Here is a very good review of a good book (one that i plan to read sometime soon) on a very relevant (more so to us ex- b-school students) topic. The review by Rashmi Bansal, the editor of JAM (a students magazine), appeared in latest issue of Businessworld. With students even in India today getting salaries topping Rs. 85 lakhs annually (atleast technically), the book will explain to the layman what lies behind all the moolah and why it is justified, if at all. Read on....
'The idea of investment banking, not necessarily what investment banking is, but rather the idea of it, was sexy. “It created delusions of grandeur — of being a multi-millionaire in your twenties — in even the most mild-mannered of students.”
If you too share such delusions, it may help to pick up this book and lose your illusions. The Running of the Bulls takes you “inside the cutthroat race from Wharton to Wall Street”. The book, written by Forbes journalist Nicole Ridgway tracks the lives and times of six students enrolled in Wharton’s very competitive undergraduate business programme.
Chapters with titles like ‘Goldman or bust’ and ‘Battle of the Bulge Brackets’ outline, in lurid detail, the experience of summer internship (‘a 10- week interview’), the wooing of students by companies and, of course, the process of procuring one’s dream job. Most dreams are centred on entering into ‘white collar slavery’, a satirical reference to the standard 80-120 hour week in the world of investment banking.
If you are a past or present B-school student, you will be relieved to know that really smart people, an ocean away, think exactly the same way as you. Note this gem: “The recruiting season serves as the culmination point for everything they have devoted themselves to working so tirelessly for throughout their years of pricey academic training. It’s in these weeks they will discover if it was all worth it... ”
The only difference is that companies conduct information sessions at the Wharton campus, but hold interviews at their headquarters. CEOs interact with prospective candidates over lavish dinners. Students are also allowed time to choose between multiple offers, which does not happen in India.
The students seem to be way too competitive and single-minded for their own good. You wish you could throttle wunderbankerkid Jessica Kennedy when she states: “I’ll be sitting on the beach (on an Xmas vacation) studying the history of M&As... I’ll be so far ahead of my analyst class!”
Diversity exists at entry level, but it is effectively ironed out by groupthink. In high school, Shimika Wilder was an avid athlete who dreamt of working for Nike and even starting her own sports goods store. A year at Wharton, and she is a convert to the cult of investment banking.
To be fair, there are students who realise they are not cut out for Wall Street, or who have other long-term goals. Of interest to Indians is the story of Bombay boy Shreevar Kheruka, who is under pressure to return and join the family business. He stays on to get some experience with a consulting firm.
The book also details the growth of Wharton as an institution. Apparently, it was the first school to teach marketing (then known as ‘merchandising’), while women entered the Wharton classroom only in 1954! The many campus traditions as well as the magnificent graduation ceremony are, in fact, far more interesting than the students breathlessly racing towards their pay cheques.
On the whole, the book ends up feeling like a 279-page public relations exercise. It was written with the cooperation of the Wharton faculty and administration and, is therefore, politically correct. And it is far too wide-eyed in its admiration for the ‘career above all else’ cult of Wharton in what reads like a business magazine article stretched into a book.
Yet, it can be useful for prospective and current B-school students. Or anyone intrigued by those $100,000 salaries bagged by IIM graduates, which will be making headlines soon as the placement season kicks off, and the mindless running of our very own bulls begins.
NICOLE RIDGWAY, the author, is a financial reporter who writes for Forbes magazine. She was earlier a newswire reporter for Dow Jones News Service and her articles have appeared in Wall Street Journal, Toronto Globe and Mail
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