Asian Males in Finance have it the worst
To preface this statement, I am an Asian male, I am a rising junior, and I have a strong internship for junior summer. I am merely speaking based on what I've seen happen to Asian males at other schools and how unfair the system is, so there is no need for personal insults directed towards me.
It's actually ridiculous how difficult it is for Asian males (both East Asian & Indian) to break into finance. It is easier for every other demographic to break into finance, and even worse, they're held to a lower standard than Asian males on the job as well.
- Hispanic and Black people are held to a much lower standard in college admissions, and are the beneficiaries of many, many diversity programs which essentially give them a free path to an elite job.
- Asian and white women are held to a lower standard simply because they are women (which is wrong, yes, but it happens), and also benefit from diversity programs due to their gender.
- White men also do have it hard, to be fair, but they do have the cultural/networking advantage because of the culture in finance, and many white men at top schools are well connected. Yes, it is hard for a white man without connections to break in, but those are far fewer compared to Asian men without connections.
Many Asian men are the children of immigrants, and often have 0 connections in finance. Despite this, they have no diversity or inclusion programs, and are expected to grind harder than everyone else for a job. If you're an Asian man from a non-target, it's near impossible to get an elite finance job, whereas you see Hispanics / Blacks / Women do it all the time through diversity and inclusion programs; and you see white men do it all the time with connections.
Furthermore, Asian men who do get elite jobs are held to a much, much higher standard. I have friends who have told me that diversity candidates are held to an incredibly low standard during internships and have to do the bare minimum to get a return; while Asian guys have to be rockstars to get returns, most of the time.
I don't know man, the system just seems so unfair starting from college admissions, I just feel bad for all of my fellow Asian guys who grind 5x harder than other demographics but can't get their dream college/job.
Unfortunate reality. There’s just too many qualified Chinese/Indian males wanting to break into high finance.
Yeah but honestly the problem starts at college admissions. I went to a pretty competitive majority Asian school in the Bay Area and so many Asian kids who I knew would succeed at ivies had to settle for schools far below their caliber. Lots of diverse kids who weren't even in the top 10% at my HS got into much better schools than Asians who were, which already pushes Asians back. It's just unfair how the whole system is made to ensure that diversity kids succeed while Asian kids don't.
News flash, Supreme Court just fixed that
News flash, with their holistic admissions bullshit top colleges with english major AO's can still admit all the diversity they want to and site whatever reason they want!
You're crazy if you think top schools won't keep trying to promote diversity but under a different guise lol
It’ll be a lot harder. Using essays or other proxies for race still illegal and easy to prove. Main difference is AOs don’t want to be sued. Diversity admission used to be encouraged, now it’s illegal, and that’s actually a big difference
Hmmmm....I wonder what race this Arnav Patel guy is?
Sucks for us, but atleast we’re not back in the homeland stuck on farms.
The worst part is that the whole "character" argument is outdated. Gen Z Asian-Americans are much more socially acclimated than generations past yet older executives and millennials still hold belief that all of us are bland study robots.
That's called racism my brother
Yeh bro, I mean I could go on and on about how unfair this has been for me as an asian male who went to a public high school.
But there is literally nothing we can do right now. Instead we should focus on doing our best which ensures that we can break in when possible and eventually get those top tier positions to create institutional change. Even if its not me, I'm sure that overtime the Indian and Asian boy hoping to do finance won't be starting behind.
It's unfortunate, but the reality is you have to play the game.
It doesn't stop once you break into finance. You gotta fight the bamboo ceiling, and dispel preconceived notions about Asian men. They think you're meek, so you need to be outspoken and advocate for yourself. We're seen as nerds, so you gotta work out and know sports (fantasy football is an underrated way to build rapport with colleagues as an asian guy). Promotion does not come easy and you won't be naturally seen as leadership material.
At the end of the day, don't adopt a victim mentality. You chose an ambitious career path and indirectly you're helping make things better for Asian guys who come after you in finance. Be a killer and help mentor younger guys when you're older.
I don't think Bamboo ceiling applied to Indians. I see them rise to the top wherever I am. They literally lead all Silicon Valley companies that I can think of and are literally in C suite of so many others I have interned at
I always found it funny that this site is so quick to accept the idea of cultural/racial discrimination against asian men, but absolutely rejects (and in some cases perpetuate) discrimination against other POC/women/LGBT/etc. If it is so ridiculously easy to break in as a minority and be gifted a career, why aren't the IBD classes at banks filled with black Muslim women? why are they still predominately white/asian men despite what this site might have you believe?
Just to be clear, I do believe discrimination against asian men in finance exists. Its just interesting how this sites attitudes towards different types of discrimination varies.
Hmm I wonder why? Have you ever considered that both groups face discrimination, but only one has systemic support options like countless diversity programs starting from high school, leaders in government who have the same ethnic identity, and general better integration of culture from being raised by none immigrant parents or being white (white lgbt, white women).
Also, the asians that are breaking in for the most part are working day and night to get in. If they become so over qualified they can occupy more of the space, thats not an issue. In fact, I think its funny your dumbass logic supports the fact that black women are far less oppressed than asian men across America because there are more black-female policy makers in congress, the highest level of power far beyond finance.
Stop using shitty statistics to justify woke bullshit lmao without providing solutions lol.
That is a terrible comparison because congressional representatives are selected based on local demographics so of course there will be more black women in congress because they make up far more of the concentrated american public than asian males lmao.
I will reiterate, if the path to a high power career in finance is so incredibly easy for non-asian diverse people, why aren't IBD classes flooded with diversity hires, why do black students opt to go elsewhere than this industry?
Why are they predominately while/asian male. Lol your eyes must be blind. Name just one American bank dominated by Asian male pls.
Why are we still seeing these posts no one disagrees? It’s not breaking news, the Supreme Court literally came to the same conclusion.
Hopefully one day these angered, overlooked Asian/Indian/White Men start their own firms that kill the others based on shear belief of meritocracy. Of course this is not an overnight process but I could see it happening if DEI keeps accelerating.
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