Why I gave up my six-figure salary and quit Bay Street
(Original story by Tim Kiladze at The Globe and Mail...)
"The Street’s culture was rotten. I once saw an investment banker become enraged when his plane ticket was booked economy instead of business class. “I’m not sitting in the back with the proletariat!” he declared.
I’m not the only person who was disillusioned. Whole books have been written about the recklessness of Wall Street, and Greg Smith’s op-ed in The New York Times is nothing less than an indictment of the culture of Goldman Sachs, his former firm.
While Mr. Smith and I had very different experiences, we made the same decision: to flee finance. I know so many others who wish they could do the same. Yet they never make the move because they are scared to part ways with their large paycheques, or they feel trapped by their big houses and private golf club memberships. When I left, one typically unemotional 30-something trader e-mailed me privately to say: “Good for you for having the balls to do this.”
Here’s the thing: it’s not so hard. Once you leave the office towers, you quickly realize that there is meaningful work beyond Bay Street..."
"The Street’s culture was rotten. I once saw an investment banker become enraged when his plane ticket was booked economy instead of business class. “I’m not sitting in the back with the proletariat!” he declared.
I’m not the only person who was disillusioned. Whole books have been written about the recklessness of Wall Street, and Greg Smith’s op-ed in The New York Times is nothing less than an indictment of the culture of Goldman Sachs, his former firm.
While Mr. Smith and I had very different experiences, we made the same decision: to flee finance. I know so many others who wish they could do the same. Yet they never make the move because they are scared to part ways with their large paycheques, or they feel trapped by their big houses and private golf club memberships. When I left, one typically unemotional 30-something trader e-mailed me privately to say: “Good for you for having the balls to do this.”
Here’s the thing: it’s not so hard. Once you leave the office towers, you quickly realize that there is meaningful work beyond Bay Street..."