Over the last few weeks, many juniors have been in a frenzy updating their resumes and applying for summer internships. Investment banking and consulting seem to be the hot favorites.
According to the Career Center, the top two hiring industries for 2009 Duke graduates are financial services (26 percent) and consulting (19 percent), and the top seven for-profit employers are Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil, Boston Consulting Group, Barclays Capital and Microsoft.
Those statistics paint a pretty good picture of how popular banking and consulting are. In fact, out of the first 10 friends I thought of who have filled out internship applications, nine of them applied to one or the other.
But why exactly are banking and consulting so popular?
I attended a talk last semester by George Grody, a visiting professor in the Markets and Management Studies program, where he asked the audience—all Duke undergrads—that same question.
“That’s where the money is!” shouted one student. That’s where the money is.
Well, money is a good reason to apply for a job, but I don’t think it’s good enough. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to be rich, and I don’t think money is the root of all evil. It opens doors for you both financially and socially, and it can be used for many noble causes. But at some level, we’re all keenly aware of the fact that there are billionaires out there who are extremely unhappy.
I have a theory as to why we think money will buy us happiness though. It’s because unless we actually have it all—money, cars, mansions, etc.—we’re not fully convinced that such luxuries will not bring us fulfillment. We recognize that we are not 100 percent content right now, so maybe if we score one more A, go to one more awesome party or travel to one more exotic destination, we will become just a little bit happier.
On Sep. 18, 2009, the Wall Street Journal published an article about well-paid bankers who had lost their jobs during the economic downturn. A 27-year-old, Ajmal Sheikh, was working 90- to 100-hour weeks at UBS, making over $250,000 a year before he was laid off in Nov. 2008. But in the summer of 2009, UBS asked if he wanted his job back. At the time, Sheikh was working on a long-standing interest of his: a project that helped to provide doctors with electronic health records. After doing some soul-searching, Sheikh decided that he had to turn UBS down and pursue what he was truly passionate about.
What a tough decision that must have been! When you’re 27 years old, earning $250,000 a year, driving a fancy car and living in a nice penthouse in Manhattan, everyone you know probably looks at you and thinks, “You’re the man. You’re living the dream.” Even if you’re not actually happy with your life, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to give all of that up.
Sheikh summed it up well when he said, “If you give people a taste of the good life, they just want more. You think to yourself, ‘I’ll quit next year to follow my dream.’” Losing his “dream” job, ironically, allowed Sheikh to pursue his real dream.
To borrow an analogy Stephen Covey uses in “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Sheikh had been so busy climbing the ladder—Should I skip rungs? What’s the best climbing technique?—that he had forgotten to check if the ladder was leaning against the right wall. Getting laid off gave him the opportunity to do just that. It’s a good thing he realized that the ladder was indeed leaning against the wrong wall so early on in his career.
So when I see such a large number of Duke students getting excited about banking and consulting jobs—and about all the money they will be making—I wonder if they’ve already asked themselves what they truly want out of a career. And just to make it clear, I don’t doubt that for some people, banking or consulting is exactly where the ladder should be.
In closing, I’m reminded that, “That’s where the money is” was what bank robber Willie Sutton said when a reporter asked him why he stole from banks. I fully recognize that I’m speaking as an idealist whose work experience consists only of two summer internships. I believe, however, that if money is your primary reason for choosing a career, you’re robbing yourself of the fulfillment that is yours to claim if you were to pursue your calling rather than your ambition.
Distinguishing between calling and ambition isn’t easy, but therein lies the key to a satisfying work life. Let’s not settle for second-best when it comes to something as important as our career.
Daniel Wong is a Pratt junior. His column runs every other Wednesday.
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