Why the FUCK are these two Wharton MBAs sitting next to me complaining they're still up at 5AM?? Who admitted these clowns?!

Alright guys, serious post for once. I'm still here on campus right now (it's 5:14AM on the east coast), working on this ridiculous comp sci homework (being in this major really depends on who's teaching what class which semester) along with another ridiculous set of econ mumbojumbo.

There are 2-3 older guys sitting at my table who have been here with me all night and they're Wharton MBA guys. Two of them are currently going off about how it's "so shitty it's 5AM" to which another responded "yeah man, this is ridiculous. Ive never had to stay this late my entire life."

WHAT?! 5AM is absolutely child's play to some of us....especially when some of you will be going off to high paying jobs - it all requires hard work and sacrifice to some fucking extent.

So it was one of those "times" where everyone at the table happened to look up from their textbooks and started stretching right? We got chatting and they asked me who I was, what I was studying...I said I wanted to go into ibanking. One of them goes "woah man, those will be some wreck of some hours! I couldn't possibly imagine myself working more than 45 hours a week!"

Wtf. I don't even have to think TWICE about pulling all nighters. I habitually do it especially trying to land all As, fix my old GPA, and double-major. It's just part of the sacrifice. Who the fuck admitted these unambitious clowns? WTF. I expected these guys to be much more hungry than this. what the shit. why the fuck are you in business school then...to work in marketing?

 

People are different from you.

Some people are willing to do all nighters, want to be in IB, like working. Others don't. Simples

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 
Oreos:
People are different from you.

Some people are willing to do all nighters, want to be in IB, like working. Others don't. Simples

if you do not like work, are unambitious and just want an easy life, why the fk are you at wharton?

your argument is flawed sir

 
wakeboarder:
Oreos:
People are different from you.

Some people are willing to do all nighters, want to be in IB, like working. Others don't. Simples

if you do not like work, are unambitious and just want an easy life, why the fk are you at wharton?

your argument is flawed sir

because daddy is paying for it and it's better than working a real job.

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 

you are an idiot... sorry

IB have its rewards but cost is freaking high too...

I know a guy (MD level) who worked at a BB... around 40-50's who have no wife or kids. Spends his time out at a club. Have no real social life whatsoever besides meeting with potential clients.

Freaken colleage kids these days.

 

that's totally fine, but why would you go to WHARTON of all places and drop $150k on something that you know won't return that much in a year? The small salary increase isn't worth the additional loans, especially when most of these guys are in their late 20s.

 

Just imagine what they're saying about the Poli Sci Major pulling all nighters to go into IBanking...two sides to every coin

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
happypantsmcgee:
Just imagine what they're saying about the Poli Sci Major pulling all nighters to go into IBanking...two sides to every coin

as much as i dislike lookatmycock, i don't see how you can look down on someone for pulling an all nighter b/c they study hard...and what's wrong with him wanting to get into IB?

 

Dude, that wasn't meant to be an insult at all...I'm just saying if they were bitching about being up at 5am, I am sure they are astounded by our friend lookatmycock's sleep habits/work schedule etc. I obviously have nothing against going into IBanking or I wouldn't be on the forum at all

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

Swagon...I threw monkey shit at you in a moment of anger and then felt bad so I gave you a silver banana...respeck

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
TheKing:
Being up at 5am from an all-nighter of work is awful. Don't act like it's some badge of honor.

Couldn't agree more King... it's even worse when you have had it good for a while... after a couple light weeks only being there till midnight, when that 5am night hits, it hits hard... Conversely, I've had weeks where I've worked 125 and though it is terrible, you know it's coming and you slip into a messed up routine where you know you aren't going to sleep and just accept it...

 
TheKing:

Being up at 5am from an all-nighter of work is awful. Don't act like it's some badge of honor.

This, it's fucking terrible. And in general you are not doing your best work when you are this tired, so this bias towards all nighters as if it were some source of pride or a cultural marker for the industry... in some way's it's just spinning the wheels, creating needless misery. I understand some things just need to get done, deadlines are short, you need quick turnaround for clients, etc, but don't tell me you wouldn't be more productive at 9:00 am after a good night's sleep.

 

Also, your tune will change significantly after a few months in banking (assuming you get a gig.)

The best part of leaving banking was no longer working 80+ hours a week and gaining serious control over my free time. I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever work in banking again.

 

I know this is a 10 year old comment, you probably will never even see this reply, but I am going through a very difficult time in life, and your comment suddenly put a lot of things in perspective for me. So thank you.

