Is a prestige lens toxic?
Whenever I talk to people about work/ finance stuff I immediately check/ consider their bank/ firm/ fund brand and pass everything they say thru a prestige filter. If the finance person has never worked in a global brand name firm, I discount the things they say and think they're sus (not all the time tho). This has started to poison my mind somewhat.
In my defense, I'd argue that this suspicion carries some grain of truth - the people who never worked in brand name firms often show signs of this.
How to let go of this?
Yes, obviously. Idiot.
How to stop the prestige lens
Idk bro just stop being an asshole?
This seems to stem from a lack of social skills + inferiority complex. The type who lives to work.
A. Accept that comparatively you know nothing compared to a seasoned MD at a LMM firm
B. Talk to people outside of finance. Literally they see everyone the same in our field with mild differences.
C. Get off this forum and come back when you can take all that is said with a grain of salt
Agree.
Ok so how's this for a different take - the person in question is tryna sell or teach me smtg. Whenever some salesman tries to get me into a financial/ insurance plan, or sell me a stock trading course by acting like the typical trader guru, I take one look at their resume, see that they worked in trash firms their whole life then tell them to gtfo.
And these gurus usually preach voodoo finance
Lolol most people outside of finance thinks investment banking is the same as buy side (aka root of all evil) anyway
Think about people who are more “prestigious” than you. Exeter, Harvard to BX PE whatever. Do you see your self as inherently lesser than these people? Assuming so, you need to work on your self esteem and learn that people’s value does not come from what family someone is born into or their career success
Yea
ok intern
This is very common. This isn’t a good thing to be doing.
One of the best ways for me is to remember the history of banking. GS was a no name bank until the Sears IPO and wasn’t a BB until the Ford IPO (and that’s being generous to GS). Drexel was a bank that was only relevant because it used to be Drexel, Morgan until Milken made it the Street’s most profitable bank. Bank of America started out as a bumfuck North Carolina bank that really only moved out of being a regional bank in 1998 to consuming Merrill in ‘08 to now one of the top banks in the world.
Lack of prestige isn’t a synonym for incompetent. And it is competence that matters
That's a good point.
Well, HR throws out non-prestigious resumes without even looking at them, in their job filter. I'm just doing broadly the same thing here with my personal life filter
Not really. “Employer” is a thing many HRs will have filters for but if you are halfway intelligent you should be able to hit enough key words for that to not matter
These questions are so cringe.
Please, for the love of god, go touch grass, get laid, get drunk with your friends
You're an intern in equity research. Stfu
Ok😭
Just askin' tho
Have sex, take a few night classes doing a hobby you have no experience in, and stop seeking self validation through others. In the real world no one gives a fuck where you work or what you do as long as the bills are getting paid. Don’t surround yourself with a bunch of antisocial hardos, they feed off of that shit and it will just make you worse off in the long run if you are actually trying to get out of this “prestige driven” mindset.
Trying out new hobbies will keep you humble/interesting as a person. And sex, well sex is great.
You seem fun at parties
LOL intern. Honestly once you’re actually in the industry you will realize the ‘prestige’ of a bank does not matter on an interpersonal level. I have friends who are analysts at ‘top banks’ and friends at obscure boutiques. We are all kind of doing the same job. It’s largely the same type of people who end up in IB.
It only makes a difference to you and your career. So play the prestige game if you want the marginal access to better sweatshops like Anansi Group, Spring Oak Creek Management, and Proctologos Capital but just know even the guys at JG Wentworth & Co. in Sioux Falls are going to make cheddar and not give af about your perception of prestige.
Cheers bud
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