I don’t deserve any of this

I’m a non-target, non-traditional backgrounder that somehow ended up in banking. Never wanted to do it in college, never targeted it afterwards, just sorta happened through a random application and a referral. Now I’m living the dream that many of you want.

Call it imposter syndrome or whatever but it’s clear all of this fell into my lap. Some of you bust your butts in high school to get into a target school or join six thousand finance clubs and get a perfect 4.0 GPA. I didn’t even get a 3.5. Barely made any connections or networked at all. Never even did a summer analyst stint. Why do I deserve it any more than you guys? The answer is I don’t.

I wish every hardworking person out there could be in my spot too. It’s sad that on mentoring calls I talk to college guys who are working 3-4x harder than I ever did only to get a few first rounds. Or I read painful posts that sound like all of you are going through the fires of hades for even a faint hope of getting to a super day. Just feels weird being on the other side when I don’t deserve it like you folks.

This was just a quick shower thought style post. There’s more to my story of course but I ain’t writing all that today. Maybe down the road I’ll spin my story as “scratched and clawed to earn my rightful place in IB heaven and you can too with my 36-week course for 10 easy payments of $59.99”. Stonks.

You can take what you want from this. Maybe it’ll inspire you to keep pursuing your dreams. Maybe it’ll help you accept that life isn’t fair. Or maybe you can look down from your Manhattan penthouse and see what happens mentally when a wandering peasant stumbles into your industry.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it. Smash that like button. Let’s get this to 10,000 bananas and I’ll do a mystery unboxing. I’m writing this at 3am because I’m an idiot. Okay bye.

14 Comments
 

Do you think that a non-target or someone else that puts a huge effort will only get an offer in IB? Do you think that the resilience, ambition, and hard work/endurance that got him there despite the odds not being in his favor will just fade after he receives the offer? Trust me, and that's from experience, the character and mental endurance that is built climbing the mountain from way over the bottom - compared to already starting in the middle or close to the top - can't be bought nor learned in any of your training/schools/etc. If you really think that such a person's ambition will stop only to IB you're misjudging them, and I really hope you don't have to compete directly with such a kid/guy because you'll get terminated.

But enjoy it, because the only thing that you got and that you'll carry from here onward is just an IB offer in your CV, nothing less, nothing more. In terms of lessons/wisdom/character building, forget about it.

incentives trumph ethics
 

You are so soft, I cannot believe you are taking the time to write this. If you feel that you don't deserve any of this, instead of taking the time to self-sympathize or whatever it is you are doing, you should find what it is that you pursue and inspire others and go do something to learn the importance of hard work and do something instead of taking the time to share this thought. This is not out of hate. 

 

I wouldn't want to hire someone with this weak of an outlook & low opinion of themselves. You should def work on that, there's a difference between humility and being self-deprecating. Nobody deserves anything, working hard doesn't mean anyone will succeed, everything you do has some aspect of chance. 

"If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

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"If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion

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