Smiling Through Gritted Teeth
Anonymous
Issue date: 9/24/01 Section: Humor
The following is one student’s account of his summer in investment banking. It’s a chain of e-mails to the homeland, unedited for effect:
Week 1: OhmygodwhathaveIdone.
Firstly, I’d just like to say that despite the best efforts of you guys to ply me with shots, and the emotional blackmail surrounding my early (3:30am) departure, I not only made my 8am flight, but the 14 hours on the cramped stuffy plane passed like a beautiful dream. Mainly because I slept more on the flight than I had during the preceding three nights combined.
Hong Kong is a nice place - at least it looks nice from the window of my office and apartment, which is pretty much all I’ve seen. My apartment is nice, though somewhat “Efficient”. Lets just say that this isn’t the town for people who are claustrophobic.
As for the job, Wow! 14-16 hours a day. 6 - 7 days a week. These guys are 100% (and I mean 100%) about the job. What is surprising is that these hours just seem to be as a result of it being the “Done thing”. These guys are really inefficient in their work practices. Personally, I’m not getting managed, and have been unable to “set expectations”. I have found out that its desirable for interns to “demonstrate initiative”, though apparently trying to clarify what the task is, or finding out if reference material is available spoils this somewhat.
Hopefully this is just a case of new job blues in a new country, but so far I’m not impressed. Hopefully the folks in NY are having a more constructive experience.
What I learned this week: I am a Gwailo - “Friend from the west”
Week 2: Disenchanted.
This week things cranked up a little for me. I actually got some stuff to do, utilizing not corp-fin, not strategy, but rather Microsoft Office. I also geared up from working 12 - 14 hours a day to working 14 - 18 hours a day. It’s not so much that I mind the time (though I was starting to get a little giddy towards the end of the week), but the work I’m doing (and that the associates here in general are doing) is a tad mundane.
Week 1: OhmygodwhathaveIdone.
Firstly, I’d just like to say that despite the best efforts of you guys to ply me with shots, and the emotional blackmail surrounding my early (3:30am) departure, I not only made my 8am flight, but the 14 hours on the cramped stuffy plane passed like a beautiful dream. Mainly because I slept more on the flight than I had during the preceding three nights combined.
Hong Kong is a nice place - at least it looks nice from the window of my office and apartment, which is pretty much all I’ve seen. My apartment is nice, though somewhat “Efficient”. Lets just say that this isn’t the town for people who are claustrophobic.
As for the job, Wow! 14-16 hours a day. 6 - 7 days a week. These guys are 100% (and I mean 100%) about the job. What is surprising is that these hours just seem to be as a result of it being the “Done thing”. These guys are really inefficient in their work practices. Personally, I’m not getting managed, and have been unable to “set expectations”. I have found out that its desirable for interns to “demonstrate initiative”, though apparently trying to clarify what the task is, or finding out if reference material is available spoils this somewhat.
Hopefully this is just a case of new job blues in a new country, but so far I’m not impressed. Hopefully the folks in NY are having a more constructive experience.
What I learned this week: I am a Gwailo - “Friend from the west”
Week 2: Disenchanted.
This week things cranked up a little for me. I actually got some stuff to do, utilizing not corp-fin, not strategy, but rather Microsoft Office. I also geared up from working 12 - 14 hours a day to working 14 - 18 hours a day. It’s not so much that I mind the time (though I was starting to get a little giddy towards the end of the week), but the work I’m doing (and that the associates here in general are doing) is a tad mundane.