Everyone talks about targets, semi-targets and non-targets, it's funny that three great CEOs of 2 of the most storied franchises on the street never graduated college and one didn't even make it out of junior high. Sidney Weinberg dropped out of P.S. 13 a junior high, started as a janitor's assistant, worked his way up to the mail room and eventually the boardroom, becoming CEO of Goldman and leading it from being a second tier bank to the power house it is today. Gus Levy dropped out of Tulane, became a trader at GS and then it's CEO. Sy Lewis attended BU for a few semesters, dropped out and eventually became CEO of Bear, Stearns.
My question is what changed here were guys who proved that letters after your name didn't matter. These guys were some of the greatest financiers to ever live and when they hired they looked for fire in the belly not sheepskin on the wall. I wonder when this changed and why. I don't think the current crop of bankers can rival those of the past. When the last of these guys who came of age during the teens, twenties and thirties left the scene a part of Wall Street went with them. No longer are firms partnerships, focused on being "long term greedy" now they're beholden to shareholders who only care about the next quarter, that mindset is ultimately wrong. It's not about getting every penny out today and bleeding your clients dry, it's about getting most of them in perpetuity. Ultimately do people think firms would be better off focusing on the "soft skills" things like commitment to culture, honesty, ethics, fire in the belly, business sense and accumen, rather than on grades and university atteneded?
Using the example of a few exceptional CEOs as a treatment for the irrelevance of college and pedigree at the junior level is tantamount to arguing that all Computer Science majors should drop out because that's how Facebook and Microsoft started. They're outliers, that's the whole point! You don't analyze data trends with individual points, you analyze the whole set altogether.
OP's poor reasoning abilities tells me he went to a non-target.
I'm not arguing that dropping out is a good thing, rather that there are more important things than simply GPA and the university attended. Also these guys were hardly outliers, during that era a large number of bankers and traders came from "non-targets". More recently Dick Fuld went to Colorado for UG, Ace Greenberg went to Mizzou, Cary Kochman head of North American M&A at Citi was UIUC. My argument is that a large number of excellent bankers went to schools other than HYP and the focus that banks place on them seems misplaced.
I honestly don't believe that a single person on this site that's giving serious advice would argue that GPA and undergrad institution are the only important things in a person's career. Indeed, the entire appeal of WSO is that it's helped a shitload of non-target and non-traditional candidates break-in. Again, you seem to be grossly oversimplifying things.
Cary Kochman actually went to UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) not UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign). I'm not trying to be petty, but this probably further illustrates your main point, as UIUC certainly has a reputable business program.
Furthermore, he got his MBA and JD at the University of Chicago. This unfortunately does not support your point.
So generalizing, in this case, can be quite misleading.
Times change..now you have to go to a target to break into the upper echelons of dicksucking
Talk about desperation
I do find it ironic that the current entry requirements of most banks means they wouldn't hire a lot of their highest performers/executives.
So so true. My bosses' CVs are complete jokes once you take away the work experience.
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