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LeveredCat:
MD of Russian Gulag. A connection to national leadership, power over thousands and virtually no compliance department.

Can confirm. Perks: The entire Adidas tracksuit collection in every color. White Mercedes/ Brabus G Wagon. Gold plated AK.

Comp structure: vary dependent. Are you talking BB Russian mob in Moscow with direct ties to the Kremlin? Or some family office operating in a Tier 3 city (looking at all the Grozny folks on this site)? Assuming BB, take home is in the high 7 figure to low 8 figure, potential equity kicker in specific deals.

The typical route is Spetsnaz -> KGB -> O&G Operations Management. Keeps you well rounded for HVT kidnapping and funneling off oil into different shipments. O&G can be replaced by gun running. CFA (Certified Firearms & Arson) Certificate is a bonus.

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 
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LeveredCat:
MD of Russian Gulag. A connection to national leadership, power over thousands and virtually no compliance department.

Can confirm. Perks: The entire Adidas tracksuit collection in every color. White Mercedes/ Brabus G Wagon. Gold plated AK.

Comp structure: vary dependent. Are you talking BB Russian mob in Moscow with direct ties to the Kremlin? Or some family office operating in a Tier 3 city (looking at all the Grozny folks on this site)? Assuming BB, take home is in the high 7 figure to low 8 figure, potential equity kicker in specific deals.

The typical route is Spetsnaz -> KGB -> O&G Operations Management. Keeps you well rounded for HVT kidnapping and funneling off oil into different shipments. O&G can be replaced by gun running. CFA (Certified Firearms & Arson) Certificate is a bonus.

Damn, this is pure gold.

 

A close friend of mine from school hustled her way from a MO GS internship into DCM/ECM the following year and converted it to FT. Absolutely busted her ass for 2 years, hit top bucket both of those years, and was brought in as an associate in one of GS top groups. She's currently crushing it there and has her pick of funds if she chooses to leave. A fairly traditional (albeit very impressive) path, but the grit this chick displays is unparalleled to any person I've ever met and it's incredibly motivating.

 

Well "Impressive" is relative, isn't it? A fat man is impressed by someone in shape... Poor impressed by the rich. Wealthy men might be impressed with others making a little less but working half the hours...

Tony Montana is right...

Are there people in my network that landed a FO gig in S&T / IB? Sure. Do I have family that immigrated here with a few hundred dollars to their name and are now doing extraordinarily well for themselves? Sure. I suppose though that the kid that made it in VC is just unique, so I find it impressive.

Let's not convince ourselves that a very conservative 30 to 40% of people in "high finance" don't at least get a foot in the door by using their connections.

 

I’ve seen someone go from undergrad to 2yr stint at bank then hedge fund making 7 figures - pretty impressive for mid-20s

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

the more important question is how long did they last.

That’s a good question. I think he was actually only there 2-3 years as he said he hated his manager. He went out on his own trading his own capital in agriculture. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I know someone who started a PE fund investing exclusively in the country of Georgia (probably with family money, but still impressive). He also went to work for a boutique IB, where he's now a director 6 years later.

"There's nothing you can do if you're too scared to try." - Nickel Creek
 

One guy from my grad school was quite talented, but it was also a "right place at the right time" thing.

He was doing research on Deep Learning before it took off - around 2010. Then 2012 came, while he was doing his Ph.D, and everyone wanted to do Deep Learning. He was pretty much the expert on this stuff at my alma matter, and they pooled together resources to send him to a leading school on this topic - CMU.

From there, it just snowballed, and he's now making very, very good money as a ML researcher at top tech/data firm.

I'm saying right place at the right time, because most of his peers (that focused on other topics) ended up with $70k gov. research jobs, academia, or similar.

 

I've seen a good bit of stuff in Washington D.C. like getting jobs at the White House or working for someone like a Newt Gingrich. Of course, as a new graduate, you're pretty low on the totem pole but it's still pretty prestigious to be even allowed in the same room as people that are basically running the show around here.

Now the ultimate career route for some of these jobs is fairly uncertain, but if you're into feeling important about yourself (aka 99% of D.C.), you basically can't beat these jobs at the entry level.

 

I'm from the DC area myself, went to college in VA, and am now back working in consulting in NOVA(arlington). I honestly think the greater DMV area is a lot more diverse than just the K street social climbing putrid scum squad. They all want to feel important but how many of them actually are?

 

If you’re in JSOC - you can say you’re in JSOC.

You can’t disclose missions or itineraries or classified/secret/top secret info.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

See a pretty steady stream of ivy league bros go straight to top PE groups and HFs straight out of college. Some of the tech nerds can make up to 300K starting out working for HFT/Quant funds.

