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Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Business Books (2014)Becoming a young Wall Street banker is like pledging the world's most lucrative and soul-crushing fraternity.
Every year, thousands of eager college graduates are hired by the world's financial giants, where they're taught the secrets of making obscene amounts of money-- as well as how to dress, talk, date, drink, and schmooze like real financiers.
Young Money is the inside story of this well-guarded world. Kevin Roose, New York magazine business writer and author of the critically acclaimed The Unlikely Disciple , spent more than three years shadowing eight entry-level workers at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and other leading investment firms. Roose chronicled their triumphs and disappointments, their million-dollar trades and runaway Excel spreadsheets, and got an unprecedented (and unauthorized) glimpse of the financial world's initiation process.
Roose's young bankers are exposed to the exhausting workloads, huge bonuses, and recreational drugs that have always characterized Wall Street life. But they experience something new, an industry forever changed by the massive financial collapse of 2008. And as they get their Wall Street educations, they face hard questions about morality, prestige, and the value of their work.
Young Money is more than an expose of excess; it's the story of how the financial crisis changed a generation-and remade Wall Street from the bottom up.
Every year, thousands of eager college graduates are hired by the world's financial giants, where they're taught the secrets of making obscene amounts of money-- as well as how to dress, talk, date, drink, and schmooze like real financiers.
Young Money is the inside story of this well-guarded world. Kevin Roose, New York magazine business writer and author of the critically acclaimed The Unlikely Disciple , spent more than three years shadowing eight entry-level workers at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and other leading investment firms. Roose chronicled their triumphs and disappointments, their million-dollar trades and runaway Excel spreadsheets, and got an unprecedented (and unauthorized) glimpse of the financial world's initiation process.
Roose's young bankers are exposed to the exhausting workloads, huge bonuses, and recreational drugs that have always characterized Wall Street life. But they experience something new, an industry forever changed by the massive financial collapse of 2008. And as they get their Wall Street educations, they face hard questions about morality, prestige, and the value of their work.
Young Money is more than an expose of excess; it's the story of how the financial crisis changed a generation-and remade Wall Street from the bottom up.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
About the author
Kevin Roose
5 books327 followersKevin Roose is an award-winning technology columnist for The New York Times, and the New York Times bestselling author of three books: Futureproof, Young Money, and The Unlikely Disciple.
He is the host of “Rabbit Hole,” a New York Times-produced podcast about internet culture, and a regular guest on “The Daily,” as well as other leading TV and radio shows. He writes and speaks regularly on many topics, including automation and A.I., social media, disinformation and cybersecurity, and digital wellness.
Before joining The Times, he was a writer at New York magazine, and a host and executive producer of "Real Future," a documentary TV series about technology and innovation.
He lives in the Bay Area.
He is the host of “Rabbit Hole,” a New York Times-produced podcast about internet culture, and a regular guest on “The Daily,” as well as other leading TV and radio shows. He writes and speaks regularly on many topics, including automation and A.I., social media, disinformation and cybersecurity, and digital wellness.
Before joining The Times, he was a writer at New York magazine, and a host and executive producer of "Real Future," a documentary TV series about technology and innovation.
He lives in the Bay Area.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 297 reviews
February 24, 2014
This was an honest account of what its like to work on Wall Street, but not just as an I-Banker. I represented banks out there and my life was very similar.
I thought it was going to be more salacious (a la Michael Lewis), but it actually was a very honest account.
His thesis is "gee, isn't it unfortunate that our best and brightest are going into investment banking when they could be doing something productive" and "this is a problem because when the ivy-league-trained 'best and brightest' infiltrate politics and the upper echelons of society they take the problematic Wall Street culture with them to a certain degree." And somehow this is a problem which he never really articulates, but assumes that the reader understands the "obvious" problem here. He never says why investment banking is immoral, he assumes that fact is automatically understood by the reader. Again, he assumes the immorality is obvious. I actually feel like the rigorous training one obtains on Wall Street is fantastic and a great preparation for anything else that you choose to do (in spite of some burnout you may experience).
His account of what it is like to work long hours and the destruction on your health and relationships is fascinating. And I could relate to at least one account. The day one banker quit he walked the streets of New York and started crying with gratitude that his time in "Azkaban" was over.
While that is a bit dramatic, I remember the day after I left my Wall Street law firm I walked around the upper west side on like a Thursday morning without any job-related stress. It was as though I was seeing the UWS for the first time. The sun shone down on a beautiful October morning and it suddenly hit me, walking around the streets of New York City was AWESOME; it was so beautiful. I can't believe that I had missed it. It is as though I had not noticed the whole time I was in New York.