 

Yea sorry but the OP kind of comes off as a douche IMO. Not everybody goes to top MBA's for investment banking. The Big 4 are on my campus every day it seems like and they go on and on about how you'll have to work so hard, to which they then say the average work week is around 65hrs. Most people would laugh if you told them you worked 80-90 hrs a week and would call 'us' crazy. Some people want more free-time/lifestyle, so if they're making 50-60k now and go to Wharton and come out making 120k+ at F500 working 45-50hrs then good for them. I would find it hard to believe that anyone WANTS to work IB hours. It's just the price to pay to reap the rewards, and since I'm young and find it interesting I find it could be manageable.

 
dumbyoungbum:
Yea sorry but the OP kind of comes off as a douche IMO...

I completely agree.

This thread is my least favorite in weeks - I'm not sure why...but I think it's because I am just so annoyed by the OP's tone. Reading this and some of the replies (note: not all) makes me feel like I'm on a board with a bunch of 16 year olds. Funny how things can range so drastically in terms of intelligence from one topic posting to the next...there are so many bright people here with valuable things to say, can't wait to read more of that (as usual).

That said, WSO is awesome 90% of the time....I guess that's the nature of an open board.

 
Blake Donaghy:
dumbyoungbum:
Yea sorry but the OP kind of comes off as a douche IMO...
Reading this and some of the replies (note: not all) makes me feel like I'm on a board with a bunch of 16 year olds.

No. You're on a board with a bunch of guys in their early 20s who have been working since they were 10 because their hard working parents and grandparents never had the kind of opportunities given to their children to attend awesome schools and the chance to completely change everyone's lives. Call it selfish, call it psycho-ambitious, call it "toolish", but some of us have been hungry for things we've never had our entire lives and I for one will do anything to change my and my parents' lives.

Working up till 5AM is nothing. It gives us 5 more hours a day ahead of all our peers to get more work done while everyone is sleeping. Add those 5 hours up and you get an extra hundred hours per year. I can use that time to learn a new tool, a new language, anything that'll give me an edge in something later.

 

Couple things:

1.) When I was 22, 5 AM was nothing in Comp Sci. (The catch was that I would sleep through class the next day after I finished my machine problems.)

2.) At 25, 5 AM sucks. Heck, 2AM sucks if your day starts before 8.

3.) You chose job security over money. Good choice. Now stop complaining that someone expects to graduate and make more than you. Perhaps he won't get a job. But don't fantasize.

4.) It sounds like you are irritated that UPenn ranks better in business than Engineering/Comp. Sci. That's OK. Most people still think UPenn's engineering majors are just as smart as their business majors and probably more quantitative and harder working.

In case you haven't realized this yet, Wharton MBA students are the biggest fucking morons on Penn's campus. They're there to re-live high school.
They're also at the #5 Business program in the country and have likely had the kind of successful careers over the past four years that you hope to have when you graduate.

(IlliniProgrammer is grinding his teeth after acknowledging an Ivy League school has an excellent MBA program with successful people attending. JJC and the other HYPer Ivy-obsessed folks will probably never let him hear the end of it.)

No. You're on a board with a bunch of guys in their early 20s who have been working since they were 10 because their hard working parents and grandparents never had the kind of opportunities given to their children to attend awesome schools and the chance to completely change everyone's lives. Call it selfish, call it psycho-ambitious, call it "toolish", but some of us have been hungry for things we've never had our entire lives and I for one will do anything to change my and my parents' lives.
You would really benefit from a semester off. My parents made me work, too- only though it was from age 8 when I started mowing lawns. This was in the days before self-propelled lawnmowers and automatic shutoffs- some of my neighbors thought my parents were nuts to have a 65 pound eight-year-old pushing a lawnmower around when the handle came up to his eyeballs. (The others were thrilled to have their lawns mowed for $8/week.) My first job that paid more than $10/hour didn't come until I got to Wall Street.

But my parents weren't pushing me to overachieve- they just wanted me to learn to be independent- and I had the chance to figure out who I was and where I was going. Have you had the chance to figure that stuff out yet?

Working up till 5AM is nothing. It gives us 5 more hours a day ahead of all our peers to get more work done while everyone is sleeping. Add those 5 hours up and you get an extra hundred hours per year. I can use that time to learn a new tool, a new language, anything that'll give me an edge in something later.
No. It lets us meet the frigging deadline- albeit at a reduced quality- after the people who worked on the project with us flaked out. And then we sleep in the next day, like typical engineers and catch up with either the online lectures or more likely, just read the book.

You do understand that the majority of students on campus- even at Penn- are out partying while you're working, right?

 
IlliniProgrammer:
Couple things: But my parents weren't pushing me to overachieve- they just wanted me to learn to be independent- and I had the chance to figure out who I was and where I was going. Have you had the chance to figure that stuff out yet?