 

Chief of staff for an investment office of a top global billionaire - x2.

The one I didn't directly 'see' (as it was before my time) I know quite well. After 2 years, he had proved himself enough where the billionaire gave him an 8-digit sum to start his own fund - in his early 20s.

The other one was a close friend in college. Turned down GS/MS to work in the investment office of a guy in the top handful of the Fortune 400. Gets paid IB money to work 35-40 hour weeks, work across all the different verticals in the office/see everything, and ride along to every ridiculous conference.

 

Know this one guy (still no idea how he did this), got a 0.0 first semester of college, I mean absolutely stellar performance, 12 credit hours, all English speaking professors at a state school right? Comes back the next semester on academic probation like the absolute unit he is and gets arrested for stealing a rival frat's composite. Balls tf out on the local gov with a public defender and walks away with just 10 days in jail. I mean I'm not gonna drop the J-bomb but you get it, Kardashian level lawyerings. Gets out, he's so far ahead of everyone in our class he decides to drop out and become a Fortnite streamer. Currently rocking a 1.93% win ratio. Amazing.

 

See, this guy keeps his shit on lock, doesn’t need the public seeing all the cash he’s raking in else they’d be all over his ass to build schools in Africa or something. Dude’s got an accountant for his accountant to write financial statements on the real accountant’s thoughts to make sure he’s not thinking too loud about his earnings. But I got a guy that hacked the WiFi chip on his coffee maker and got me past his VPN blocker, so I figured it out. The fucker rivals Bezos. All-in-all.. he’s down about $350. Cost of an Xbox live membership and 12 months of internet. Crazy.

 

Have an acquaintance who started off at the GS trading floor and went on to start his own quant fund in 3,5-4 years after joining. Guy isn't even brilliant, but probably the most structured and dedicated person I have met to this day.

I don't know... Yeah. Almost definitely yes.
 

QuiltEmerson

Have an acquaintance who started off at the GS trading floor and went on to start his own quant fund in 3,5-4 years after joining. Guy isn't even brilliant, but probably the most structured and dedicated person I have met to this day.

Ha, a man after my own heart. Yes, that is the way to go. Work for yourself.

SafariJoe, wins again!
 

Lets be real, when we discuss prestige, generally its about what is most impressive to people when you tell them. With that in mind, anyone getting picked in the first round of a major sport is magnitudes more impressive than some goldman/blackstone kid. All your peers are much richer and you actually live a real baller lifestyle. Not hur dur ima twiddle my fingers on this keyboard for 15 hours a day then drink some alch in my spare time! The thing is that a lot of people on this site go to some elite schools academically that develop few elite athletes.

 

I have it on good authority that Ken Griffin had someone in charge of picking blueberries - and only picking blueberries - for the breakfasts.

Name a more prestigious job, you can't.

"When you stop striving for perfection, you might as well be dead."
 

College friend got a Supreme court clerkship - you literally influence decisions which change the course of history as a 27 year old law grad:

Research suggests that clerks exert a moderate influence on how justices vote in cases, but have "substantial influence in cases that are high-profile, legally significant, or close decisions "Rasputins? Law Clerk Influence on Voting at the US Supreme Court". The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization

 

Not directly, but my friend was really good buddies with the #2 pick of the 2019 NFL Draft (do your research) ... I visited him a lot during college and hung out with the draft pick numerous times. Draft pick was the biggest booze hound, coochie-magnet I have ever seen. Also just chiseled and a generally good looking dude (pause).

Signed his $33.5MM contract this year with a fat $22.5MM signing bonus. F U finance money

 
Analyst 2 in RE - Comm:
Not directly, but my friend was really good buddies with the #2 pick of the 2019 NFL Draft (do your research) ... I visited him a lot during college and hung out with the draft pick numerous times. Draft pick was the biggest booze hound, coochie-magnet I have ever seen. Also just chiseled and a generally good looking dude (pause).

Signed his $33.5MM contract this year with a fat $22.5MM signing bonus. F U finance money

Nick Bosa is awesome, an epic alpha male. And he's a Trump supporter, which rocks.

 

Not right after college, but I played on a travel baseball team where 3 of the kids won the little league world series and then 4 went on to get drafted for the MLB out of highschool in the first 2 rounds. All of them got over 2M in signing bonus. Theh did a joint draft party at one of their houses which is pretty awesome.

In order of pick 1st overall, 7th overall, 29th overall and then 62nd. The last kid wasn't even comitted to collegeg until his senior year. He put on 25 pounds of muscle and hit like 30 homeruns and they came calling.

Array
 

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SafariJoe, wins again!
 

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SafariJoe, wins again!
 

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