WSO Podcast | E246: Day-1 Quitting - Wall St Rep | Weekly Wrapup
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Topics this Week:
0:00 Quitting After One Day Of Interning
7:10 Uncomfortable Talking About Working On Wall Street?
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WSO Podcast Episode 246 Transcripts:
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:04] Welcome to the WSO weekly wrap up where I talk with my team about the five most trending discussions in the Wall Street Oasis community. Enjoy! All right, everybody, welcome. It's the weekly wrap up again. It's May 18th. Matt’s gonna we're just going to cover two topics today. Matt, you want to get us started?
Matthew: [00:00:22] Sure, we're back from a hiatus here. All busy working but glad to have everyone back on this call. First topic that I've found actually quite funny, trending this week was an individual talking about quitting after one day of interning. So he spent one day felt like he couldn't do it and started contemplating texting his boss. He wants text and feel embarrassed the ID isn't right for me. What do you guys think on this? I think this is something crazy. Some funny comments around. Just suck it up. It's only eight weeks but Pat will start off with you. What do you think of something like this? Quitting after one day of interning?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:55] Yeah, I mean I think it's a bad look. I think it can really ruin your reputation. Even if you do a poor job or like show up late it's better than just like giving up after day one. Just like do what you have to do for your mental health. Just to get it on your resume. So that you have something because like you don't want to go through the summer with nothing on your resume.
Matthew: [00:01:18] So the crazy thing though is just like didn't this individual know what they're getting themselves into with investment banking? I'm pretty sure you bring up investment banking to anyone. It's directly core to correlated with like long hours or at least that preconception is. So I just find it so hard to believe that someone could get this role, do all this work and be smart enough to land the role and then just it's completely catching them off guard after one day of being in the seat. I think there has to be something more to this. It just doesn't make sense how much could get done in one single day. The first day is so much onboarding. You're doing training, you're talking about company intricacies, like what could have been so overwhelming that threw him off. I think…
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:57] So guys he's like, What was the final straw? Was it like setting up your outlook signature? Like, yeah, that's too stressful.
Matthew: [00:02:03] Exactly, like that's what I mean. Like you were smart enough to land the role, right? We see it's not easy to get an IB role. And then all of a sudden, after one day of interning, you quit. I think there's something being missed out but I guess a cooler angle to look at this as is. Okay. So I guess if you do have to quit, what's the best way of going about this in a short time period? Let's not call it a day because a day is a little bit aggressive. But let's say after three weeks of starting in a new role, you're not happy. What's the best way to kind of go about quitting without kind of hear you guys insights on that?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:34] What do you think, Nabil?
Nabil: [00:02:36] I just didn’t do it. I mean, why quit? Like if you've done three weeks it's just, what another few more? It's not that. That's the mentality, right? Like unless you're gonna have that little. I mean yeah, it depends. I've seen people quit though in my first film. Like they just come in and work like a week and then they're like Fuck this It's not for me. So they just leave. Yeah, they just don't return so yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:04] It’s like just not being an adult yet like not being able to suck it up and like do the work because, like most jobs are not going to be are not glamorous. Most jobs you're eating some shit at some point like especially when you're starting.
Matthew: [00:03:19] In the junior ranks. Yeah, the junior ranks. That's what it's really all about. You're gonna have to put in the sweat equity. Right. Yeah, I think just well another point also raised and I think I saw some guy writing this in the forums. It was also the street like what people call Wall Street the street. Like it's pretty tight knit community at the end of the day even though there's, you know, what people think is maybe thousands of employees. Like it's a very tight knit community. So if you're doing that and if it was at like a bigger well known bank or even a middle market may probably be blacklisted. So it's like do you want to, do you weigh your the benefits and pros of quitting after such a short period of time? Like just you suck it up for the eight weeks and kind of get through it so you're not blackballed or do you quit now you're potentially just blackballed and you've really just written yourself off from any investment banking career in its entirety. So I think there's that's something to keep like front of mind as well, just the tight knit community that exists within the street. And have you guys seen that kind of work in your favor or against you? I mean, you spent some time on the street. Do you also agree it's a pretty tight knit community even though it's a pretty big industry in its entirety?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:25] Yeah, you don't want to like just burn that bridge so fat. I mean, there's no upside and even the bigger thing is like if you can't get through. You know, one day or even eight weeks of an internship. If you get what you think after like thinking this is your dream job. It's probably something more mental with the person there that they probably need therapy. Because or like something around like you're kind of glorifying things in your head. You maybe are a dreamer and like you think it's going to be a certain way and you're like picturing it and then you get there and reality hits that. It's actually like hard work and it's not all fun or most of it's not fun. And I think that's….
Matthew: [00:05:10] Probably watching a lot of Wolf of Wall Street.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:11] Yeah, like billions or something like that. Thinking you're like on these big deals. So like yeah, I think it's more to like the mental capacity of somebody who's maybe just not been able to go through some pain. And if the internship is like usually more of a cakewalk too because they're trying to put not hard and make it look better. So yeah, I think it's a pretty bad look if you quit after day one or week one or whatnot and you can't get through it. I just think even with other options, it doesn't mean you have to do it. It's just I think it's a good learning experience to just go through it because you may actually learn more. It may change your perception may change after 1 or 2 weeks.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:56] Do you think going to the gym when you first go to the gym that first day is really hard? If you're used to like sitting on your ass and watching Netflix all day and then suddenly like you have to go run three miles it's kind…
Matthew: [00:06:06] Well maybe it's the next day. It's the worst that's where you try to go to bed and you're just like, what the heck happens?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:13] That's probably like what happens a lot to these kids. Like you're in college, you're having a blast, you're like having so much fun. You maybe go a little bit of class but then suddenly you're like in an office for like 8 to 10 hours and it's like this huge shock to the system.