The book didn't really contribute to the literature and I would highly recommend it for college seniors thinking of going to Wall Street but not necessarily for anyone else (unless you REALLY LOVE Michael Lewis books).
I thought it was going to be more salacious (a la Michael Lewis), but it actually was a very honest account.
His thesis is "gee, isn't it unfortunate that our best and brightest are going into investment banking when they could be doing something productive" and "this is a problem because when the ivy-league-trained 'best and brightest' infiltrate politics and the upper echelons of society they take the problematic Wall Street culture with them to a certain degree." And somehow this is a problem which he never really articulates, but assumes that the reader understands the "obvious" problem here. He never says why investment banking is immoral, he assumes that fact is automatically understood by the reader. Again, he assumes the immorality is obvious. I actually feel like the rigorous training one obtains on Wall Street is fantastic and a great preparation for anything else that you choose to do (in spite of some burnout you may experience).
His account of what it is like to work long hours and the destruction on your health and relationships is fascinating. And I could relate to at least one account. The day one banker quit he walked the streets of New York and started crying with gratitude that his time in "Azkaban" was over.
While that is a bit dramatic, I remember the day after I left my Wall Street law firm I walked around the upper west side on like a Thursday morning without any job-related stress. It was as though I was seeing the UWS for the first time. The sun shone down on a beautiful October morning and it suddenly hit me, walking around the streets of New York City was AWESOME; it was so beautiful. I can't believe that I had missed it. It is as though I had not noticed the whole time I was in New York.
The book didn't really contribute to the literature and I would highly recommend it for college seniors thinking of going to Wall Street but not necessarily for anyone else (unless you REALLY LOVE Michael Lewis books).
March 10, 2014
OK, I read this on impulse...it was positively reviewed in The Week. It's a quick read and somewhat fun if you want to take a trip back to your post-collegiate years.
My husband has worked in finance since his late 20's. He now supervises and trains many 20-something analysts, really enjoys it, but is surprised by generational differences...but I digress.
Young Money can't seem to find its central argument or even a theme. Is this a book about finance or a book about being a young person and how people choose a career/mission in life? (that would have been a more interesting book).
Kevin Roose follows a handful of young people as they enter bank training programs. Guess what? Some of them like it in finance and some of them don't! Some of them--hold your breath--switch jobs and go to other banks or go join tech startups!
The kids work 100-hour weeks and take Adderall---or at least some of them do. Sometimes they don't sleep for three days. As a parent of young people, I am totally against this! But is this big news? This has been the way in finance training programs for years. And law. And advertising. And it's not that way everywhere and it's getting better.
Guess what? Some of the trainees' superiors are mean! They yell at them! They get mad when the trainees make mistakes in their Excel spreadsheets! Guess what people? As someone who has worked in a variety of fields for years, I can now reveal something shocking--people sometimes yell; people get angry when you make mistakes. Part of being an adult is figuring out how to handle that. I have techniques for calming people down. And fixing mistakes. And I check my work (which is usually not quantitative where a mistake representing millions or billions of dollars would be a bigger deal). Yes, people don't like typos. (This drives my husband crazy by the way--when things are done with tons of mistakes by young people being paid A LOT.)
The trainees are described as "depressed" which means they like to hang out on rooftops getting high, gain weight, or go to bars. They date people and break up. They sleep in minimally decorated apartments. They take up boxing or travel to Italy. I would not call this depression (and no, I'm not trying to minimize depression). This is called being in your 20's.
The biggest revelation for me was that what the entry-level analysts do is relatively easy--i.e. edit spreadsheets and create models. I think the jargon of LBO's and CLO's etc. always made me think that trainees already knew or somehow had to pick up some incredibly difficult stuff (like vector calculus).
Then Keven Roose shares his big expose--he breaks into the black-tie induction dinner of Kappa Beta Phi. Yes, it sounds gross and awful. And I am totally against homophobic and racist humor. But again--is this news? Have you ever read about Bohemian Grove? Google it. Yes, there are some really awful people in finance. Is this a big reveal? There have been countless articles on this over the years.
Young whippersnappers. Hmph.
My husband has worked in finance since his late 20's. He now supervises and trains many 20-something analysts, really enjoys it, but is surprised by generational differences...but I digress.
