While it may be true many here are struggling with trading, it is almost certainly true that either success, struggling, or failure, most all here are passionate about their interest in trading. When one is passionate about something and look to others in a somewhat related field, it is easy and incorrect to think that "they are passionate too" about the markets. Reality is far different. Investment banks are basically just big corporations with high compensation, that are hard to get jobs at. If one is a smart Ivy league grad, it almost a given that one will take a shot at landing a position... even if one has zero or less interest in the markets. Why not? Most of these people are complete conformists, keeping up with the jones mentality times 10, only on average have a higher IQ. This is particularly true for women. Very few have a genuine interest in the business, but they hear the tails of compensation and are attracted to the "prestige" positions, so they apply, get the jobs, and end up working in the field for some time, till they burn out due to self inflicted misery. Most women would be happier working with children and doing domestic tasks, teaching, or other traditional women's roles. The smart ones would almost always be happier teaching advanced classes, being a prof, or some other job more suitable for women. So, when the chips are down and burn out has taken its tole, it is not at all surprising that a chick from harvard in a prestigious firm wants to teach kids to bake cupcakes. These people add almost no value at all to corporations/typical stuffed conformist shirts, are far overcompensated, and are miserable. Most likely, this business venture is the first time this chick has tried to do something in her life that would create authentic happyness, rather than bone up her feminist man-wannabe credentials and help her keep up with her striving classmates.
wait a sec. if she's a vp at 27 then she most likely started when she was 21 which means she's been working for 6 years already. if she didn't squander her income, it is very possible that she saved around $1 million. it's probably very likely that she has $500k in the bank. you can live comfortably for a while on $500k even in the Village.
And with all her father's "connections", she can't find a real gig elsewhere just like she did on Day 1?
Even with connections it is not always easy to land a nice Wall Street gig. If she wants to be one of those people who works 80 hours a week -- and I mean really working 80 hours a week as opposed to putting on a show -- and basically be a slave to the bank, even in this market, people like her could probably still get something. Compared to the schmuck from the U of K who does not have a shot in hell of landing anything or even staying put in the City, she is obviously very lucky. What is more pertinent is that she is showing her bourgeois coping mechanisms. People like her are weak. She loses her job and cannot deal with the profound sense of failure. She knows that if she gets back into the game, there is no way she will be put back in with the same perogatives and responsibilties that she had at Bear Stearns. So as a way of justifying herself she decides to go into a small, quirky business that is designed to say "Love Me!". It looks good to all her friends and she can claim to be an entrepreneur as opposed to being another loser in the growing list of Wall Street cast-offs.
You have no idea what kind of organization Bear Stearns was do you? Greenberg liked to rail against nepotism and such, and really all the grand old men on the Street like to do the same, but when it comes down to it, they will hire and promote their friends' children because it is good for business and it also makes them feel good. There is no better way to get in and stay in with the people whose opinions you value than to make sure that their children do well because of you. Sure she has money in the bank. But don't kid yourself, she did not "earn it" like the people on ET have to.
do you know her personally? i know what you're talking about, but you seem to have already made up your mind that she didn't earn it? what does earning it mean anyway? even if you got in with no connections and you actually do work 80 hours a week, did you "earn" your $300k a year salary? depends on the perspective of the person you ask, i guess.
I understand the sarcasm re "international competitiveness" and I understand that teaching kids to make cupcakes will contribute to making kids fatter. If you sign up for my "cupcake class" we could overcome both of these problems. I will have the kids throw the cupcakes at each other and award prizes. This will get the kids moving and burn calories and teach competitiveness (some will lose and some will win). Plus everyone gets to clean up the mess. Someone will counter that I am teaching violence. Somehow every activity has to have a moral, an objective, no time for play. Perhaps we should just have children "stir" the batter and call it a day. Never accomplishing anything BUT avoiding a litany of psychiatrical side effects and avoid embryionic causes of lawsuits of misguided childhood.