My parents actually are still against my wanting to go to Wall St. They actually recommend me become an engineer and have some job security for less money but as long as I'm "happy." all this psychopathic motivation is all on my own...Same here man, my parents don't really care what I do as long as I can support myself and don't have to live paycheck to paycheck. But I figured I wanted more.

 
Best Response
lookatmycock:

My parents actually are still against my wanting to go to Wall St. They actually recommend me become an engineer and have some job security for less money but as long as I'm "happy." all this psychopathic motivation is all on my own...Same here man, my parents don't really care what I do as long as I can support myself and don't have to live paycheck to paycheck. But I figured I wanted more.

1.) Learn to be content with what you have. It's ok to push your boundaries, and it's ok to work towards having more, but learn to be satisfied where you are, too. It makes life a lot better. And it tends to make you more likeable.

2.) You seriously need to take a semester off. Seriously. Go do something low-key for a semester- like teaching skiing lessons or cleaning up the oil spill.

3.) As an engineer, you won't live paycheck-to-paycheck. And you'll have more job security. Know you've got your heart set on finance, but engineers create more value than most financial workers- and they're about to be able to demand a greater percentage of the value they create.

 
IlliniProgrammer:
Couple things:

1.) When I was 22, 5 AM was nothing in Comp Sci. (The catch was that I would sleep through class the next day after I finished my machine problems.)

2.) At 25, 5 AM sucks. Heck, 2AM sucks if your day starts before 8.

3.) You chose job security over money. Good choice. Now stop complaining that someone expects to graduate and make more than you. Perhaps he won't get a job. But don't fantasize.

4.) It sounds like you are irritated that UPenn ranks better in business than Engineering/Comp. Sci. That's OK. Most people still think UPenn's engineering majors are just as smart as their business majors and probably more quantitative and harder working.

In case you haven't realized this yet, Wharton MBA students are the biggest fucking morons on Penn's campus. They're there to re-live high school.
They're also at the #5 Business program in the country and have likely had the kind of successful careers over the past four years that you hope to have when you graduate.

(IlliniProgrammer is grinding his teeth after acknowledging an Ivy League school has an excellent MBA program with successful people attending. JJC and the other HYPer Ivy-obsessed folks will probably never let him hear the end of it.)

No. You're on a board with a bunch of guys in their early 20s who have been working since they were 10 because their hard working parents and grandparents never had the kind of opportunities given to their children to attend awesome schools and the chance to completely change everyone's lives. Call it selfish, call it psycho-ambitious, call it "toolish", but some of us have been hungry for things we've never had our entire lives and I for one will do anything to change my and my parents' lives.
You would really benefit from a semester off. My parents made me work, too- only though it was from age 8 when I started mowing lawns. This was in the days before self-propelled lawnmowers and automatic shutoffs- some of my neighbors thought my parents were nuts to have a 65 pound eight-year-old pushing a lawnmower around when the handle came up to his eyeballs. (The others were thrilled to have their lawns mowed for $8/week.) My first job that paid more than $10/hour didn't come until I got to Wall Street.

But my parents weren't pushing me to overachieve- they just wanted me to learn to be independent- and I had the chance to figure out who I was and where I was going. Have you had the chance to figure that stuff out yet?

Working up till 5AM is nothing. It gives us 5 more hours a day ahead of all our peers to get more work done while everyone is sleeping. Add those 5 hours up and you get an extra hundred hours per year. I can use that time to learn a new tool, a new language, anything that'll give me an edge in something later.
No. It lets us meet the frigging deadline- albeit at a reduced quality- after the people who worked on the project with us flaked out. And then we sleep in the next day, like typical engineers and catch up with either the online lectures or more likely, just read the book.

You do understand that the majority of students on campus- even at Penn- are out partying while you're working, right?

hahahahaha that's what freshman and sophomore year was for! i still try to go out once or twice a week but priorities change as we near graduation

 
lookatmycock:
IlliniProgrammer:
Couple things:

1.) When I was 22, 5 AM was nothing in Comp Sci. (The catch was that I would sleep through class the next day after I finished my machine problems.)

2.) At 25, 5 AM sucks. Heck, 2AM sucks if your day starts before 8.

3.) You chose job security over money. Good choice. Now stop complaining that someone expects to graduate and make more than you. Perhaps he won't get a job. But don't fantasize.

4.) It sounds like you are irritated that UPenn ranks better in business than Engineering/Comp. Sci. That's OK. Most people still think UPenn's engineering majors are just as smart as their business majors and probably more quantitative and harder working.

In case you haven't realized this yet, Wharton MBA students are the biggest fucking morons on Penn's campus. They're there to re-live high school.
They're also at the #5 Business program in the country and have likely had the kind of successful careers over the past four years that you hope to have when you graduate.

(IlliniProgrammer is grinding his teeth after acknowledging an Ivy League school has an excellent MBA program with successful people attending. JJC and the other HYPer Ivy-obsessed folks will probably never let him hear the end of it.)

