing? It it isn't really doing any good in the world, and I see a lot of people that were going to do science, going to do economics and had the intent of making a difference in the world but now are all switching to high finance just because of the money. With your talents and interests we could really make this world a better place, but instead all of your talent and intelligence is being wasted to make money.

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/10/munger_on_middl.html

blackstone:

What makes you want to land a job at Wall Street and be an investment banker? Do you ever think about what the financial industry is doing? It it isn't really doing any good in the world, and I see a lot of people that were going to do science, going to do economics and had the intent of making a difference in the world but now are all switching to high finance just because of the money. With your talents and interests we could really make this world a better place, but instead all of your talent and intelligence is being wasted to make money.

OP is either a New York Times reporter, an simpeton, or both

Ive never understood why finance/"Wall St" is the only field whose participants are constantly called upon to defend thier choice of career.

There are plenty of damn worthless careers out there (marketing/advertizing/PR come to mind as especially socially/economically useless) however they tend to escape judgement. IBankers reduce transaction costs and are therefore economically/socially useful...their compensation reflects this.

Why does one's work have to be for the good of the world?

"Out of the two schools, which one will have better recruitment opportunities from the U.S. - McGill Management or Queen's Commerce?

I heard that Americans love McGill, and McGill has that international rep to them as well but does this also apply for Desautels at McGill? I mean how is the recruitment there?

Generally Queen's Commerce is a better program, though they don't have the international reputation, would you say they are better in placing students in the U.S.? Like I heard they placed 5 3rd year students in GS IBD for the summer.

Also does your school's reputation matter when you are applying to a grad school in the U.S.?

Thanks in advance WSO."

Says the 18 year old kid in high school searching for prestige

Well this entire year I've been so focused on trying to get into a Canadian target so I can end up at WS, and I've been reading this forum - trying to research the best path for Canadians like me to get into a BB.

But before really going into this and taking this path, I just asked myself these questions. I was just wondering if any of you i-bankers ever had a battle between your morals and greed. And if any of you feel guilty or if any of you regret your choice. I'm not trying to criticize you guys, I'm just asking some questions to get your opinions and shed some light on i-banking.

blackstone:

With your talents and interests we could really make this world a better place, but instead all of your talent and intelligence is being wasted to make money.

I'm just really curious, so those of you that are investment bankers how do you feel about what you are doing? Any guilt, any regrets?

i think about it everyday..honestly not sure if what i'm doing is alright at this point.

^ Can you expand a little bit if you don't mind?

OP, please STFU.

And just take the time to think about your morals and values, and about posting on internet forums.

In my opinion, there's obviously a lot of people in search of money and find that wall street is one of many methods to get it. However, in terms of its economic importance:

Sales traders sell derivatives to a farmer wanting to hedge his corn exposure - economic benefit, no?

Underwriters IPO a tech company possibly reinventing the way we absorb solar energy

Carl Icahn buying a failing company, stripping its unproductive assets and selling them to companies that have better use for them (net increase in economic activity), and improving the productivity and profitability of a company - higher salaries, more jobs, more spending in the economy, increase in velocity of money - etc etc etc

There's definitely a bad side to it, and our recent housing crisis definitely is an example of that. But ask yourself, "Who's really at fault?"

Is the drug dealer any more or less guilty than the user? Is the investment banker structuring CDO's and selling them with the help of a AAA rating thats bogus bad if the CDO's underlying assets include a guys refinanced home that gave him equity to build a pool he didn't need?

That being said, I do agree that the smartest people shouldn't be going into investment banking, but rather medicine or alternative energy. However, I think with the country being anti-finance legislation will continue to be passed to squeeze wall street, shrink the industry and make it more competitive pay wise to enter other industries.

Lol feelings are for losers

who cares

Investment Banking does benefit society. If you disagree, then you don't know what investment banking is.

