"Banking has become full of mediocre MDs playing vicious politics"
I am writing this for students thinking of going into banking, and I am writing this for juniors entering the banking industry. I do not intend to dissuade you from getting a job in a bank. I do want to let you know what the industry has turned into.
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Banks will tell you that they are meritocracies and that success is all about performance. I know from personal experience that this is not true.
I am from a low income family and I grew up in public housing. I am also an ethnic minority. When I got a job with a US investment bank, I thought it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. In many ways it was. But I have since had my eyes opened to the way the system works.
I was the top producer in my team on Wall Street. I know I was the top producer: I looked at the numbers all the time - this was part of my job. My clients loved me. I did a lot of work outside my role, both to help recruit graduates and to promote the culture within the bank. I was on track to becoming managing director.
And then I was laid off.
I was not laid off for reasons related to my performance. I was laid off because my boss didn't like me. I didn't manage up; I thought my numbers would speak for themselves. They didn't. In fact, I subsequently found out that my boss - who was threatened by my performance - had downgraded my figures so that they didn't undermine his own. He lied.
This isn't a one-off occurrence. It's what banking is like now. You can still earn very good money in banking, but you can't earn the best money. 30 years ago, people were making tens of millions. That is over.
Banking is now a process-driven environment. It has become a steady career for the middle classes, like medicine or the law. It has filled with people looking for nice, steady incomes, and who will do anything to preserve those incomes. They are experts on managing-up and once they're in a seat they will hire their friends into positions of authority and make sure that in no circumstances can they be threatened.
I saw this at the bank that let me go. And I have seen it at other banks since. The people in positions of power are not high-caliber people. They are the people who are best at playing politics, and they are absolutely ruthless at it. The decisions they make are taken in the context of perpetuating their own jobs and those of their clique.
Performance is not what will determine your success. It's navigating these people.
My advice to you is this: go into banking, but go in with your eyes open
Hadi Horyaal is a pseudonym
Photo by Wim van 't Einde on Unsplash
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