Strange situation, female power?
Are women such a rarity in the industry that if decently attractive can have a preferential lane in terms of promotion? Has anyone lived through anything similar to what my friend is going through?
I have a friend who is an experienced associate at a small boutique in a Southern European country (think Spain, Italy) with prior post-MBA experience at a top coverage group at a top BB in a major financial center. He is pretty much the only one in the group with top BB experience and thought he could advance more quickly given his resume.
He finds himself competing with another associate who came after from another country and doesn't speak the local language, with no MBA, and previous experience at other no-name small boutique and 3rd tier institution (think BNP Paribas, HSBC, Santander type) at non-major financial center. She is fairly attractive and the Senior VPs have clearly developed a preference for her so much that it is obvious she will be promoted to VP before my friend. While the office is business casual, she comes dressed casual (border line provocative) on a regular base. Some Senior seems to prefer her because he is clearly attracted to her, while some other seems to be wanting to protect his position by preferring the least "qualified" associate.
The bias is so clear that she has been able to push off her Securities Licensing for almost a year and essentially practices without one, and no one is holding her accountable.
My friend believes she is not that strong technically, or has any real industry knowledge, but she has been able to leverage other people's work to look "solid" in the eyes of the Seniors. She essentially monopolizes the junior resources to her advantage while my friend is being asked to do all the analyst and associate type work.
My friend goes out of his way to demonstrate sourcing abilities by leveraging his network to try to source new deals and act like an actual VP, while after the first couple of months, she has been pulling almost 9-5 kind of hours.
Any recommendations on what my friend should do to turn the situation around?
get better at his job and try to be less of a misogynist? women in finance have it bad enough as it is. also, why would anyone get promoted to VP because of their resume?
Honestly, we all know people like that. I'm not above using my soft skills to get what I want...although it's easy to hate people that seem to have only those and get so far that way. I know a girl who graduated with a average GPA from my university with a degree in social work...she didn't know a damn thing about finance. I might argue she still doesn't. Got a job in PWM with a BB, and within months got hired in Inst. equity sales. All with no experience and no knowledge of the industry at all. She's incredibly good at talking to people and is attractive. Those things have largely gotten her where she is. Definitely makes me upset that I'm out here cold-calling, cold-emailing, studying technicals, and still can't seem to catch a break. But I also know that in the long run, I know I have the drive and determination to be successful, and everything I'm teaching myself will be useful no matter what.
Your friend needs to be the same way. If they are truly busting their ass, it will pay off. You need to just focus on being the best you can be and keep doing that in order to put yourself in a position where you can be successful. Hard work pays off eventually. Sometimes just not as quickly as we would like it to.
SWIM...
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