Prestige nonsense

In life, first impressions can count enormously, and you say yourself it counts with "uninformed people". Well, most people I converse with when socialising etc are "uninformed" ie they don't work in finance. To make a good first impression, working at a well-respected, famous, well-regarded firm is a lot more impressive than being at an unknown, 2nd/3rd tier bucket shop. As does a job title like "Investment Banker" or "Trader" as opposed to "Infrastructure Support". And if you ever want to apply for MBA school, move out of the industry etc, a universally known company on your resume will stand you in much better stead than a smaller unknown firm. And anyway, the responsibility you get to work on larger deals, or for sales/trading have much bigger sizes at your disposal, is obviously much more likely at a BB than a 3rd tier bank. I'm all in favour of small boutiques though which should give you potentially better exposure / responsibility than BBs. I don't care so much about money in the bank because nobody has any idea about that, its crude to show it off, if you get a big property / car people may assume you just loaned it / got it from your Dad.. I'd take a paycut to become "Vice President at Goldman Sachs" rather than my current shop!

Bottom line, I think someone said it here before, if prestige didn't matter you wouldn't have people fighting so hard to get into Ivy Leagues, to get into Goldmans (and soon to be JPMorgan) and McKinsey.. lots of people care about prestige, deal with it.

===
23yr old Associate

prestige is tied to the success of the firm; bear and lehman were once considered to be prestigious. of course people want to attend ivy league universities - the career opportunities coming out of these institutions is incredible.

prestige only takes you so far. ultimately, your success will be determined by many other and more important factors such as intelligence, charisma, judgment, etc. those who define themselves by the name of the company on their business card won't go very far.

kuka - the assertion that you don't care how much money you have in the bank is confusing. why do you place such an emphasis on other people's perception of your wealth? would you really prefer to take a paycut just so that you can add the words "Vice President" and "Goldman Sachs" to your resume? seeing as you're a trader, i don't understand that logic.

Kuka--what you're missing is that prestige only matters early in one's career. Yes, it's quite important as an analyst or an associate because it will open doors as you transition into the next level of your career.

That said, once you reach mid-level prestige means nothing. Only accomplishments and money. Proof of that is the tremendous turnover all over Wall Street. How many times have you seen director of MD level people leaving the Goldmans of the world to go to a BNP Paribas, Soc Gen, or a boutique? The answer is: all the time. People are picked off from the very best desks on the street all the time, and go on to other shops that usually have lower "prestige". Why? Because you get the chance to run your own show and do it for significantly more pay.

Credit crisis aside, you wouldn't find a single MD at Goldman who wouldn't leave in a heartbeat for a smaller, "less prestigious" shop for twice the pay, and more power. You may find one exception who stays because he just had twins and needs job security, but no one will stay purely because of the Goldman name.

"I'd take a paycut to become "Vice President at Goldman Sachs" rather than my current shop!"

VP is a higher position than Associate.

JuwannaMann, I think that was his point. He was saying that he would would be willing to make less money at a more senior position, given that its with Goldman.

By the time you actually qualified to be a vp, as has been said above, you wouldn't give a damn where you worked but how much money you were making. This is constantly discussed and more or less everybody who seems to actually work in the industry agrees that its only students and a few industry people with insecurities who actually even give it a moment's thought.