There was definitely some historically bad aspects of Wall Street culture (particularly mistreating women etc). That said, find it incredibly sad how Wall Street / IB culture seems to be nowadays. It’s like pulling teeth sometimes trying to get juniors to go out during the week. This can be something as simple as going for a drink... let alone properly partying, consuming anything stronger, strip clubs, etc.
Wall Street seems to be filled with a bunch of nerds who can crush technicals but have no EQ and who have killed the “play hard” hard part of “work hard play hard”
I can feel the MS coming. And I’m not saying this should be forced on anyone. But kinda sad to see how neutered the industry culture is
Workload. Hard to go out when you are constantly pulling 90+ week
Fair but I can’t imagine old school bankers were chilling at 40 hour work weeks either
No, but over-competition has heightened hours for juniors. Analysts and associates are being pushed toward physical limit, which is not the case back in time.
Tldr is this is a matured industry. What finance was in the 80's is what Tech was in the 2010's and will be what whatever else is the next big wave in 10-20 years. Shit ton of regulation pretty turned it in to what it is today and to the majority outside of finance its for the better. The market is fully saturated, meaning there is no more outsized growth to rely on and the industry is mostly finite and realized, meaning there is downwards pressure on fees and economics to win market share and upwards pressure on value extraction out of employees and additional pressures from thousands of new entrants in the junior level willing to pick up those spots. If you want a "deal" job (outsized pay/perks/WLB relative to hours worked) look for something hidden maybe just hitting the limelight because the money in finance has been known for 6+ decades now and the market has been fully corrected to the maximum value extraction they can get out of an individual, not a minute less. And the minimum they need to pay to retain talent and not a penny more.
Unfortunately I think it’s also some of the stuff you see about younger generations drinking lesss etc. Im not sure if you find the culture elsewhere or if it’s just diminished in general …
Completely agree. Would also add that look at the hiring standards today vs 20 years ago.
The average hire is a fucking alien. No kidding they won’t go out for beers. As well, the focus on modelling and decks for the sake of doing more work continues the cycle and then some as these juniors become more senior.
Asians
Yep. The notorious "fratty" groups of wallstreet all have one thing in common
HR has taken over the country.
Wall Street got lots of criticism during the GFC for its "party hard" culture, so for reputational reasons banks made sure to cut lots of their entertainment expenses (including where is appropriate to have business meetings with clients). Seniors also made sure to follow the rules and not encourage degenerate entertainment. Give it 10-15 years, and now we only the "work hard" without the "party hard".
Also nerds, but this is a consequence of encouraging meritocracy.
Can add anecdotally when I was at Moelis in the 2010s (a UBS spin off from the GFC effectively), I would regularly hear people mention how great the 2007 UBS holiday party was and that no party ever has or will again reach that height of spending and debauchery
Obviously meritocracy is good but people ignore the EQ aspect of hiring nowadays when thinking about “meritocracy” and it leads to hiring a bunch of kids who memorize IB technicals and have zero social skills
Plenty of ex college athletes/ healthy types just don't drink anymore
I get that but if you're a fun and interesting person you would still create at least a semblance of a fun or interesting culture at work, regardless of alcohol or drug use.
Of course. We all like great hangs
Sooo good looking nerds ?
Do you think everyone that doesn't drink is a nerd?
Gen Z is the absolute worst
Lol, ngl the Gen Zs not drinking (coworkers and younger relatives of mine) is why I've become sober curious. For the most part, I admire how healthy they live life.
.
As a Gen Z’er I feel confident it has much more to do with what this generation has become than anything to do with HR/other factors comments are mentioning. Kids today are simply lame as fuck. Every year in college I see a larger and larger share of a given class be completely sober. Shit’s sad
Wall Street killed itself
Combination of maturing industry and Gen Z being lame.
Think part of this has to do with recruitment timeline coming up so early. Fewer and fewer personality hires / “grab a beer after work?” guys being hired because banks are recruiting applicants that have wanted to do IB since birth and are technical sweats. Good for the output of the firm but makes most banks full of bots who don’t know how to socialize.
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