Comments on: getting a job on wall street, circa 2009

By: draker

draker — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:08:17 +0000

What a pessimist.
Is living in Greenwich Village or Soho a horrible neighborhood.
Do you actually believe Wall Street will never roar great again.
Life in Manhattan can be a great.

By: draker

draker — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:08:17 +0000

What a pessimist.
Is living in Greenwich Village or Soho a horrible neighborhood.
Do you actually believe Wall Street will never roar great again.
Life in Manhattan can be a great.

By: farm fencing

farm fencing — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:06:49 +0000

With Wall Street coming off one of its worst months in history, but its best week in over 30 years, how do you think the market will react to each of the nominees becoming president?

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:57:02 +0000

“A man's got to know his limitations.”

– “Dirty” Harry Callaghan in Magnum Force

I would never have survived as a 22-year old country boy in NYC. You also need to understand what you're capable of doing, even at that age. Of course, failure at that age wouldn't be a disaster, as long as you learned the right lessons from it.

By: Steve @ bripblap

Steve @ bripblap — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:23:53 +0000

@Altair33: It probably seemed that since I lumped that in with other negatives I meant it was a negative, too. It wasn't – it simply changed the game a lot. In the short term it was great, and created a lot of work, but now SOX has created a glut. The work was available for a few years and now that companies have a handle on it, the work is drying up. It did also put a huge strain on a lot of companies – the costs were high and the benefits have yet to be really proven (it didn't help whatsoever in the financial services industry meltdown, for example).

So SOX was a mixed bag, but you're right – in the short term we jokingly called it “The 2002 Full Employment for Auditors Act”.

By: Star Money Articles and Carnivals for the Week of July 6 | Debt Management - Thecreditcardfiles.com

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:02:44 +0000

[...] BripBlap tells how to get a job on Wall Street. [...]

By: Altair33

Altair33 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:46:04 +0000

Just curious- how did Sarbanes-Oxley hurt accountants? I was under the impression that it created a lot of work for them by establishing new reporting requirements.

By: Abby

Abby — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:46:08 +0000

In our early 20s, I think career choices are too often about a failure of imagination. We can't see all the possible career paths, so we hone in on the two or three that we understand – teacher, investment banker, whatever. My lawyer husband often finds himself explaining the shortcomings – and potential – of the law as a career path to undergrads who assume it is a ticket to big bucks and power. And glory.

If you do talk with your young friend, it is probably worth helping him think through his goals beyond “get a job on Wall Street.” As you write, it ain't the place to make money these days – and he probably has better career prospects elsewhere, too.

By: Writer's Coin

Writer's Coin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:09:11 +0000

This is a great look at how Wall Street has changed but also a reminder of what it was like to be young, naive, and willing to dream big. There was a really good article on Yahoo Finance (I think) yesterday about how this might free up some of the minds that typically go to Wall Street and enrich other fields.

More entrepreneurship too. All of which I think sounds better than what you described was the case 12 years ago.