why the non-target hate

"People like us, born at the bottom. Where would you put the percentage chance of ever making that top quintile? It's about 3% - that's intimidating, we intimidate people here. Why is that? Because hunger is not a birthright." - Eric from the TV show "Industry". A lil corny ik but thought this line was hard and funny considering that Eric was telling this to another character in the show who went to a non-target SUNY lmao. 

- From non-target, myself going into IB. Considering my parents didn't get an education in our home country + went to public school from elementary to college, think things are alright.

Seems it’s more that people dislike the average kid at a non-target school who might not be as motivated. The smartest students at non-targets, though, are often not too different from the type of kid that goes to a target school. Big Bay Area magnet high schools, lot of ECs, career oriented, just went for financial aid, or chose the school based on some other career before discovering IB.
 

I went to a non-target and when I started full time realized that the guys in my analyst class who went to more prestigious schools were pretty similar to me and the other handful of guys who broke into IB from my college. It’s just the top 5% of a school instead of the top 20-30% getting into these roles.

I don’t think people really “hate” on non-targets much. But the main thing is people who went to targets usually had to do an insane amount of grinding in high school, study all day, sacrifice social life etc to get into a target. Some non-targets try to make it seem like everyone at a target was born to some billionaire donor family and had it all “easy” in life, which is equally as dumb as thinking everyone at non-targets are stupid. And even at targets recruiting is still really hard, it’s not like going to an Ivy means you’re automatically gonna get into a BB, the vast majority don’t. So when you’re a target kid reading some post from a non-target whining about how hard it is, it makes sense to find that annoying thinking back to high school when you had to grind your ass off to get somewhere with a 10% acceptance rate, and you think about your friend who was out partying and didn’t try, went to a random school, and now wants the same opportunities you do.

I’m in the same analyst class with a bunch of targets, but none of them seems to hate non-targets. I guess it depends on the firm, but once you hit the desk everyone starts at the same level, just a question of how far you can go. One of my MDs comes from a super non-target, no MBA, and he’s known around the firm as one of the best rainmakers.

Keep your head up, chin down. Target or non-target, we’re all in this together 💪

Where you start is not indicative of where you finish, and how you’re perceived on paper is miles away from the perception of who you actually and what you’re actually capable of achieving. Anyone who looks at a sheet of paper and immediately thinks someone’s abilities are subpar because of their education (there are so many reasons why someone may go non-target other than “they’re not smart enough”), is going to go through their careers with blinders on.

In banking, look, anyone can do this fucking job, especially at the junior level. I don’t need to explain why targets get better looks and higher chances of placement (network, checking the box, etc). On the buy-side however, name of school matters when you’re a firm trying to convince smart and often times wealthy people to give you their money to invest. At the end of the day, and LP doesn’t know who you are, but they can take a look at the website and get an idea of the level of talent (senior level). Who are you more likely to give your check to?
- senior team of 5 H/S/W or
- senior team of 5 [insert state name] State University

And when firms try to think about the future, ideally they want to expand the senior team to include those they’ve trained at Aso level etc.

Prestige is what gets people to open their wallets and give you high regards. It’s why people constantly chase after the 2/2/2, getting as many big names behind their back as possible (Wharton undergrad -> Goldman -> Apollo -> HBS -> …). But what people also don’t recognize, is that prestige can be created by your own successes. Take the above example again, all else being equal, but add one more statistic:

- senior team of 5 H/S/W returning 2x MOIC
- senior team of 5 [insert state name] State University returning 5x MOIC consistently

Go out and fucking compete, and everyone who said you weren’t good enough to work for them will one day be begging to work for you

~ T5 Target School (non-target folks are not bots, they’re fucking lit)

Tbh, I've seen more target-hate on here with ppl saying targets are anti-social, elitist, and privileged and that they don't deserve outside help.

Idk, I feel target-hate and non-target-hate is just ridiculous. It's hard for everyone who doesn't have solid connections. Help one another, it's not that hard. You being at a non-target shouldn't make you a bad candidate - we're not living in the 20th century.

I don't think non-targets are retarded. Hear me out. I go to a non-target thats shit on pretty heavily here, and I have seen that by far most students at my school are genuinely stupid. Like it makes me wonder how they even got a 30+ act to get into the school. However, there are many of my peers who were retarded in high school, but changed up once they made it to college because they knew they wanted IB. These students operate at the same (if not higher) level than non-targets, making them perform the same on the job. At that point, a non-target IB analyst and a target IB analyst have virtually zero difference, since both are smart, hardworking individuals.

No one irl cares where you went to school. In the office, only your competence matters. I don't even know where most of my team went to school.