Young Money can't seem to find its central argument or even a theme. Is this a book about finance or a book about being a young person and how people choose a career/mission in life? (that would have been a more interesting book).
Kevin Roose follows a handful of young people as they enter bank training programs. Guess what? Some of them like it in finance and some of them don't! Some of them--hold your breath--switch jobs and go to other banks or go join tech startups!
The kids work 100-hour weeks and take Adderall---or at least some of them do. Sometimes they don't sleep for three days. As a parent of young people, I am totally against this! But is this big news? This has been the way in finance training programs for years. And law. And advertising. And it's not that way everywhere and it's getting better.
Guess what? Some of the trainees' superiors are mean! They yell at them! They get mad when the trainees make mistakes in their Excel spreadsheets! Guess what people? As someone who has worked in a variety of fields for years, I can now reveal something shocking--people sometimes yell; people get angry when you make mistakes. Part of being an adult is figuring out how to handle that. I have techniques for calming people down. And fixing mistakes. And I check my work (which is usually not quantitative where a mistake representing millions or billions of dollars would be a bigger deal). Yes, people don't like typos. (This drives my husband crazy by the way--when things are done with tons of mistakes by young people being paid A LOT.)
The trainees are described as "depressed" which means they like to hang out on rooftops getting high, gain weight, or go to bars. They date people and break up. They sleep in minimally decorated apartments. They take up boxing or travel to Italy. I would not call this depression (and no, I'm not trying to minimize depression). This is called being in your 20's.
The biggest revelation for me was that what the entry-level analysts do is relatively easy--i.e. edit spreadsheets and create models. I think the jargon of LBO's and CLO's etc. always made me think that trainees already knew or somehow had to pick up some incredibly difficult stuff (like vector calculus).
Then Keven Roose shares his big expose--he breaks into the black-tie induction dinner of Kappa Beta Phi. Yes, it sounds gross and awful. And I am totally against homophobic and racist humor. But again--is this news? Have you ever read about Bohemian Grove? Google it. Yes, there are some really awful people in finance. Is this a big reveal? There have been countless articles on this over the years.
Young whippersnappers. Hmph.
May 17, 2014
fun, with some gem anecdotes, but very superficial. worth reading if you (like me) loved liar's poker, or (also like me) have just moved to NYC, lured by gobs of money, and need to make sure you look around now and again. you certainly won't learn anything about banking or finance.
November 11, 2021
My least favorite section to shelve at work, besides reference, is the Business section. There is barely anything that holds my interest in it because it's almost all self-help psuedospirituality but with corporate aesthetics. So when something actually stuck out to me I had to read it right away. I thought maybe this book would just be tales of debauchery but I was also curious about the time period. I usually feel like I don't need to do reading about the 2008 crash and occupy because I was alive when that happened, but I was too busy caring about middle school drama to be more than vaguely aware of what was going on.
This was a rollicking ride and I loved reading it. I barely have a grasp on what half these terms mean (what is a mortgage backed security? what are options? I only recently fully understood what it means to short a stock) but that's not the focus of the book. You truly could not pay me enough to live like this. It's so hard for me to put myself in these people's shoes because I cannot comprehend having a value system that works this way. It's so depressing (well, honestly it makes me feel a bit of schadenfraude good cheer) that when you break down the ungodly hours these analysts work, they are basically making 15 dollars an hour. You can make that same rate at a restaurant or retail job and still have time to have a life and friends and hobbies. I don't get what these people are even spending money on. They all live in sparse apartments that they never go to, and the only free time they have is spent drinking. What a miserable existence.
Something this book pointed out that I had never thought of was the way the finance industry siphons talent and brains away from literally anything else. I never knew that a large portion of grads who go into the industry are doing so because they don't know what else to do and are aimless (this is very relatable to me, but you will never catch me in a million years going into finance lmfao). The fact that some of the people interviewed were going to go into medicine or things that could actually help the world were instead sucked into this black hole is such a waste!!!!!
It isn't surprising that many people who wouldve gone into finance instead go into tech. Isn't it FinTech now?? seems kinda merged. 10 years ago when the books events were happening tech probably seemed more exiting and more beneficial to the world, but nowadays if you are having a (im)morality contest I'm not sure who would win(lose). We all know how awful FAANG are for society, and there have been several high profile downfalls like Theranos and WeWork that kinda mirror Wall Street scandals like Enron.
