As the financial services and consulting industries scale back their college recruitment efforts since the big crisis, it seems an unlikely organization is filling the void: Teach for America . By adopting the recruitment playbook of Wall Street -- that is, laser-focus on target schools and showering elite candidates with personalized attention -- Teach for America is climbing the prestige ladder.
“As Teach for America has been around longer and hired very smart people, it’s gotten even better at how they recruit students, while the financial services industry has slowed down and experienced negative publicity in the media,” Ms. Wilson said. Many regard earning a spot in Teach for America a “badge of success.”
In many ways Teach for America was modeled on the success of top Wall Street firms, which seek to recruit the best and the brightest college graduates. In her 2001 memoir, the program’s founder, Wendy Kopp, wrote that she hoped to both improve the stature of the profession and give the recruitment process a much-needed jolt. In the book, she said she envisioned creating “a teachers corps that would recruit as aggressively as the investment banks and management consulting firms that were still swarming all over campus.”
The Dealbook article pretty much speaks for itself. Since 2008, TFA recruitment has become twice as competitive and placed 1.5 times more Ivy League grads in American classrooms. In testament to this demographic shift, a Cornell grad, who interned at Oliver Wyman and ended up at TFA, even boasts that he performs “exhaustive data pulls” using Excel spreadsheets to analyze the patterns on his students’ five-question quizzes.
“T.F.A. is a really strong name,” he said. “It seems as if going to work for McKinsey or something like that; they hold the same value.”
Personally, I have never met a single person who has forgone a finance job for Teach for America. Is this movement real? Do you monkeys see doing Teach for America for two years -- in lieu of, or prior to the traditional analyst stint -- a viable, if not a prestigious, option?
Links
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/deferring-six-figures-on-wall-st…
Okay wow. No.
To quote a portfolio manager "I don't do this job for charity"
Now, if you really understand what's going on... They are targeting elite schools to fill in slots. This is a piece of the down economy more bright people who don't make the cut on Wall Street.
Who would you rather hire... A guy who worked on the street from 03-06 or 07-10... All else equal ... 07-10. It's more impressive. The more you can survive a down turn and move up the ranks in a bad economy he better your sales pitch becomes. Earning money in the the boom is not impressive. Earning money in the mortgage crisis is impressive.
If we are talking about different career paths then the story might change. But Wall Street is Wall Street. You will be judged based on your experience and direct results.
What in the world are people trading this "prestige" for? The only places that will weigh TFA higher than McKinsey are B-schools or in the education business.
Anyone doing TFA for the prestige is entirely missing the point.
like I mentioned before TFA is no longer prestigious. In fact they are kind of annoying with multiple rounds of interviews and spams you every time. The people i know going to TFA from my school have like 3.3-3.5s with pretty much no previous internships. Not impressive.
My older brother did TFA out of undergrad - the selectivity was a bit higher then but what was more impressive IMO is the ability to tough it out 2 yrs teaching in an inner city NYC middle school. I visited the school a few times and believe me dealing with those kids and even worse their parents is waaaaay tougher than many analyst programs. He still works in education. I've got nothing but respect for (good) teachers.
I have nothing against teachers or TFA really for that matter, but people struggling to choose between TFA, McKinsey and banking must really be utterly clueless as to what they want to do as a career.
Not really a accurate statement. The purpose of TFA isn't to create teaches, rather expose the types of people that will become business, finance, legal leaders to the world of education so that way they will become advocates later in their careers. Think of it as a program before starting your "real" career. Nothing wrong with wanting to give a little back and doesn't mean you are utterly clueless. Reality is one will probably become more mature and a better leader doing TFA or similar programs before entering an MC or IB analyst role.
Modeling. You don't see too many teachers on the covers of magazines, but you do see plenty of models.
modeling prestigious???? I have lost all hope in the future of finance...and mankind...
Not about the prestige at all - it's about "broadening your horizons." I see TFA as being comparable with the Peace Corps. Definitely isn't more prestigious, but the dogma is that it helps with business school applications. Not sure if that is still the case (have heard the adcoms caught on and don't value it as highly anymore)
I know three people who did/considered doing TFA. My girlfriend was gunning for TFA for a while, one of her friends made it, and I had a family friend who did it for two years, but in reality it just seems like an awful deal. In fact, when I told one of my professors (head of the Education department at my school) that my girlfriend was attempting to join TFA, he wanted her phone number to call her and talk her out of applying.
All-in it seems like a scam. As you know, the program places you in a poor area where you are supposed to find a teaching job--meaning that they don't even guarantee you a job. Then, after you have a low-paying teaching job in an unsafe area, TFA withholds part of your salary!
It makes no sense to me why anyone, especially an Ivy grad, would subject themselves to that. I guess they like the mission of the program enough to suffer for a few years, but it's definitely not about prestige.
The Onion has posted a wicked funny point/counterpoint on TFA: http://www.theonion.com/articles/my-year-volunteering-as-a-teacher-help…
Fair enough, but it's hard to picture someone who wanted to do S&T balancing that against TFA. McKinsey less so, as it seems to fall on the "I'm not totally sure what career I want yet track." Not that there's anything wrong with that, but those seem to be the kind of people most interested in prestige/exit opps type questions.
I'm with you. I don't see ambitious finance type kids looking to go save the world rather than trying to lock down a cover spread.
Et ducimus quidem nam vel aut officiis. Aliquam consectetur autem non provident. Sequi id ipsa assumenda fuga non consequatur rerum et. Nemo ut qui iusto minus quis ab. Ut impedit labore dicta cumque quam in.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...