How to go from No Office to Front Office?
I'm not talking about the back office as in operations, risk management, etc. - i'm talking about people with no office - you know like the mailroom guy, the janitor, that type of thing. How can you get to the front office, or better yet, the C-Suite like how former GS CEO Sidney Weinberg did? You didn't go to a target, you didn't even go to a non-target, you just ended up sweeping floors at a BB as a high school dropout.
Sidney Weinberg's story is one of a kind and epitomizes the allure of the American dream and Wall Street. In all seriousness, what are your monkeys experiences and interactions with the "no office" people - the janitor, security guard, etc. and what do you think of them? You probably pay zero attention to them but hey they are still people - maybe even the future CEOs of your firms... likely not though. And srs question, have you seen any of them progress career wise?
PS: Posted this b/c there's a lot of discussion about MO and BO but I want to bring to light the truly disenfranchised class of citizens on Wall Street.
No Office people are nothing to me. I do not even acknlowedge their existence
I'm nice to everyone because i believe in it. It's also nice that it pays back in huge dividends in ways you'd never expect. like when the admin gets a new job and puts your resume in, or you get introduced to a hot girlfriend or invited to a fun party. you should try being more open minded and you may see new opportunities.
This! Dunno y the MS. Here an SB for you!
You probably work at Morgan Stanley. Fuckers like you are why average people resent all of us.
Your walk through life is off to a bad start.
Coming from a less-than-rich background and having grown up with many people who wound up being security guards, UPS delivery folk, etc., I can say with some certainty that winding up in a job like that is the result of a huge lack of self-confidence. I mentor a few people from that background who are in / recently graduated college, and the most difficult thing to get into their heads is that they CAN make it, they WILL succeed if they try hard enough, the "system" IS NOT trying to "keep them down", and there IS NO illuminati.
You'd think that that's all common sense, but many, many people are simply convinced that they can't succeed no matter how hard they try. What I've discovered is that most people just don't know how to "work." Most people don't know how to sit down, stare at something, keep staring, stare some more, take notes, look up solutions, and repeating this process until the work makes sense. Some people never learned how to learn, and that's a crucial skill when trying to enter any professional field, so much so that the lack of that skill will set a person on a track that does keep them away from professional life.
As for what I think of them? I like these people way more than the entitled fucks I usually work with. I'd rather smoke a joint with the security guys than talk about the likelihood of a Fed rate hike over watered-down gin and Coke at a company-sponsored mixer. It's the non-office people who know how to have fun and really get hammered, take a stripper home, and generally not be a stuck-up fucknugget.
haha 100%. I don't look down on these people at all - circumstance is key. I don't come from a educated/well off background either.
That was... way too real for WSO.
seems like we come from similar backgrounds. not to psychoanalyze anybody, but i think it's called an "existential crisis" haha it's tough to watch at times. some folks have so much potential. these "non-office" people definitely know how to have a damn good time though! keep postin' man, you're a real one!
Most average folks don't even know about typical wall street jobs. And by the time they discover them (as college graduates), it's too late. Unless you're a "natural" over-achiever with very high GPA, it's very hard (almost impossible) to break into the market. Places like GS are bombarded with applicants every year...we're talking hundreds of thousands applicants, from all over the world.
Many of these applicants are top performers. How do you even chose your candidates at that point? You start to filter them by schools, grades, extracurricular activities, etc. When you have 5000 applicants for 50 internships, it's much easier to just bin all the applicants from non-top 50 schools.
That's why it's almost impossible to land a job today, unless you have the "correct" background. There are simply too many other applicants, and the sheer volume is too big to handle. Especially so when the applicants are very similar (good grades, same extracurricular activities, etc.)
Exactly what I've been trying to say for the past week. +1
Hey dumbass. Let me ask why, then, since you're not in college, do you not go to college, get high grades, participate in extracurriculars, and do all the things mentioned in order to land a top job? There aren't enough Ivy kids in existence to scoop up all the finance jobs available, so why not go for it?
Cue the victimization and complaining. "I'm not good enough." "I'll never be good enough." "There's too much competition." "I just want a telemarketer job." This forum isn't for you, it's for people who actually want to succeed.
i heard that there front office positions at McDonald's. 15k + 15% of ur pnl paid on a quarterly basis minus financing costs
Why was this MS? This made me laugh so fkn hard. +1
Whats with the recent inferiority complex of people on this board.
Are kids from non-targets at a disadvantage when it comes to breaking in? YES! However, it is definitely possible, but you have to be willing to outwork, outhustle, and outnetwork your competition. You need to demonstrate that you have a passion to be in high finance and you need to be more prepared than your peers. You have to do what you can to get any relevant experience on your resume.
If it takes interning 30-40 hours a week at a boutique while in class full-time, then do it. Stop whining because all of us non-targets who made it here either took multiple calculated risks to get in this position, or brings something to the table that sets them apart from the traditional candidate.
So what are you going to do to develop your edge? I'm sick of the whining, stop feeling sorry for youself and do what you can to make the best of the situation. Hit up local boutiques and see if they need help, hit up FA's, they always need cheap help. Join any sort of investment club on campus or in the community. Do something that gets you some finance name on the resume that you can later leverage into a better position. Just stop sitting on this forum and sulking about how you are so disadvantaged because many people on here including myself grew up in bumfuck nowhere, went to underrated schools and somehow got here.
Rant over.
I worked with a guy who used to do filing back when we had paper trade blotters. He got into a top BB as a temp without a college degree after growing up in the Bronx, and he did well so they eventually offered him a spot in the analyst class. He's now a VP in MO at another BB.
wow that's cool!
One of my earlier jobs I replaced a guy who moved on to a better position. He'd started in the mail room. For real. From what I heard, the guy used to wear a full suit and tie every day while delivering mail, and let every MD know he'd love a shot at at the big time.
Is this common? No. Did the guy chat up every damn director in the bank? Yes.
The MD that gave him a shot grew up less than rich and understood that everyone starts in a different position in life. Guy came in early, stayed late, outworked everyone, and even got pulled into a better group after a while. The rest of his mail room friends wore jeans and sneakers while dropping off mail, smelled like cigs/weed, and generally didn't seem to think it's worth the effort to try what he did.
So yeah, people still do it.
Another true story: I worked for a partner who didn't finish college, and they weren't that old. They'd taken an administrative job years ago and simply worked harder/smarter. Every day. Over time they were elevated to new positions and when they transferred to another company their experience spoke for itself. No one ever cared/asked about college because they were bringing in a highly respected pro who was supposed to save their ass / bring in lots of money. It's not the norm but it happens.
It's more common for unconventional starts at smaller firms that don't have a mechanized recruiting/vetting process, where there's an element of human touch.
The best way? Join the Navy SEALs and then after a 5 years stint, get out and use your experience and time in (studying of course) to get into a bachelors degree program at a top target or at least the top school possible.
Leverage your SEAL background to either transfer to top target or network your way into BB's or above. Then secure a deal, make some coin, and retire to a beach in Tahiti.
This is a good route, and while I recommend Spec Ops as well, he does not need to go Spec Ops and could just settle for any part of the regular military, get out, use his 9/11 GI to fully pay for a good school and go from there.
You basically have three options:
a) Get a job that pays decent with no upward mobility (think bartender/server/hospitality)
b) Get a job that has upward mobility that doesn't start out as decent pay
c) Spend time/$$$ to invest in skills and education, get job with pay and upward mobility
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