What follows is the advice, given one day ago, to a rising star in the world of global finance.The person addressed works for a major bank in New York and in my conversations with this person all has gone well. Except, the amount of work is staggering. And so too the amount of pressure. After the initial euphoria, the world as it really is day to day sets in. Now the questions start.
And this isn't just true of investment bankers. Students who have just gone off to University often have a euphoric first few weeks. And then papers, and exams, and reading loads far in excess of secondary school begin to take a toll.
It may not be a genetic predisposition to become a bit overwhelmed at an endless horizon of work and new challenges. But it may be. I have not done enough searching to know the answer to this. Yet.
But I do know a great answer when I read one. And this comes in the form of a letter. The person writing the letter which follows my remarks has experienced great success in his life. From university to investment banking to a hedge fund now. He is one of the smartest people I have met. And I have met quite a few people. He gave me some career advice that changed my life. And now he may be doing the same for someone else.Wisdom is far better than knowledge. At least I know that much. I have learned from his wisdom and I think you will too.
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Thanks for your note; sorry I have taken so long to reply. We just got back last week from vacation, school just started for the kids, I am back in the office after a few weeks away, etc.
So,
it sounds like you are 23 or 24 or so, have worked in finance for a
year or
two and are finding it far less rewarding than you had hoped. Maybe it
sounds that way to me because that is exactly what I felt like when I
was 24. Well, from the hoary perspective of a 49 year-old, I guess I
would say some of that is the scales falling from
your eyes and some of it is just the pains of getting started.
Starting
with the former, some of your email reminds me of an article I just
read
(linked below) about the challenges facing college graduates today as
they face the “real world.” One of the better points is that colleges
leave students with a false set of expectations: the post-education
world has pretty much nothing in common with the
education world. That can be explained in part by the fact that one’s
college life is paid for, like time at a hotel or resort, and the real
world is not; it must be earned every day. That, in short, is a bitch.
It is a huge difference that few if any can
appreciate until experienced, which you now seem to be doing. Unless
you are extraordinary, and extraordinarily lucky (Steve Jobs, Mark
Zuckerberg, Richard Branson), you are very, very unlikely
to find societal reward for your (perceived) unique personal value
adding tangible value to “real businesses” by creating synergies among
people, etc., etc. Please don’t take
offense here, but that is the kind of lofty, baseless stuff they teach
at school and which precisely does not exist outside of school. You are
much better off, in my experience, finding a job that you like, earning
as much as you can in the role, and if you
can earn more than you need, then use the job as a tool to fund some
things in life that you believe in, find valuable, etc. There is a long
history of that, from the Protestant work ethic to Jewish hedge fund
managers.
All
of which is to say, you probably need to adjust your expectations.
Fortunately,
however, many or most jobs become far more interesting as one gains
knowledge and responsibility. Which is true for almost anything, I
think. You enjoy things more when you are better at them. Which is not
to say you should just stick it out with what you’re
doing and wait for the interest level to step up. May never happen, of
course. For example, I found equity research in Hong Kong to be far more
interesting and rewarding than banking/corporate finance in NYC. There
was more art to it. It requires quantitative
skills mixed with writing and debating skills. But I never would have
found equity research had I not worked at in banking for two years – no
one would have hired me.
One other point about work pertains to people, which probably is the single bridge
between college and “the world.” A favorite saying from college, which I am sure you have heard many times,
is “take the professor, not the class.” The same is true outside
college: it would only be a slight exaggeration to say, “work with the
right people, not at the right company.” The people you work with make a
huge difference in what you learn, how you
work, how far you might go with it, etc. There are positive work
synergies and negative work synergies, and both compound over time. And
you – ahem - know what a difference compounding makes.
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