Dumbest career advice you've ever heard?
I'll start - "if you are smart, hardworking, you will make it in this industry"
Having been in this industry for several years, I can tell you the number of people who falsely believe that all it takes is "smart" and "hardworking" to make it - usually, those people aren't really that smart or hardworking to being with - they may have gotten one okay-looking degree (never serial top achievers) and work long hours (but not smartly). Typically also come with lack of independent thinking and therefore only able to repeat catch-phrases that sound about right to them.
Most of the people I've met in my career who are dumb enough to believe it did not make it - phased out pretty quickly at / after associate level.
Curious to hear what other common dumb advices people give / believe in
People value loyalty - reality is everyone is in it for themselves.
+SB
I used to think this early in my career. And when I catch myself being loyal like that, I tell myself "at will employment".
If you don't know what those three words mean, get familiar with them now.
"All you need is confidence" / "fake it till you make it"
While you need confidence, I've personally never met a truly "fake it" type who made it (unless family is loaded). People don't understand that you better be good at something (be it analysis, modeling, selling, politics) to make it. If you are not exceptional at any of those....good luck...
This works if you go to an average or below average shop. Won't work at GS or KKR, but will work at smaller places
Will also add another one - "your team should train you"
Reality is I never met a team (those I worked with / my friends worked with) that really train their junior professionals - you better first demonstrate that you are worth spending time on, then, people might tell you tidbits.
Those who believe its their team/ senior's job to train them are just setting themselves up for failure with unrealistic expectations and victim mentality ("woe is me! how come they don't teach me")
Learning this one the hard way a bit right now.
These two statements are in direct conflict with each other. The former is specifically referencing that you “need” to be good at the confidence game which implies selling / politics if you aren’t a savant at the analytical parts (or vice versa in some cases).
The statement was never meant to imply a total idiot with zero analytical, interpersonal, or other skills could really climb a corporate ladder if he just pretends. That’s insane.
was told by someone senior once not to network before getting an offer from a firm and then begin networking after getting the offer (edited for clarity)
lol this makes no sense
The greatest dumb piece of advice I've ever received is essentially the Boomer perspective on almost everything, to contextualize, people love to say that only those who are more experienced in the industry and have been working for several decades or 10 years+ or whatever, should be the ones you should be taking advice from, not the newbies who are just starting out. But the truth is that almost all of the worst advice I've ever received in terms of breaking in and being on the job are from out of touch senior people who just have no idea what the analyst or the junior experience is like, in general.
For example I once had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a multi-millionaire with his own boutique IB who had previously worked on the street and had a degree from Oxford, etc. and this person, while intelligent and sharp, among other things, gave me probably the most worthless advice ever. I'm from a non target, and he told me to get one of those HBS online degree type things to try to make myself more appealing to employers as well as telling me that at the junior level, the most important thing I can do is to act interested and be thoughtful, but to be patient with applying and to "network hard" but know that it isn't everything. while in practice, as a non-target all you DO have is your network.
Essentially I realized that the perpetuated myth of the wise, older more experienced career banker or MD or whatever is garbage because it gets lost in the practical reality that the person much closer to you (IB associate / PE associate) will just know more. This might seem like something logical to many but the way the professors and almost everyone in your professional path and immediate network phrase it, is that you should always listen to the more experienced people, despite the fact that those who are more experienced are simply out of touch.
Beware of over specialization (something that is touted when you are young), a lot of people including myself learn this the hard way when the markets and world change.
These same people are also ones from ivy BB IB backgrounds, correct?
Very applicable to non-targets, but I was repeatedly told “your degree doesn’t matter, just how smart/how hard you work.” Of course there are exceptions and and a handful of kids who will land great roles every year, but the odds are stacked against you. Some people will simply not give you a chance when they see you went to some high admission flyover state school. It sucks, but that’s just the way it is. I know lots of kids who were plenty smart and ground themselves down and still didn’t get roles.
“Investment banking is a great place to start your career”
I sort of agree with this one. I think the skills are not as transferable as I originally thought. I regret not spinning out into something else after associate years, but I wanted (and still do) to get a bit more financial security first. But once I do, not sure what exactly I would even go do. Corp dev? So the same job but without carry? PE CFO? Could work but also feels like I’d be a journeyman bouncing around every 5 years. And the odds of making it to CEO from that are…not high.
>Investment banking is a great place to start your career
>>investment banking - coverage - 2nd year analyst
judge people by their actions, never their words
“Follow your passion.”
While it’s important not to despise your line of work, I’m sure all of the homeless aspiring actors in LA wish they would have thought more practically when choosing their career.
I'd said "follow your passion" is good advice, the problem is if you only take that one advice, it doesn't bode well.
Meaning, say your passion is baking cakes. "Follow your passion" most would think is open a bakery. Now, you have to find a location, run staff, deal with customers, accounting, insurance, all the above, when all you really want to do is bake. So yes, you followed your passion, but was your passion spending 85% of your time running a business and 15% baking?
Do the CFA
EDIT: source: https://quotefancy.com/quote/1454491/Bill-Veeck-If-you-can-t-outsmart-p…
"Having a good brand name will look great on your resume" Terrible advice if it means not getting the relevant experience to lateral to what you want to do
"Companies value loyalty" Similar to the comments above. Absolute horseshit. From a firm's perspective, you are disposable and replaceable and they won't give you your desired position when there more qualified candidates with actual work experience.
"Have patience, everything will work out in the end" Absolute BS. You need to seize life by the balls and take risks. No one will hand you your desired job/comp, you need to be go out and take it
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