Even Artichokes Have Doubts

Found via Hacker News, an article in the Yale Daily News discusses how 25% of Yale graduates go into finance and consulting each year.

The entire piece is well worth a read. This reminds me so much of my time at Penn, where a majority of my peers- many of whom had absolutely no interest in finance or consulting- found it hard to resist the allure of “reputable”, high-paying jobs [1]. I think it boils down to a few factors:

  • Risk aversion/fear of uncertainty- most students at elite schools are used to being high achievers and succeeding throughout their life, in measurable, tangible ways. A Wall Street/consulting job is another name brand that signifies success and security, and helps defer any really *tough* career decisions by promising high pay, “skills development”, and interactions with smart people.
  • Fear of being left out- the article mentions a young woman who attends a consulting meet-and-greet simply because it’s what everyone else was talking about and doing at the time. The same attitude existed at Penn, where it was impossible to ignore “OCR” (On-Campus Recruiting), a period where juniors and seniors would march around campus in suits, resumes in hand, attending interview after interview. It’s fairly tough to resist the impulse to be a part of that aura of success, especially when your peers are already discussing how they’re going to spend next year’s absurd bonus.
  • Clever/aggressive marketing by firms- These companies know what they’re doing, and successfully capitalize on students’ uncertainty by personalizing their communications, making applications as easy as possible, and aggressively marketing themselves on campus with fun/free events that hint at the good life to come.

In the entire Daily News piece, the quote that stuck out the most to me was from a student, Joe Breen, who eventually wants to run an affordable housing development non-profit, but is applying to private sector real estate jobs in the meantime. He says, “I would love for there to be a great two-year program that helps you gain all of these skills and gets you to start helping people right away, but I haven’t found that yet.”

So, my question: why doesn’t some sort of feeder program for small to mid-size startups exist? (Something in-between the YCombinator-founder model, and the heavy recruiting done by the Googles & Facebooks of the world)

[1] To be certain, a number of students also have clear motivations to work in these industries; I’m talking about why I think “swing” students feel compelled to make these decisions even when their hopes and dreams lie elsewhere.