The problem with non/semi targets...
is that they're, on average, terrible writers. I'm not saying I'm great, but some of the sentences that these kids put in decks make me want to claw my eyes out. I don't think it's because non-targets are inherently dumb, but probably because most of them majored in finance or accounting in undergrad and didn't get any real writing or critical thinking experience.
Non target engineering major and I haven’t gotten a B on an essay since sophomore year of high school. Suck my nuts you clown
How is this relevant? Congrats on not getting less than a B (as if that's admirable) from your low quality professors?
.
Also clearly your comprehension skills need work. I said I haven’t gotten a B, not LESS THAN a B. Congrats on your elite literature skills rockstar
Agreed. This is definitely where analysts from liberal art colleges shine. Anyone can pick up modeling and all that jazz in a month but writing and conveying information are skills that a lot of kids neglect and that's where rockstar analysts differentiate themselves.
How can people who took advanced STEM classes, worked tirelessly day and night to maintain a higher GPA than target kids (who also have the benefit of grade inflation), have higher barriers to entry in the industry of type A knobs, and have to manage academic and ECs with constant networking with bankers who usually would not talk to the simpleton non-targets, ever be good at writing or conveying information than target kids who in some cases would receive interviews just because of the school name, while learning about the origins of the 1000th gender discovered in the 100th class? There's simply no way.
Idk man… you hired me
An analyst writing key points in a deck seems totally irrelevant to the job. A more senior level banker should be conveying main ideas they want expressed in the deck. Why should an analyst spend an hour overthinking the bullet points in a deck when the person speaking could give it 5 minutes of thought?
This. When the fuck are you actually coming up with phrasing by yourself, maybe 2% of the time? Fucking irrelevant. My honest observation at an EB is that nontarget kids here are 69% more competent than Ivy league history majors who are still trying to figure what is EBITDA
Absolutely, and by the time you’re writing the content of the deck yourself you should have worked on enough presentations that you’ve developed an intuition for how it should be written anyway.
whats written in a deck is complete BS. CONVEY THE MAIN POINTS. I hsve a managing director who is a complete clown about the verbage in decks. I feel like sponsors could give a rats ass about anything except material company details and not whether or not the word “robust” is in a sentence. Purple business fluff shit is not important
Accounting and finance majors still get a well rounded education. They have to take writing intensive humanities classes as well as other liberal arts classes to fulfill graduation requirements. So the non targets that majored in finance and accounting are already a double threat.
There is no intense writing in PowerPoint pitch books. It is just the company name and the bullet points about the company. What needs to be right is font, color and logo. Target school grads mess this up all the time. In other companies, the admin/executive assistants own this responsibility and they do an amazing job. Most admin/executive assistants did not go to college or only attended two years of community college.
I went to a non target school. I was the best writer in my group that was filled with target grads. My writing skills were useless. I still had to put up with this elitist crap that is alive and well at investment banks.
I really struggled with getting juniors to really nail down concise, impactful writing. I find keeping them in the loop on big picture and context really helps. I now spend less time drafting points and more just polishing verbiage and stuff.
This is totally unrelated to target vs no target (people will always find the case for prestige, whatever) but I ditto on banking consisting of short & impactful writing. However, I do think this is a developed skill within prose- whatever target kids are writing word vomit or ramblings to convey an idea certainly didn’t listen too well in class. At least in the liberal arts world, there’s a clear line between business writing vs expository vs verse and free-form. Part of the mastery of writing is being fluid within different modes of writing, depending on the audience and intent. At least that’s what I’ve learned in class… even then, this skill is not refined until you actually do it with practice, day to day e.g. gain reps. I’d say everyone sucks here at the beginning.
Only difference I’ve noticed in those who came from “prestigious” vs “non-prestigous” schools is perhaps breadth of vocabulary; otherwise, no correlation.
Agree that it's unrelated to target vs non-target. Education for our generation has become much more specialized and with that plenty of B-school kids don't have to write many essays / improve their writing. Interestingly, some of the smartest people I know in finance minored (or sometimes even majored) in philosophy or english. I think there's a more cerebral type of mind that gravitates to those subjects and that type of mind can be great in finance, particularly in investing.
I was a history major in college. I can assure you that very few people in finance can write well, regardless of what school they went to. The gap between most liberal arts majors and most finance/accounting/STEM majors is enormous in this regard.
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