Hot take: Affirmative action ain’t that deep

To preface, I’m the absolute most non-diverse group that exists in high finance. I used to loathe affirmative action like crazy back in high school and college (recruiting). What you guys are gonna learn is that it’s really not that deep.

Firms that need competent technical skills are not gonna forego talent for diversity. And for you all IB hardos, you can literally train high schoolers to do this shit no joke. Obviously there are outliers, but chill tf out boys

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look man, i've built some strong connections with senior bankers and execs who retired but obviously still have friends in the industry (have been building my network since hs, so have made a few good friends by now). since you're nondiverse i'm sure you have some strong senior connects too as those guys have more in common with us and naturally just gravitate to us more, so ask them how bad it's really gotten at these BBs, and they'll give you an honest answer, as they did with me when i recruited/hit the desk.

For colleges, being URM equivalent to having a national level award on ur resume or 200+ points on your SAT. Is it possible to get to HYP->Top BB->MF without being diverse or nepotism nowadays? sure, maybe, i haven't seen it since before the 2020 protests (when all this garbage kicked into high gear) but i'm sure it's possible (although a 4-5 sigma outcome). but a dude like that has to be a hell of a lot more talented than EVERYONE around him, and it's gotta be retardedly fucking obvious too.

Ask yourself how many nonlegacy straight white guys from public school you know from HYP that are there for academics. I'll give you a hint-it's a fraction of a percent. The entire white quota gets filled up by O-linemen, hockey guys, lax guys, etc. and then the legacies with more money than God that the schools have to take. And before anyone asks why i'm not pissed about that it's because those were the only other normal people who wanted to act like college kids. School would've licked asshole without those boys.

I'm sure you mean well by this post dude, but don't Willingly Overlook Known Evil just to make peace with yourself regarding the fact that everything you achieved was 10x harder to achieve for you than a lot of people around you.

 

I think you're exaggerating by a tiny bit when you say straight white men make up less than 1% of the student body at HYP. If you attend an elite private institution, look around next time you're at the dining hall.

16% of Harvard's class is compromised by students identifying as either African American/Latino or Hispanic/Native American/Pacific Islander. (Source: AdmissionSight)

I understand everyone's frustration on this issue. Diversity recruiting is much easier, and everyone would love to have it easier than others: it's human nature.

The way you, and many, frame their response is by swaying to the notion that diverse candidates are incompetent and downright retarded. Assuming 40% of the 16% (URMs) decide to flock Wall Street, we get 129 students alone from Harvard. Do that for every ivy league and peer school, and you'll find yourself with more than enough competent URM students from those schools alone.

No, you aren't instantly smarter or a harder worker than José just because your name is Timmy and you grew up in Westport, CT.

Every race has their advantages in this game. URMs have diversity recruiting, and White individuals have lacrosse, squash, rowing, disproportionate numbers in private schools, nepotism, etc…

Look up "Harvard Lacrosse Roster" online and scroll. Hell, look at the executive teams at your favorite firms; I think you're going to be alright.

The idea that URMs in the same position as White/Asian individuals are less competent is maybe the reason why these diversity programs continue to exist.

 

i said nonlegacy straight white guy from public school. I met 3 in my time at my HYP. Not 3 in my class, 3 total. And 16% of harvard is Black? Oh my God, that’s so low considering 13% of America is Black. Also, nobody is saying they’re retarded. What i’m saying is that i’m pissed they get spots over people with way more merit (this has been proven in college admissions—see scotus admissions). Nobody gives a fuck about race we care about the downfall of meritocracy because meritocracy is the only mechanism through which the capitalistic model works. If there’s a little bit of inefficiency that can’t be stopped (ie the billionaire client is always gonna be top choice) but if the whole system is inefficient then we’re not gonna be able to compete with a country like China

 

Lol, you're equating the advantage of being an elite collegiate athlete with "being black"? Come on dude. White lacrosse players aren't advantaged because they're white lacrosse players, they're advantaged because they're lacrosse players. A black athlete would be even more favored. 

It's a brute fact that URMs in the same position as white/asians have lower average GPAs, standardized test scores etc. 

 
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As someone who previously lead the recruiting for my group at a MM bank, here’s my take:

  1. We were required to take at least half of our SAs as diversity. This requirement came from the top and I assume all other groups had the same marching orders.
  1. The difference between the diversity pool and the standard pool was night and day. This is purely anecdotal and I hope the gap isn’t this large at every other bank, but the diversity candidate pool was substantially worse. Most of our top candidates within the standard pool probably had at least 3 IB/PE/HF related internships and a 3.8 gpa. Vast majority being targets or semi targets. The on the other side, the diversity pool was not as pretty. We were lucky to have people over 3.5 gpa that were still finance majors or had any finance related internships. Target schools didn’t really matter for diversity, in fact it was almost exclusively candidates from semi targets or non targets.

I understand the further downstream you go the bigger the diversity candidate drop off, but this was a joke. It felt wrong rejecting incredibly qualified candidates because we were forced to pick someone objectively worse on paper and in the interview. I think my group was happy with 1 of the 3 diversity candidates we had, while we had a line out the door of deserving people willing to take their spot.

I see this diversity debate all the time on here, and it’s mostly in relation to EB/BBs. But for the MM folks, it’s a much different picture.

 

It's just as bad at top EBs and BBs. They have a better shot at the truly talented candidates in the diversity pool, sure. But they also have a better shot at the standout, blue chip, phenomenal candidates. 

I've watched excellent asian/white male candidates get dinged in favor of far, far worse URM or female candidates. Shit is INFURIATING. 

 

Made the following proposal at my bank, let’s see how it goes.

We have our regular summer analyst program where we don’t have any quotas

We have a separate diverisity program for students one year prior to our summer analyst program, where people can get more exposure and can hopefully be better prepared to apply for the summer analyst program.

It doesn’t achieve any diversity objectives and it’s bad for business to set people up to fail, and hire an underclass of interns.

 
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lol some moron makes diversity support thread on a weekly basis nowadays. Support for diversity/affirmative action is literally support for institutionalized racism, there's no way around around that. The biggest supporters of this racist policy know deep down know its wrong but their mental block prevents them making a conscious effort to think independently because they like being part of the "in" crowd. They like feeling like a savior

Every single argument ever made for diversity/affirmative action in support of making it easier for black/latino/gay/women etc can be applied in exact terms to Mongolians, Laoitans, Sri Lankans etc. If you cannot address this, don't bother responding 

 

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