I'll not bother with an education, I'll get an admin job at an investment bank..?

[Cortina]

I know a few women/young ladies who are all trying to meet an investment banker. The plan is to get a low level job in a merchant bank and then snare/marry a man with huge potential. The goal is to be incredibly rich and not do a stroke of work.

A few I've met have been successful in this way and are very open about it. The bankers themselves have left and have set up hedge funds.

Is this surprising? It shocked me, that anyone would sell themselves short but seeing how competitive it is out there can we blame them? Girls using their looks as a currency to trade?

We worked in a chipper though......

Most men in banking are not nice and are very selfish!!!!

Ridiculous Miggsie, bankers are normal people.

I used to be fairly senior in HR in an investment bank, most entry level jobs (incl PAs) for almost every job required a degree, sometimes even a masters. (It was shocking that I was less officially qualified than most applicants, although I had specific industry qualifications that they didn't).

However it does show some intelligence of sorts, they know what they want and go straight for it....? (I'm not actually recommending it, but not really judging them either).

Also to even consider being with most of the investment bankers I have met I would need to be very well compensated (and probably medicated as well) - they are not choosing an easy life!

Looks are a quality to be traded like anything else. What is wrong with acknowledging that?

Life might get very frustrating later on without an education to enable you to understand the Big Bad World, however. So, for that reason alone, the policy in the OP is very short-term.

All the bankers I know at this level (ok, I'm mostly acquainted with Morgan Stanley trading floor and one of the investment banks so not a huge sample) are very high on power needs, are obsessive about their job, totally focussed on money, work 12 hour days and sleep with their blackberry at weekends.

They seem incapable of having a conversation that does not end in them making money. They crow about how much money they make, take pleasure when a rivals deal falls through.

They are high handed to people they consider lower in the pecking order and generally have very low people skills.

Oh, and they treat women like shit generally and their familes are about 200 on their list of priorities. The first 199 are about making money and showing off how much money they have.

Miggsie, I have worked on the Morgan Stanley Trading floor myself and now work for another investment bank as does DH and most of our friends. What you are saying is quite offensive to a profession. There are people you describe in Investment Banking, but I think you'll find them in most professions (although perhaps on less money).

"...searching for very well-bred wives from old money."

Ffs. Like buying a pedigree dog? Can list their pedigree back to the conquest? Does anyone actually think like this these days?

I was at school with a few girls who had the kind of career plan the OP was talking about, and all I can say is that it's not a very reliable way to make an easy living.

There were several reasonably bright, attractive girls who did a couple of A-levels (art etc) then secretarial/business school before getting an admin/PA type job, preferably somewhere posh. I bumped into one or two of them when I was working in London after graduating. None of them had managed to hook a rich husband in their 20s (one I stayed in touch with got married at about 32), and they were bored with their jobs.

If you want to marry an investment banker, much better to be one yourself (or a city lawyer or whatever), or meet one while you are still students and treat each other like equals.

(By the way, DH worked in several investment banks in his 20s/30s, and he and many of his colleagues were nothing like the ones Miggsie describes - perhaps just one or two of them.)

I know lots of investment bankers and hedge fund ops, and all of them are married to one of two types:

a) highly educated career women - power couple thing going on

b) extremely beautiful but also smart women from well-heeled backgrounds (in two cases titled) who offer an entry into hi-so circles

None of them married their secretaries or admin assistants

Squiby - you and dp don't seem to have much respect for women.

Your post Wed 07-Jul-10 17:15:19 is appalling.

yes butterbur they do

At my school quite a few of the (erm, thicker...) girls went post A Level to the Oxford & County Secretarial College.

Two girls I knew married Oxford students - which was of course the aim.

Perhaps the key is to spot potential rather than trying to hook an already successful person (just like a stock, in fact!)

Gramercy - does the 'erm thicker.... girls' include you or do you consider yourself very bright?

Just wondering.

