What is Wall Street?
Got into an argument with a buddy that said he works on “Wall Street”. He works in IB, in a Tier 3 City. I don’t consider that a Wall Street job. I believe working on Wall Street encompasses having a job connected to the financial markets and living in the NYC area. What do you believe is the criteria for having the right to say “I work on Wall Street”?
Small peen massive ego. Balding. Patagonia vest. Willing to work 18 hour days staring at a screen to make rich people richer, for the chance to live comfortably in the future.
I think for ib if you work in front office at a bank that has extensive geographic reach and their comp is line with peers, then calling it wall st. Is not a stretch. For example, Jefferies TES group in charlotte is still considered wall st. The reasons are 1)Jefferies has extensive geographic reach, it serves clients in many geographic areas, 2)it is a front office job 3) the pay is in line with its "wall st" peers. Tbh most financial service firms are not HQed on Wall St. anymore. It’s more of a symbol.
I think you'd have to change that statement to reflect small financial service firms. But all the large companies are still very much entrenched in the Financial District.
Uhh... this is just factually untrue lol
Citi, CS (lol), MS, JPM, BofA, Jefferies, Barclays, Evercore, DB, UBS, Wells Fargo, a million more I'm not naming are all outside of FiDi now. Same with the MFs or other financial firms like Citadel or BlackRock. I know very few people who actually work in FiDi these days.
"I work on Wall Street"
"Oh? You work in some area of finance?"
"You bet, I sell structured products for a multi-million dollar Food Service Conglomerate.
"Oh wow - what's the firm called?"
"CAVA, a Mediterranean restaurant."
"So you're..."
"A Cashier, yes."
lost it at structured products hahah
As Michael Scott said, "a bank teller."
I think the regional offices of IB/front office are still "Wall Street", especially at a big bank. Someone sitting in SF or Houston is doing the exact same M&A work as someone in NYC.
Now if it's a LMM bank with 10 employees maybe not. But I think this is a weird thing to obsess over, honestly. Who cares about gatekeeping that term anyway
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