So, I think I joined WSO something like 4 years ago when it was still ibankingoasis.com. It was late in my senior year of college when I joined. Frankly, ibankingoasis.com kind of sucked. Talk about attracting the worst kind of people--pretty much the site consisted of a bunch of petulant 18-22-year-olds who acted like complete asses and contributed basically nothing to knowledge outside of getting on with with an investment bank. Basically, I hardly read the site and virtually never posted. But I don't know what happened. In the last 18 to 24 months, Patrick changed this place around. Today, having read countless financial, political and news websites, I honestly think this is one of the best forums in the business. I'm a pretty busy guy, but taking time everyday to read this website and the groupings of realclear politics/science/religion/world has basically given me an intellectual leg up on my peers, friends and colleagues.
I was showing my buddy this site 2 nights ago. He was super impressed. The quality of bloggers--Eddie, Midas, Jorge, etc.--is extremely high. These guys are so much smarter than me that it's not even funny and they crack me up to no end. Today's NSFW had me in stitches. The diversity of topics, in my opinion, is the key to this place being very high end. "Wall Street"--anything finance or money related--is affected by world news, commodities, politics, state and federal budgets, science, technology, mergers, entrepreneurship, sports, etc. Something about this site has attracted high calibre members, i.e. very well read, well spoken, college educated industry professionals. And while this site definitely leans conservative/Republican/libertarian, I'd say the lean is about "center-right" with a lot of international voices/perspectives to make things interesting. I also like how a lot of people seem to know history fairly well.
There's a ton that can be added--I could literally write 5,000 words or so on the transformation of this website, but I'll leave it at this: nice job, Patrick, you lucky, free son-of-a-bitch.
I'm with you 100% on this (except for the shittiness of IBO 4 years ago, wasn't around then haha). Judging by how far it's come just since I've joined, I really look forward to seeing what happens in the next year, 5 years, 20 years...
I actually read less news because I can find it all while browsing through WSO's recent topics.
WSO is bi-winning.
V-Tech, I feel like your post should have started with you asking "Do you like Wall Street Oasis?" and should have ended with Paul Allen asking you "Is that a raincoat?"
Without question WSO is a very useful resource for young professionals in the industry as well as for those prospective monkeys fighting to break in. The quality of the threads (as evaluated by their being informative, humorous, etc.) goes up and down quite a bit, but every week you'll generally see a few really useful and or interesting discussions.
I also think it's notable that a culture of pragmatism and, to some degree, anti-elitism has developed amongst many regular users of the site. It's rare that two opposing cultures, the other being that which promotes the prestige-driven career path, develop in the same place simultaneously - in spite of each other... in this case in a sort of sickly harmonious way that gives a realistic balance to the world of WSO.
Personally, when I first got here I saw a lot of people who believed whole-heatedly in the "LSO world view"... as a semi-sarcastic proponent of certain LSO-type values, it's come as quite a surprise that I've built up this much monkey shit....
Anyways- I'm rambling.
couldn't agree more on the value added by WSO for undergrads seeking to break-in. the practical information in regards to recruiting alone make coming to this site worthwhile. not to mention the current events, learning from people's own experiences, etc.
Agreed. Though, for me, I come here almost entirely for Monkeying Around.
Aside from a browsing the other sections of the site a few times a day, I leave a browser window open open to monkey around pretty much all day long. I wouldnt be able to keep my sanity with out the utterly random and senseless shit that is posted on there all day long. Its like a min or two long vacation I take a few times a hour.
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