No. You're on a board with a bunch of guys in their early 20s who have been working since they were 10 because their hard working parents and grandparents never had the kind of opportunities given to their children to attend awesome schools and the chance to completely change everyone's lives. Call it selfish, call it psycho-ambitious, call it "toolish", but some of us have been hungry for things we've never had our entire lives and I for one will do anything to change my and my parents' lives.
You would really benefit from a semester off. My parents made me work, too- only though it was from age 8 when I started mowing lawns. This was in the days before self-propelled lawnmowers and automatic shutoffs- some of my neighbors thought my parents were nuts to have a 65 pound eight-year-old pushing a lawnmower around when the handle came up to his eyeballs. (The others were thrilled to have their lawns mowed for $8/week.) My first job that paid more than $10/hour didn't come until I got to Wall Street.

But my parents weren't pushing me to overachieve- they just wanted me to learn to be independent- and I had the chance to figure out who I was and where I was going. Have you had the chance to figure that stuff out yet?

Working up till 5AM is nothing. It gives us 5 more hours a day ahead of all our peers to get more work done while everyone is sleeping. Add those 5 hours up and you get an extra hundred hours per year. I can use that time to learn a new tool, a new language, anything that'll give me an edge in something later.
No. It lets us meet the frigging deadline- albeit at a reduced quality- after the people who worked on the project with us flaked out. And then we sleep in the next day, like typical engineers and catch up with either the online lectures or more likely, just read the book.

You do understand that the majority of students on campus- even at Penn- are out partying while you're working, right?

hahahahaha that's what freshman and sophomore year was for! i still try to go out once or twice a week but priorities change as we near graduation

I dont think you understand the concept of college. College is the place were you spend four to five years of your life doing absolutely nothing but partying, except for a few weeks a year, when you take adderal and study your balls off. Then resume drinking. I miss college....

 

Whatever – they don’t want to do I-Banking. You can have a fantastic career in general management and corporate finance without working 100 hours a week. If they didn’t have ambition they would not be at Wharton. They just desire a different path.

FYI: You need to change your tune. You will inevitably work with people who work less hours than you and get paid more. If you can’t handle people bitching about hours, stay out of the business world.

 
New Yorker:
OP, I bet you're a big nerd. First of all, staying up to 5AM on a regular basis is not normal. It shows you have poor time management skills and can't learn quickly.

LOL people who go to ivy league schools aren't "nerds"? really? even recruited athletes? even to a degree? i don't understand the point of your statement... there's a HUGE difference between being a "nerd" and a socially awkward person. i admit to being a nerd - or else i wouldn't have gotten into this place. but socially awkward? hell no. since when was being smart and getting good grades even remotely correlated to being socially awkward? I've seen some extremely stupid people who didn't even get into college because they played video games 24/7 who can't even talk to a cashier without feeling awkward.

Stop equating "nerdy" with the negative "socially awkward". it really makes you look like a meathead.

 
lookatmycock:
New Yorker:
OP, I bet you're a big nerd. First of all, staying up to 5AM on a regular basis is not normal. It shows you have poor time management skills and can't learn quickly.

LOL people who go to ivy league schools aren't "nerds"? really? even recruited athletes? even to a degree? i don't understand the point of your statement... there's a HUGE difference between being a "nerd" and a socially awkward person. i admit to being a nerd - or else i wouldn't have gotten into this place. but socially awkward? hell no. since when was being smart and getting good grades even remotely correlated to being socially awkward? I've seen some extremely stupid people who didn't even get into college because they played video games 24/7 who can't even talk to a cashier without feeling awkward.

Stop equating "nerdy" with the negative "socially awkward". it really makes you look like a meathead.

Recommended reading for fellow Comp. Sci majors:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/1439167346/s=…

That book changed a lot of my relationships for the better.

 

Hehe... He was probably one of the most successful self-help authors in the world until Wayne Dyer came along. And his original depression-era book is still a top-200 on Amazon after more than 70 years. But yes, he comes from an old-school world of modernism, and traditional common-sense so that's the reason for the high IlliniProgrammer Coefficient (TM).

 
iyadatuan:
man, seriously, they must be thinking "this poor guy, he must have no life at all, what a tool".

then why do you even have an account on this website asking for advice for a career that gives you exactly that - no life at all?

 

First of all, this is a very sample size. You do realize that wharton MBA has 800 students in each class? Just like any other top program, you will have mediocre people who somehow managed to get in, and some superstars as well. And wharton MBA has LOTS of finance superstars.

Moreover, b-school is like a 2-year party, the best time of your life. There's social events and parties almost every day, tons of networking, and lots of travelling to cool places.

 

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