Was This Occupy Wall Street?

The Scare

I was in Philadelphia two weekends ago, when Occupy Wall Street  had just popped up on my laptop screen for a few days. I was attending an info session for GCC-UPenn and was about to head back to New York. I was in a suit and carried a briefcase.

I was buying a bottle of green tea at the bus stop stand when the guy, after ignoring me for a full 30 seconds chatting with his friends, offered me $18 for the bottle. I startled. He laughed and said it was only $2. He then checked me up and down and asked his friends, “How much do you think this guy makes? $300k a year?” He turned toward me. “Ain’t that right? $300,000?” I paused. At this point I think my sympathetic nervous system was fully at work.

In the interest of self-protection, I said, “No I’m still a student looking for a job, that’s why I’m dressed like this.” Not far from the truth. At least not as far as the difference between 300k and however much I might be making if I were actually working right now. Did I look that old? Or did he just have no idea how much men-in-suits typically  make?

Blame me for being overly sensitive but, I’ve wore a suit in the US since 10th grade MUN conferences, and this was the first time that I felt a bit threatened because of it.

The Interview Room

A few days later, a friend of mine went into an interview and was asked a question about Occupy Wall Street.

“So what do you think of the protest?”

“I think it’s a big waste of time. These people should spend their time and energy finding a job instead,” the interviewee said.

Lucky for him, the interviewer actually felt the same way. But such response is far too risky at a sensitive time like this. What if you met someone who liked everything in politically correct terms?

And if this article from last week’s the Atlantic didn’t convince you to never mention “money” as one of your motivations during interview, I don’t know what will.

What This Mean to You

Regardless of whether or not Occupy Wall Street ever took place, people in finance are going to be making less in the foreseeable future. Banks are already downsizing their risks as well as number of employees. To borrow from Mergers & Inquisitions‘s recent blog on Occupy Wall Street, “nowadays people go into Wall Street expecting to get rich, whereas in the 1980s they went to Wall Street hoping to get rich.” So if anything, the recent protest should really make those who are still “thinking” about going into finance to really dig deep and examine the core motivations behind their career choices.

And when all else fail to answer your inquiries – take a gap year.