His career trajectory is so odd. He graduates from a prestigious administrative school in 2004, works as an inspector of finances for 4 years in the finance ministry, then joins Rothschild in 2008. With no prior IB experience he is an MD closing massive deals and is promoted to partner in 2010...
I don't know if this is a particularity of the French banking ecosystem but how on earth does someone hyper-accelerate their career like this? It's outstanding. He quits Rothschild in 2012 after 4 years, works as a minister and is elected president in 2017... 13 years after graduating from the administrative school.
France is all about where you went to university and how well you do there.
Macron went to ENA which is the most prestigious university and was an Insoecteur de Finances which meant he was at the absolute top. Unlike the US or UK where your 4.0 at Harvard means nothing in the real world, in France that’s a badge that stays with you for life. He then had a high powered job at the treasury where again unlike the US or UK, the civil service and finance are interlinked. This allowed him to build top corporate connections at a young age and join Roths as a Director despite never having done banking. And he did well there given his obvious brains and relationships. But it’s a very French story.
Either that or he’s some sort of a five eyes/CIA operative like Epstein. Epstein went from being a math teacher to some sort of intel operative running a honey pot scheme.
By way of background, Macron graduated from the top French school of public administration, the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA). Nearly all French presidents and ministers come out of ENA.
Admission to ENA is through an exam, for which the admission rate is around 5%. French students usually take a gap year after their master's to prepare for this exam (which spans public finance, European law, social policy…).
Once in, you are not still not quite there yet… during their time at ENA, which lasts for 2 years, students will take classes but also complete 2x internships: one in a French embassy, and one in a domestic governmental body. At the end of these 2 years, students are ranked based on their academic achievements (both in-class grades and performance in their internships). This ranking is crucial in determining which government body a student will be able to join, as the first ranked gets to pick first where he wants to work, then the second, and so on.
The 3 most prestigious gov bodies (the French equivalent of the Supreme Court, along with 2 state finance inspection bodies) each have 3 seats available. So effectively, only the top 9 students (out of c. 100) can access these 3 institutions.
Macron ranked in the top 9 and joined the Finance Inspection. He was quickly identified as a top performer by Jacques Attali, a very influential French public servant and former president of the EBRD. Attali and Macron worked together on a paper for President Sarkozy on how to unleash economic growth. As part of their research efforts, Macron met with numerous high profile CEOs (including Accor, Nestlé, Essilor…).
Attali then recommended Macron to the Partners of Rothschild. The partner who interviewed Macron for the role of MD was questioned by a French media for a documentary… he said he had never met someone as smart as Macron and proceeded to offer him the job in the middle of the interview.
Remember when I said Macron had met with numerous CEOs for his paper? Well he just leveraged this network to originate deals...
Overall, Macron went through a terribly selective and prestigious academic pathway, which led him to be among the few French finance inspectors, a role holding a lot of prestige. The Finance Inspection has been the launchpad for multiple high profile French politicians. He then showed outstanding interpersonal and technical skills, which allowed him to stand out from an already small group of highly competent individuals. This was topped by the support of influential people, allowing him to be introduced to the right persons.
Just wanted to say that the quality of responses such as these are what keeps me floating around this website. I'm no longer in banking or PE, and 90% of the content is irrelevant to me.
The quality of posts like these still makes it worth it to visit this website, so thank you.
Oh, such a smart kid. Yet France is burning night and day.
No matter what it will burn. People are very resistant to change in that country. It's a tradition. His pension reform was necessary
In complete fairness, the French love their rioting....
In addition, our representatives (assuming you are an American) are just as smart as Macron, if not smarter, but they still make baffling decisions (often in the name of compromise and for their constituents but I digress).
The French are lazy and entitled as evidenced by them feeling they should be able to retire for 40 years with 70% of their wages after working 35 hour weeks. Les Incompetent
Quality of this post so high I thought I was in the wrong forum.
I call bullshit on this response. Here are two truths of banking.
1. No matter how smart you are, your promotions are lock step. Analyst 2 to 3 years, Associate 2 to 3 years, etc. etc. This business is full of super smart people. You don't see leap frogging practically ever. In fact, I think this one of the most frustrating aspects of IB. Top bucket analyst and bottom bottom bucket analyst will both be second year analysts next year.
2. So, he got to know some top CEOs. Ok, again not particularly unique. I'll give myself as an example. I worked in equity research and was on a first name basis with probably 40 executive teams who thought very highly of me. This by no means that investment banks were ready to roll out the red carpet and promote me directly to managing director in IB.
I'm not saying that Macron is not smart or connected but these are generally common characteristics in this industry yet his career path is very very uncommon.
You know the dude you’re trashing is now president of France, right? Stop judging him by how ordinary bankers climb the ladder.
The dude was boning his teacher who was married and 20 years older than him. He’s always been ahead of or I guess, on top of, the curve.
Macron seems like a brilliant wunderkind, but I just cant get over that he fell in love with his 39 year old teacher as a 15 year old and then married her later.
Such a weird thing to do. He's either a total weirdo or he's gay and shes his "beard" to be accepted into elite french society.
He absolutely is gay, Mathieu Gallet ran a train on him
Damn, didn't know Manu was so OP until I read this thread. Always thought he was at Roths Ldn for some reason. Knew he was a stud with the teacher thing but didn't know about the OP things he did. Feel kinda depressed now ngl
Chin up bro, it’s still just France. It’s like being the QB of the Bears. Sure it’s kind of impressive but you’re still playing for the Bears.
prestige/size lord macron making harvard->kkr kids seem like scrubs
He is incredibly gifted at networking and using social relationships to his advantage. He was able to connect with very influential people in France like Alain Minc and Jacques Attali who were paramount in his successes at Rothschild&Co.
His wife, who is 25 years older than him, was decently connected and helped him to focus on the right things.
Just imagine the reverse situation of a girl dating a guy 25 years older and being promoted rapidly at any banking institution and some people would connect the dots differently...
All in all, he benefitted from tremendous mentoring.
Regarding cognitive abilities, many comments overestimate his achievements, in "classes préparatoires" at Henri IV he had to follow remedial teaching in mathematics, he failed twice the "concours" for the "Ecole Normale Superieure" (highly selective) and former teachers and classmates do not remember him as outstandingly brilliant.