The Race Card; let's have a candid conversation about this issue

Nas is one of my favourite rappers

lol...........some of my friends get the feeling Morgan Stanley hates all Asian men....that wat u talking about?

What's Morgan Stanley got with Asian men? I thought they didn't like Jews?

If Morgan Stanley had a problem with jews I don't think they'd be sponsoring the CFR.

I think its very hard to take a look at the type of individuals at the bank and use that as determination for racial discrimination. In many cases, there are too many factors prior to the job application that have already created a racial difference amongst candidates. This is exactly the reason for affirmative action programs at top schools..... because there is a clear divide amongst the type of candidates that come from different nationalities. Often times, discrimination is the hardest to prove given that if a firm receives 100 applications and 90 of them happen to be from white candidates..... and from this they take 10 individuals..... the likelihood of any of them being a minority is low...

Many banks, however, in order to help their public image and also to help against any possible litigation they may get down the line do actively seek to increase minority hirings, but this is only on a limited scale. You should look into the SEO which is an organization centered around helping minorities break into different industries--one being investment banking. They do have minimum requirements you must meet, otherwise this is a great way to help yourself out.

and this just proves most of this is speculation...

... if you're concerned about not getting hired due to race, i would look into organizations that specifically help minorities.. there are also groups within banks that look to recruit/help minorities, and those can be helpful too

it'd be very hard to "feel" if you were not being hired because of your race or color. You'd have to know a few things that you simply can't, namely:

1) you have qualifications and competencies that would be sufficient in a person of another color
2) you were able to communicate 1 to your interviewer
3) you did better than the competition during your interview

honestly, i believe that banks will take whoever is the best candidate, especially at the analyst level. you are essentially slaves regardless of your race for the first 2 years. it can be argued that it is simply a case of spatial mismatch (urban econ).

aside from the mismatch, minorities are at a disadvantage from the get go because they will have the most difficulty identifying with the interviewers and this can be perceived as not doing as well as the other candidates, even if they answer the technicals equally well. look at the composition of the target schools, it also gives a good idea of who a minority is competing against.

consider, as an isolated example, morehouse college, an all black boys college (with the exception of a few random white guys) that places decently on wall street an in financial services in atlanta. if you distinguish yourself from your fellow students, there is no doubt that you will land the job in i-banking you want. i realize it is tough to test the hypothesis of whether there is a race card or not, but the morehouse example is one where the race card doesn't apply and you are purely chosen on merit. clearly the banks think that the black students have what it takes otherwise they wouldn't recruit there. also, getting into morehouse did not require playing the minority card whereas in some ivys it is definitely used for acceptance.

this can become a really interesting discussion. i am curious to hear what other people think. i do believe in the best candidate for the job, but i'm not sure that they are always being selected.

Many moon ago, banking was essentially the preserve of the elite. The issues were not really the colour card but rather the matter of privilege.

Here is the argument, banks deal with institutions or wealthy individuals, money is made mostly from fee where most banks have a similar fee structure and hence the reason someone (institution) will choose JPMorgan over its rival stem more down contacts, networking etc

A scenario where Company A want to choose a bank to advice on M&A activities, the chose between Bank A and Bank B with similar fee structure may come down to the CEO of Company A being high school mate with Bank B's MD.

So, coming from less than privilege backgrounds makes it difficult to do business at such level (e.g. "I'll call Uncle Z to get in touch with Senator D")

I think the good news is that there is change. Companies and banks are now global making the very essence of recruiting a sales team from a diverse back ground a "business decision". Anyone who has done business in Japan will understand.

You can penetrate certain systems by sending "one of theirs"

In 100 years, you may see aliens in S&T, someone to deal with alien culture (and their weirdness!).

Until then, the bias will be towards employing Earthlings

Sure there *might* be a random minority of blacks in every i-bank, but the point is, Corporate America is predominantly white. Like it or not (i do).