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Kevin Roose – Bestselling author of Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street’s Post-Crash Recruits. Kevin spent more than three years shadowing eight entry-level analysts at leading investment firms. He chronicled their stories, triumphs, and disappointments in this unprecedented (and unauthorized) story. Kevin currently writes for New York magazine and previously for The New York Times.

“Writing this book made me want to go to every Ivy League college in the country and give students there a hug.”
-Kevin Roose

Quotes from Kevin: 

[shadowbox]”Joining Wall Street is like joining a cult.  They want to strip out your own views and replace them with theirs.  This happens slowly, but it definitely happens over the course of 2 years.”

“I assumed that everyone came to Wall Street for the money, but it turns out that isn’t usually the case.  Instead, most of these young adults are confused.  They don’t know what they want to be when they grow up, and they see these jobs as a safe option.”

“We learned in 2008 that this stuff (finance/Wall Street) isn’t a separate world that is so far removed from normal life.  There is a real ripple effect throughout society.”

“There is some space between the popular image of Wall Street and reality.  I wanted to explore that space and see how big it was and how different it was.  But I don’t think Wall Street today would make a good reality show. If you actually put a camera inside one of these large investment firms, it would be extremely dull.”[/shadowbox]

What we learn in this episode:

• What is it really like to be a new hire on Wall Street?
• Do young investment bankers feel that the money is worth the long hours?
• Did you know their is an 80 year old “secret society”/fraternity for Wall Street workers? Yup – Kevin is going to tell you about it!

Resources:

Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street’s Post-Crash Recruits

http://www.kevinroose.com/

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/04/heres-a-video-of-wall-street-bankers-stripping.html

Twitter: @kevinroose