saving babies

i am feeling good this past weekend about how things are turning out. as much as i hope that everyone can get their dream job, we all have to realize that this is not the most important thing in our lives.

my friends tell me that they're upset they didn't get second round investment banking interviews. i tell them this (first of all, if you know me, you know that i think investment banking is for losers and gheys):

'you're going to study all your finance and prep so hard for that investment banking interview, try to rock the socks off those hard nosed interviewers, then compete with a bunch of finance regurgitating tools, who in the past 3 years been studying finance everyday, got that internship at that hedge fund the summer after high school, and learned what a collateralized debt obligation was as a freshman, in the final round for one or two spots. then you're going to spend your entire  summer working 100+ hours a week, crunching numbers in a small cubicle in lower manhattan, and the only time you will find sleep by locking yourself in the firm's bathroom. you'll never have free time to go out and spend the measly money that you are making and will probably gain several pounds because the bank pays for your meals if you work past 6pm. after spending your entire summer sucking corporate banking dick, you'll cling to the fleeting hope that you will get a full time job offer, where you'll spend the next two or three years of your life crunching numbers in the same small cubicle in lower manhattan, gaining weight, and losing sleep. if you're lucky, you'll die in a freak bagel-related violent accident.'

(investment bankers are true corporate slaves: they sell their soul to the devil by working on raising capital for corporations, work very late into the night, work on the weekends. the bank, however, compensates them well. at least they used to before the banking crisis. now these corporate slaves just get the banking name prestige, which probably is also declining rapidly in value.

its all about sales and trading, in my opinion. but that is for another entry. if you're interested in sales and trading in wall street, check out michael lewis's liar's poker, a sharp witted book about the crazed bond trading in 1980s and the birth of the mortgage backed security.)

so if we don't get that job, we'll work for a year or two doing some random shit, realize our true intelligence/ability after coming out of the educated bubble of our respective universities, then naturally gravitate towards our ideal job. but this will only work if we remain positive and try to increase our 'upward' opportunities by following our passions and dreams.

so who gives a shit about our interviews? just go in and have some fun. don't take summer internship interviews--or life, for that matter--too seriously.

andy