If you or your DC are considering professional/City careers

[Middlelanehogger]

Something that comes up sometimes on MN is that people are considering a career in what I'll label "professional services" - think City jobs like management consulting, law, investment banking, wealth management etc - but for various reasons don't think it's for them.

This could be either thinking (rightly or wrongly) that there is something unappealing about the job e.g. long hours or cutthroat culture

Or being interested but thinking (rightly or wrongly) that you wouldn't be able to get it due to education or soft skills or "polish"/cultural capital

If this is you, I'd love to hear about what your reasons are/were - are they weighted more towards one or the other, and if so what specific aspects turn you off?

A City career was never of interest to me because other paths were more suited to my interests and strengths. But if you are smart and interested in that world, there are great careers out there.

DD is an excellent mathematician and she is considering actuarial work or investment banking. I wouldn’t discourage her for a minute if that’s what she wants to do. She’s bright, smart, knows her mind, gay as it happens and I reckon she’d fit in fine.

DH is in the City, as are several friends (investment banking, hedge funds, insurance, consultancy firms) and the cutthroat, chauvinistic, long hours culture portrayed here and in the media are not especially reflective of their experiences. Yes, you need to be resilient and motivated. But that’s true of any professions. It’s no harder than being a headteacher or consultant physician from that perspective.

As for ‘polish’, DH’s firm has a highly successful school leavers programme, and the most successful folk I know (including the head of an investment bank) tend to come from pretty ordinary backgrounds, and are pretty diverse. I think the City can be a pretty good leveller. If you are smart and you can hustle, you can get on with it.

Why? Are you a journalist?

Not a journalist. I work in one of these jobs. I do agree with PP that skill is a leveler to a point, but there are definitely patterns in the type of people who apply for jobs in my company/professional circle.

I had an ordinary but not "deprived" background (skilled trades parents). There was a lot I didn't know about this world before I started.

I honestly had no idea this kind of job existed when I left uni. I though bankers worked in banks giving the money out. Literally every one of my & my friends parents when I was growing up worked in the steel or chemical works, as a builder/other trade or as a secretary. And one girls dad managed a branch of W H Smiths.
At uni it was not something we talked about really so it just was never on my radar.

I was DESPERATE to work in the City (of London). It didn't work out so easy as I immigrated to the UK during the GFC so no one was going to hire a fresh graduate on a time-limited visa, but I eventually broke through and bloody LOVED my mid 20s in my cool and well paid City job.

Took a looong career break, and managed to shimmy back in because I had the "right" background, that includes not only the right education, but the right contacts.

I love working in my high pressure job but it's definitely not for everyone. You really want to have to be part of this "world" to enjoy it I think.

@user6482955 how did you find the experience of coming back after a career break?