Probably am thick cos I went to a redbrick and got a redbrick kind of guy. Could've perhaps bagged a Hooray Henry if I'd been more canny (imagines self in Alice band and navy blue striped blouse... and realises better off with dh!)

I was only posting to make the same point as Monty. Describing a woman as "good for a quick shag" is insulting and offensive. If my husband described a woman in these terms I'd be seriously wondering why I married him.

Well DW watched this happen to her last male graduate trainee and it happened quite a bit with a common pattern in her firm. It worked like this.

The young male graduate trainee brokers and traders were all 'prospects' for the female desk assistants who to be fair were all intelligent women but not with less good degrees. Everyone in teh City knows the value of money though and is intensely interested in it.

Pretty much the standard mode of operation was that the female desk assistant would go out to dinner with a 'prospect' a few times, he would pay of course. After sealing the deal she would put an initial bid in for say a Channel hand bag, he would pay. This was a test of his commitment. They would then be a couple.

This would go on with the bids getting higher and higher until bonus time. Then he got a big bonus and it would carry on with perhaps her moving into his docklands apartment at some point.

The young male trader/broker eventually married the desk assistant after she had made it very obvious that was what she wanted and a huge ring would be produced. Any refusal usually ended the relationship. Each stage was a test of commitment. In the case of my DW's graduate trainee and his desk assistant, they are a nice couple, in love, but she certainly knew what she wanted and she made sure she got it. This pattern was repeated several times as observed by DW.

Occasionally, a 'prospect' failed to get the expected bonus and several desk assistants switched horses to better prospects. Of course, the 'prospectve males' of course liked flashing their money (as Miggsie says) so it was pretty obvious who the better prospects were. I am not saying it was the only criteria but money was on the agenda for these women. Of course the 'prospects' has their agenda too so it was not one sided.

Seen it happen myself in a different context with women who hang around the City bars hoping to snag a bloke. It happens the same way to Premier League footballers.

Not judging anyone - just saying how it is.

Sadly, Ilareggub I have heard this locker room type conversation all too frequently. Certain men in the city are like this, read any of the expose type books written by bankers for details. I knew of a few dysfunctional types in another life in one of the banks mentioned. They did seem to sleep their way around the office. The girls were hopeful of something long term in many cases, and the guys stringing them along.

That said what I've seen many of the 'high ups' in the best financial institutions seem to be quite regular guys really. Many work, extremely hard and have married a girl they met at Cambridge or Stamford or similar. They've worked and grown together.

gramercy - was at Oxford 1982 - 87 and observed the 'Ox & Cow' set in action exactly as you said.

Pretty girls from the local secretarial college/finishing school hoped for a Sandhurst officer cadet. The college tried to swing it that way with endless socials..

Actually the secretarial college wasn't particularly close to Berkshire thinking on it.

Agree with Norham- I think that's the thing- there are a few like that and they are the ones that make interesting reading and so are the subject/authors of the exposes (which are basically Hotel Babylon type books. All the anecdotes are probably based in fact but have been somewhat embellished).Then people read these books and think it's gospel

Most people who work in the City are pretty normal people, albeit just richer. A very small minority (generally not v senior ones) marry secretaries, some marry other bankers, some marry university girlfriends, some marry a girl they met through friends or any of the other routes that people meet people.

Having a quick run through my male banker friends has produced the following wife profile: lawyers (2), doctors, bankers (3), teachers, accountants (3), actress (shakespearian), fund manager. No PAs.

I think becoming a PA to bag a banker is quite a risky strategy. The odds are not good, put it that way.

I am lolling at actress (shakespearian) biut I am not entirely sure why

I am so naive, but the thought of girls tripping in from Ilford or wherever to spend a night in the city bars in order to snag a suit - well god help us. Sad sad cows.

On that note, an explanation from across the pond. Did the rounds a few years ago. Not sure if the original question was legit or if the whole thing was just a joke.

www.yelp.com/topic/san-diego-hilarious-craigslist-ad

Me too llareggub