You are correct in saying that a huge percentage of people who go into high finance could use their talents in other areas that would better benefit society. This is especially true for quants. But the reality is that a physics PHD will make a shit ton more money pricing exotic derivatives at Goldman Sachs than he would improving the efficiency of a rocket engine (I just made that example up). You have to evaluate how important money is to you relative to job satisfaction, and then you can base your career path off that. I evaluated the pros/cons of finance vs other alternatives, and although it would def be nice working on something more "noble", I realized that overall I'd be much happier in finance. But then again I'm still in college and haven't even started my internship yet. Ask me again in 10+ years whether or not I wish I had chosen a path that is more fulfilling.

Who wants to be an ibanker? A select few with some serious mental problems.

The rest just want the prestige + money. That's OK too.

The OP is such a pussy, oh man.

Go into engineering/science if you're smarter than banking and think you can change the world. If not, stop being such a fucking tool on WSO.

I just want to get paid

There are other ways to contribute to society. I mean does Windows 7 contribute to society? No but Bill Gates' boatload of money does. You can make money in something that may not contribute to society but it's what you do with that money that counts and that may contribute to society.

I realized that the black abyss in my soul seems just a little smaller when it's filled with the crying of orphans and the pleading of widows.

Also I like math. And money.

You forgot to mention porn

Because if everyone took off and started feeding starving kids in Africa, we would all be starving.

It ALWAYS greener on the other side. There are plenty of unfulfilled doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and politicians. There should be because as a kid you dream of assuming many roles but in life you can only choose a few.

Is coming up with the latest way to throw sheep at Facebook profiles helpful to society? Is giving a woman D cups helpful to society (not just to us guys who play with them)? Is making a village dependent on aid but providing them with no reliable skills to be self sustaining helpful to society?

Welcome to the real world. This isn't your liberal arts college.

OP, don't you realize that by making money, you benefit society? In order for me to earn $X, I have to trade something to someone who values it for at least $X. When two people trade, they're both made better off.

I'm not a banker, but I considered this career path. Someone said it before, but it pretty much summarizes everything: the grass is always greener on the other side. And once you get there and take a closer look, it isn't really that green. I think myself as a human being will never be satisfied or fulfilled with whatever job I have, be it GS, McKinsey or KKR. I hope at some point I will realize what really makes me happy and drives me and pursue it.

For my friends in IBD, it's pretty clear: money + prestige. If you love these more than anything, you're good in the industry and can work until you burn out.

My first post in a while and my 2 cents:

I used to think I wanted to be a trader. I went to school to get a finance / accounting degree with this mentality. Maybe this is because my dad was a trader (probably a bigger influence than I'd like to admit), but I like to think its because I've always had a natural curiosity about the world and saw the financial markets as the biggest puzzle of them all. Mix a strong sense of history with a keen understanding of current events and a dash of human psychology and you might be able to make a buck or two. Besides, in my (biased) way of thinking the best traders tend to keep reality anchored to, well....... reality by fighting herd instinct and putting money to work based on facts.

However, seeing the financial crises unfold forced me to open my eyes to the reality of the business and rethink my choice. I finally understood what my dad meant when he said he wasn't a winning trader, but a surviving one. What he meant by "all traders have white hairs." Slavish regard to risk management doesn't really suit me, so I began looking at other options. I still enjoyed finance (and it was too late to change my degree), so banking became the obvious choice for me. I made this decision a few months before interviews, landed an internship for the summer, and haven't looked back.

Do I sometimes wish I had been an engineer? I guess. But NOT because of any social good. The draw of engineering for me is that it would be easier to create something big, and probably easier to become a CEO. That being said, I still think that finance is a grand game and IB puts me in position to do whatever the hell I want later in life. I'm already looking at ways to jump over to operations in a few years.

Remember, the ultimate goal in life is to be happy. Once you figure out what does it for you, be like Nike and "Just do it".

I feel free...I'm rolling with my dudes and we are going to buy out the bar.

Dude who fucking cares? I love the PR/ marketing example above. Absolutely useless. Why won't you question that as well??

I get into arguments like this with non-finance people all the time, and one of the things I've noticed is that every profession has a dark side. I've also noticed that there is just as much pomposity and grandstanding in every other profession as there is in banking.

There should never be any need for anybody to apologize for the career path they've chosen. As long as you've seriously considered it and you like it, no one should tell you that you're wasting your life just because you aren't teaching or doing nonprofit work.