Its not about Drugs/Models entirely:

In my perfunctory effort to allay "your friend's" fears of what he or she may be exposed to, I will say that almost every entry level analyst will be exposed to the the seething underbelly of the street whether it be at work or after work. Whether or not you choose to acknowledge and engage is a decision left to free will.

People often link the IB world to those sordid surroundings simply because of the attractive (the vast financial rewards) yet duplicitous personality of the profession. Just as most of us are seeking the granite stone encrusted barrier that will surround our mansion with our pack of vigilant guard dogs, (an exaggerated parallel to the white picket fence dream that middle class America chases) for the faint of heart, there is a foul antithesis to that dream. For myself, this stark reality only existed in gossip and fabled weekend watercooler discussions on Mondays. But for some of my friends who were weak, it was a dark, unspoken truth that was continually hidden (but never unknown) to protect their "assorted dependencies" as a means to physical survival and mental sanity. (Think of the amount of work you will have to do, the hours you will be expected to work, the constant deadlines and the omnipresent game of office politics that in and of itself is stressful)

So either way, learn the rules, play the "game", outsmart your competitive analyst class cronies, and you will be significantly rewarded. Because irregardless of firm, entry-level IB'ers do what they can to finish their trial period as mildly scathed as possible. If the most primitive law of man is that only the strong survive, then tell "your friend" to get their wits about them and welcome to the concrete jungle...

Let's not take ourselves too seriously, here.

Definitely take the job. Whether you allow yourself to succumb to the fringe excesses of the "banker life" is completely up to you. The majority of people I come across in this business are classic Type-A overachievers, and to allow themselves to become dependent on ANYTHING (besides, say, the nebulous feeling of being "successful") would be antithetical to their nature.

It's certainly not birthright, as I have none. It's nothing more than an inner flinch factor when I see the language being mangled as well as a desire to prevent misunderstandings from spreading. (Young people are impressionable and the language is already relatively ineffective, even in its perfect state.) However, had I simply said, "irregardless is not a word Vadremc," as you suggest, I think your response would have been similarly bitchy. In other words, ameliorating my words would have neither softened my point nor increased your comfort with it. Additionally, the lack of capitalization and comma in that particular quotation would have been pretty ironic given my stance, don't you think? Finally, it's not my way to take a random contra-position without stating facts to back myself up, which is why I explained as far as I did.

I note, bitchily and with immense superfluity, that "superfluous" does have three U's (though I agree that at first glance one of them does look superfluous). Ma'am is a contraction of madam and, as such, requires an apostrophe (very much as wont/won't and can't/cant are all different words with different definitions). When appending ma'am to the end of a sentence, one needs a comma to join them up. Finally, I could not possibly have referenced your diction before. Diction refers almost exclusively to pronunciation and enunciation of words, particularly as concerns pacing, vowels, and dipthongs. I can't hear your voice and thus would have no problem with your diction. What is incorrect and verging on the unclear is your grammar and sentence structure, not your diction.

At any rate, sorry to beat up on you, man. You made it irresistable. I understand that you don't want to be taken to task for your grammar and, regardless of the "irregardless" (about which I will not budge), you're no worse than many others. I am simply trying to prevent an influx of irregardlesses here, on this board.

...some people who use drugs work on wall st. but you wont here about it at the office and it certainly isnt a part of the culture. I really doubt it ever was.

I've often wondered the same thing, Bondarb. Was all that American Psycho stuff just Bret Easton Ellis making free with the industry? Ellis's lifestyle far more closely resembles Bateman's than does that of any banker I know.

...i have worked w/ people who were on some of the most notorious trading desks/floors in the 80's and while they have an endless supply of funny stories to tell and their were some absolutely insane things that went on back then (things that are fireable and in fact jailable offenses today occurred regularly) i really dont think people openly talked about drug use around the office. like today, I am sure alot of people used drugs, but i doubt it was really something that people talked about outside of people with whom they were close friends.

Hm. As an aside, I wonder why so many people compare me to Hannibal Lecter? This is at least the fifth time in two years. It's not as if I'm into cannibalism -- people are far too unclean to eat. It's not as if you could have known, Vadremc, that the Lecter character and I both prefer the same brand of copper sauteuses and the same variety of Anatolian figs with pate from Fauchon, nor that we both maintain memory houses and enjoy reading Dante in the original late medieval Italian. And the externals -- younger female investment banker versus older male psychiatrist, real versus fictitious -- are at near-opposite ends of the spectrum. Perhaps you're simply inferring from a particular mode of speech? Anyone who'd been well-trained in the English language would sound like the Lecter from the books. As for the movies, I wouldn't know.

At any rate, thank you for both the compliment and the concern. I'm not fond of valium but I get all the man I want already, as my fiance is a ready supply. Ta.

Damn Mis Ind, you sure make these forums much more entertaining than they would otherwise be.

Thank you, dear. I thought it only fair to amuse everyone here as much as they amuse me.