
Top-Performing College Grads Fall into the ‘Prestige Career’ Trap - bilifuduo
https://medium.com/s/story/a-culture-of-prestige-98c8671ceade
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mrosett
There are two big misconceptions here:

1\. Consulting/banking are useless 2\. Harvard/Yale grads who go work for
prestigious firms disappear, never to be heard from again.

The first point is disputable. There's a lot of really low-hanging fruit out
there for improving management practices. Think of it as akin to hospitals
improving results by insisting that doctors was their hands more. That's
consistent with the randomized controlled trial that found consulting can
improve productivity:
[https://www.nber.org/papers/w16658.pdf](https://www.nber.org/papers/w16658.pdf)

The second point is insane. Consulting alumni go on to have tremendous impact.
Sundar Pichai and Sheryl Sandberg both worked at McKinsey. Mitt Romney and
Benjamin Netanyahu worked at BCG. Pick a random mid-size Silicon Valley
company that's in its scaling phase, and the growth team is probably led by an
ex-consultant or ex-banker. Places like Bain take someone with raw
intelligence and give her a tremendously valuable set of skills that she
didn't have as a fresh graduate. They don't expect most new hires to stick
around indefinitely; they train you and then actively support you as you go
figure out what you want to do next.

Disclosure: I worked for a top consulting firm out of college. Incidentally, I
only lasted a bit more than a year - I hate Powerpoint - but now when I'm
working on my side-project, I use those skills a lot more than the ones I
learned working at a big software company.

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lsiq
The article really puts an emphasis on recruitment and, as someone who went to
a top 5 school and went into business for myself instead of joining the pack,
it's not about that at all but rather about social conditioning and money.

These firms pay the best for your run of the mill pre-professional undergrad,
it's really that simple. Unless you have a CS degree, the other primary high-
paying careers require continuing education (M.D.s, etc).

We live in world where there are three basic economic classes; wealth, wealth
management, and the proletariat. It's no surprise that the bulk of top school
grads get herded into jobs that serve firms and the wealthy.

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forkLding
Of note is that large tech companies are becoming prestige careers too.

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aj7
Would be interested in the fraction of consulting activities that are devoted
to maximizing the returns in zero sum games.

Also, have you heard the phrase ‘consultants are hired when the firm needs to
fire someone.’ The most important implications are not the firing.

