After seeing a couple of colleagues walk away and others get pushed out this year we decided it would be fun to look at the different types of people who decide to call it quits, hang up their Gucci Loafers and spend time in Thailand versus getting pushed out and trying to convince everyone they could have stayed longer. Here are the general walk away people versus the push outs:
Walk Away
The Early Retiree: This is the most common walk away, “in our view” 90%+ of Wall Street gets sucked into the culture and lifestyle and ends up waiting for this ultimate exit. As a rule of thumb they generally believe your walk away print is enough money to never work again. Quite ambitious and even harder to stay in the industry that long with a large turnover and almost guarantee of being laid off once or twice if you last only 5 years, 15 is an eternity. Generally, these people quit to spend time with their kids, move to a relaxing place and are unlikely younger than 45.
Note: The idea here is these people generally like their jobs in finance and held high quality work for a long time.
The Burnout: These guys generally last 5-7 years, save up enough to not really worry about money and begin to pursue a career in something else before they settle down with a mortgage and kids. We are being vague with “save enough” since their lifestyles generally vary and you’ll likely see this walk away person take a large amount of time off before pursuing another passion. The downside here is some burnouts leave for a year, find out they really don’t have another passion and eventually re-enter only to become the most Type A personality in the office constantly reminding themselves of how awesome it was to leave for that single year. The upside is others leave, find a new passion and uproot everything to live a different life where the work they do is enjoyable to them. All and all, the burnout walk away candidate is looking for a new passion in some shape or form and is not looking to retire as a multi-millionaire and live on the beach.
Note: The idea here is that these people are generally in purgatory in finance, its not death it’s simply not that bad.
The Epiphany: So you’ve been on the job for just a few years and suddenly you realize you’re not happy for some reason, job isn’t meaningful, hours are too hard, developed an alcohol addiction, lost too many friends and the list goes on and on. This person usually sticks it out just for a year or two and ends up finding their passion while they are on the job. They’ve unlikely saved enough to really be safe so they do things that range from starting companies to working in a completely different industry that fits their new found passion.
Note: The idea here is there is something about the job they absolutely loathe, hours, perceived value and many others.
Push Outs
The Dud: This person likely started in the industry got laid off quickly (6 months or so) and then tried to aggressively get back in. Back in 2008 and around the end of 2011 this was absolutely acceptable as the industry was struggling. After that they re-enter only to be let go… again. You can tell this person was pushed out because they will follow the following pattern: 1) make a bunch of excuses for being out of the industry 2) trying to convince you if they cared more they would be in the industry still 3) getting another job and saying they are much happier.
Note: The theme here is exhibiting large amounts of entitlement and self worth as soon as they enter the game.
The Old-timer: So you survived a good 4-5 years, you’re up for promotion and you know you’re not going to get it. You get your walking papers and likely a decent severance because you were not a bad employee you were simply decent (nothing to scoff at on Wall Street). You get back in for maybe one more run, a year or two, but can’t seem to make that jump and you realize you’re unlikely going to get another shot. If the person likes finance you’ll likely see them working for a large Fortune 500 company in the finance division. The following answers would likely occur if you asked why they are not on the Street: “I didn’t get moved up there was too much politics/head of group didn’t like my calls” or “honestly couldn’t make the move” or “I got tired of the hours”. Of course for an interview you spin it as a life choice without making it seem like you are lazy, which most interviewers will believe because the Street is not for the faint of heart.
Note: The theme here is the person was likely able to avoid all confrontations, but did not stand out.
The Bridge Burner: So you made it to the higher levels, in fact your only boss is really the head of your group, good job. After a few years of realizing how difficult it is to constantly be happy/selling and traveling at the same time you make a big mistake… You have a blow up. This is generally regarding a company you cover where you really make the company mad or dig yourself into a hole that you can’t recover from. Many of these tend to be obviously poor political moves such as writing a note that attacks a company CEO, sending out an offensive email that gets grabbed by HR and is used to throw you out or the most common of all, something sex related (many a men have been taken down by pussy).
Conclusion: If you’re really good at reading between the lines you’ll notice two themes for all 6 cases, a moving sense of pride and being humble. The Dud, Bridge Burner, Early Retiree all have large amounts of pride as they either make excuses to validate themselves or have such a high sense of pride in their calls they are able to convince people they are a genius. The Burnout, Epiphany and Old-timer exhibit more of a humble quality as they seem to avoid stepping on shoes, do decent, but rarely make it to the big leagues on the Street. So an even better take away from this article? Start humble, slowly build up pride in your work get aggressive during the middle of your career and then shuffle back to being humble once you’re on top.