Another change that has happened in the last 10 years is the rise of stock trading as a hobby for normal people. Of course that's always been a thing hence "publicly traded company", but I'm talking about the rise of the Robin hood app, crypto, NFTs, r/wallstreetbets. I wonder if the rise of the Reddit Analyst has made more young people go into banking, or if it has made more people realize they can have a regular job and still make some money and get adrenaline rushes on Wall Street from the comfort of their bedrooms.
I remember watching wolf of wall streets in theaters and sobbing because I couldn't believe how awful people were and that any of it was truthful lol
Soo-Jin did not get enough screen time in the book!
I was entertained, I learned things, I liked the author's reporting (especially when he snuck into that Supper Club induction ceremony... I was expecting some Eyes Wide Shut type shit and it's honestly so lame of them that they were doing something as silly as that..... But anyway respect to the author for that one, that was ballsy)
This was a rollicking ride and I loved reading it. I barely have a grasp on what half these terms mean (what is a mortgage backed security? what are options? I only recently fully understood what it means to short a stock) but that's not the focus of the book. You truly could not pay me enough to live like this. It's so hard for me to put myself in these people's shoes because I cannot comprehend having a value system that works this way. It's so depressing (well, honestly it makes me feel a bit of schadenfraude good cheer) that when you break down the ungodly hours these analysts work, they are basically making 15 dollars an hour. You can make that same rate at a restaurant or retail job and still have time to have a life and friends and hobbies. I don't get what these people are even spending money on. They all live in sparse apartments that they never go to, and the only free time they have is spent drinking. What a miserable existence.
Something this book pointed out that I had never thought of was the way the finance industry siphons talent and brains away from literally anything else. I never knew that a large portion of grads who go into the industry are doing so because they don't know what else to do and are aimless (this is very relatable to me, but you will never catch me in a million years going into finance lmfao). The fact that some of the people interviewed were going to go into medicine or things that could actually help the world were instead sucked into this black hole is such a waste!!!!!
It isn't surprising that many people who wouldve gone into finance instead go into tech. Isn't it FinTech now?? seems kinda merged. 10 years ago when the books events were happening tech probably seemed more exiting and more beneficial to the world, but nowadays if you are having a (im)morality contest I'm not sure who would win(lose). We all know how awful FAANG are for society, and there have been several high profile downfalls like Theranos and WeWork that kinda mirror Wall Street scandals like Enron.
Another change that has happened in the last 10 years is the rise of stock trading as a hobby for normal people. Of course that's always been a thing hence "publicly traded company", but I'm talking about the rise of the Robin hood app, crypto, NFTs, r/wallstreetbets. I wonder if the rise of the Reddit Analyst has made more young people go into banking, or if it has made more people realize they can have a regular job and still make some money and get adrenaline rushes on Wall Street from the comfort of their bedrooms.
I remember watching wolf of wall streets in theaters and sobbing because I couldn't believe how awful people were and that any of it was truthful lol
Soo-Jin did not get enough screen time in the book!
I was entertained, I learned things, I liked the author's reporting (especially when he snuck into that Supper Club induction ceremony... I was expecting some Eyes Wide Shut type shit and it's honestly so lame of them that they were doing something as silly as that..... But anyway respect to the author for that one, that was ballsy)
March 17, 2014
Bottom Line: Young Money does not offer an in-depth description of the financial services industry or a grand explanation for its failings. Rather, it is a light and breezy look at the impact of the finance culture on the lives of eight young people.
For three years New York’s Kevin Roose followed the careers of eight young Wall Street workers to research Young Money. Released last month, the book is many things: a look at the culture of Wall Street through the eyes of those at the bottom, an exploration into the decline of the industry’s esteem, and an 8 person character study. It isn’t however a new Liar’s Poker.
It is a lazy cliché to compare any book remotely critical of Wall Street to Michael Lewis’ 1989 classic. Poker tells the story of an industry on crazy pills and absolutely shreds it. After majoring in Art History, Lewis get a job at Salomon Brothers and found himself handing out investment advice to seasoned investors despite not knowing a thing about the financial industry. “The whole thing still strikes me as preposterous,” he later wrote in a pseudo-epilogue.
I don’t think Roose set out to write the next Liar’s Poker. If he did he would have spent more time analyzing how the industry’s incentive structure turns good people into amoral technocrats 1 He also would have called out the superficiality of many of the young analyst’s statements 2. Instead he crafted a narrative around the psychological impact of working in a toxic industry. “I have never seen more people disgusted to get their hands dirty in my entire life,” a young analyst told Roose after her Bank of America class was tasked with doing routine yard work for a few charities. “There were like two hundred kids just standing there, looking at their BlackBerrys and being like, ‘I really want to get back to the office.’ I was like, ‘Are you guys kidding me? Is this a joke? You’re out in the sun, doing something good for the community, and all you guys want to do is go back and sit at your desks?’”