Matthew: [00:06:26] Yeah, not in track pants. You're suited up.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:30] You suited up you're like, Oh my gosh this is horrible. I can't sit here anymore and like, what am I supposed to do?
Matthew: [00:06:36] Yeah, you told me I can't smoke my vape in here. What the heck is this? But yeah, I think for anyone listening guys definitely don't do that. Of course, take care of your mental health. But yes, there's have certain expectations before you're getting into the workforce, it's not an easy role. But obviously that's why there's a lot of benefits to working in investment banking at the end of the day. But let's pivot to this next topic here. I actually think this one's my favorite for the week just because I hear a lot of friends mentioning this to me. And then when I saw it on the forums here, I said we have talked about this on our weekly call. So an interesting topic around the people being uncomfortable to mention that they work on Wall Street specifically investment banking. Just given the fact that throughout the media or just over time it's been a little bit what this individual referred to as like vilified which makes sense to a certain extent. But I'd love to kind of hear. I guess we'll start with you, Nabil. What do you think about this? Do you have any individuals that kind of try to avoid mentioning that they're in investment banking? If you were an investment banking, would you feel the same way? Would love to kind of get your input on this first?
Nabil: [00:07:44] Yeah, I guess they just don't like rubbing your face for like if someone asks is mostly work at this bank, they don't really say investment banking. The other thing is like the whole general public doesn't really know investment banking per se. Like if you're talking to someone on the street like it's different. Like when you're working in financial circles, you can always say that. But if you're talking to like your granny or whatever and you're saying investment banking, they're probably thinking like. Unless they have been like exposed to it. It's hard to explain that, what is investment banking? How is it different from other kinds of bank like corporate or whatever like commercial or whatever. And that's like a thing that happens. But if you're in financial circles like people just say whatever like everyone knows who's doing what, so it doesn't matter.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:28] I just think this is so, I think this is like in people's head more than it's reality. I think if you just say, Oh I work in finance and you leave it at that and then if someone pushes further then you can talk more about it. But like…
Matthew: [00:08:39] Yes, I think it's actually from what I hear from my friends. It's more so like how do you explain it to an individual that's not like in a finance circle to like Nabil's point. Obviously, of course like when we're all hanging out together and there's other bankers in the room. Yeah, everyone's very open about having conversations like that by…
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:55] So I help companies buy other companies. It's like it's really easy.
Matthew: [00:08:59] Yeah, but that's I think it comes on the time when it's like we're out whether we're at a restaurant or bar and you meet some people and they're like. Oh, what are you doing? Once you kind of go through that rabbit hole of like. Oh, I'm an investment banker, but what do you do? It's like okay, how do I explain this?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:11] Don’t say investment banking, that's how you get around it. You don't say…
Matthew: [00:09:14] I think that's the problem, right? Because it's like, how do you explain this on an elementary level for everyone to understand what you essentially do? Right, so I think that's where some of the uncomfort comes from but I find it funny.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:24] It reminds me of a thread of where like everyone was saying how their parents think. They're like a bank teller like, yeah.
Matthew: [00:09:34] But that's also what you don't want people to think, right? Because you want to have enough self-respect for yourself where you're like have a good job but you don't want people to think, well I'm just working as a teller. But then the thing that comes into my head well you shouldn't really care what people think. Guess just people do at the end of the day. But yeah, to your point you don't want people thinking you're just like a retail teller when you're working in high finance. One of the most coveted jobs possible, right?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:59] Yeah, I think there's the reason it gets a bad rep is probably because there's some people like in the harder side of things that are like puffing their chest out thinking they're the shit because they work as an intern in most banking. And then you have most people don't care. And if they do care it's fine. You know, just I would just ignore it and try to let it flow off your shoulders. They don't probably know enough and realize it. You know at the junior levels especially, you had nothing to do with the great financial crisis. It's not your fault, you're not evil.
Matthew: [00:10:32] And yeah exactly. I think it's also you know it's also just not necessarily the media. I think just like the movies they glorify it and do make this industry at times look a little bit more like aggressive in terms of just the nature of the business.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:45] Willful Wall Street, billions on it.
Matthew: [00:10:47] Exactly where it's like so an individual watching Wolf of Wall Street, you're going to see the debauchery and the craziness. But I've never seen that and that will not fly, especially nowadays like you will. The firm will be canceled within minutes. So I think it's just yeah, you hear investment banking and people just have that crazy lifestyle tied to it. But a lot of times you don't realize you're ten, 12 hours in front of your computer just modeling away. That's really what the job entails for a lot of it. So I think it's also, yeah, they have this view of it being a much more crazy environment than I think it is. So I think that's also where some of the uncomfort comes from. I guess maybe speaking with older individuals. I think when they mentioned it to the young the young kids, everyone's loving it like. Oh, it's crazy, it's wild. I think it's just interesting a different point of view. You don't even realize other people are feeling at times. I just found that interesting.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:42] I would just say, don't care so much what other people think and just go about your life and have good friends that are close. That understand how you are as a person outside of work and don't let work define you. That's it.
Matthew: [00:11:52] Exactly.
Nabil: [00:11:54] I mean, when you're in Ivy.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:02] When you’re in Ivy hopefully you have some kind of semblance of a life outside of Ivy if you can try to maintain it.
Matthew: [00:12:08] Yes, exactly. Yeah, but anyways guys. I think it was a good combo. Let's call it here. We'll be back next week to cover some more interesting topics in the forums.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:17] Awesome. Thanks guys! Bye. And thanks to you, my listeners at Wall Street Oasis. If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send them my way. Patrick@wallstreetoasis.com. And till next time.
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