That’s Wall Street culture in a nutshell. Given the chance to stay outside and help the community, they’d rather get back to their desks.
For three years New York’s Kevin Roose followed the careers of eight young Wall Street workers to research Young Money. Released last month, the book is many things: a look at the culture of Wall Street through the eyes of those at the bottom, an exploration into the decline of the industry’s esteem, and an 8 person character study. It isn’t however a new Liar’s Poker.
It is a lazy cliché to compare any book remotely critical of Wall Street to Michael Lewis’ 1989 classic. Poker tells the story of an industry on crazy pills and absolutely shreds it. After majoring in Art History, Lewis get a job at Salomon Brothers and found himself handing out investment advice to seasoned investors despite not knowing a thing about the financial industry. “The whole thing still strikes me as preposterous,” he later wrote in a pseudo-epilogue.
I don’t think Roose set out to write the next Liar’s Poker. If he did he would have spent more time analyzing how the industry’s incentive structure turns good people into amoral technocrats 1 He also would have called out the superficiality of many of the young analyst’s statements 2. Instead he crafted a narrative around the psychological impact of working in a toxic industry. “I have never seen more people disgusted to get their hands dirty in my entire life,” a young analyst told Roose after her Bank of America class was tasked with doing routine yard work for a few charities. “There were like two hundred kids just standing there, looking at their BlackBerrys and being like, ‘I really want to get back to the office.’ I was like, ‘Are you guys kidding me? Is this a joke? You’re out in the sun, doing something good for the community, and all you guys want to do is go back and sit at your desks?’”
That’s Wall Street culture in a nutshell. Given the chance to stay outside and help the community, they’d rather get back to their desks.
February 27, 2014
I read this book because it has been the subject of healthy discussion in the lunchroom since its publication. I enjoyed the read, mainly because it was something different. In light of the media blitz around its publication, little needs mentioning about the plot, except to say that, as the adage goes, money does not buy happiness, health, or true wealth. I think the book read too much like a Vanity Fair expose, so I’m not sure this one can be measured on any literary scale. Young Money should be required reading for anyone working in corporate America, especially in Wall Street banks.
April 10, 2014
And people wonder why I quit working for Wells Fargo...
August 14, 2020
I'm a sucker for michael lewis books, even though I only really like the ones that aren't about finance, so I thought this book was a nice read. it was especially illuminating coming from my background and perspective, and at the very least convinced me to do some more soul searching this fall. it's not overly interesting, but the writing is very easy to read and the material is presented well and the stories told in this book are stories that I think every college student, especially ivy league student, should hear. it would be nice to read something like this but covering more recent years since it's been almost 8 years since a lot of the events in this book. in conclusion - what is the meaning of life?
March 2, 2014
Whiny, whiny, whiny! God, the 'poor me' is so thick in this book. This sounds more like a PR piece than anything else.
I wonder how much these big banks paid for this PR book. There's nothing about bad, or even remotely scandalous, about this book, and there's a whole lot of 'besides what public opinion might be, they never did anything illegal.' And, seriously, this author says he has to actually 'find' the supposedly "bad seeds" (aka students that were in it only for the money) because all the people he's interviewed are all good people who wouldn't dream of doing anything illegal. And the ones he supposedly finds are remarkably like the ones he's "interviewed".
It's so obviously a PR book that it HURTS.
'These kids could get fired if their bosses knew about this!' Oh, BS.
What you get is young adults who are getting paid a whole lot of money and are complaining about the long hours. My gawd. This author wants me to know about these smart kids and, on the other hand, wants me to believe that these supposedly smart kids don't realize that 75k ~ 90k right out of college isn't going to be some long grueling hours.
I think if I hear one of 'yeah, their is really IS a lot but compared to the others, it's really small.' I'll throw my iPod. Comparing anyone's paycheck to their bosses is STUPID and RIDICULOUS. Hello Idiot. Who starts out and makes what the bosses make? These kids are making more in their first year than people who've been at their jobs for decades. So, yeah, cry me a fucking river and I'll try to drum up some 'give a shit.'
An unintended consequence of this apologetic approach was that the author made the rest of the world seem like a cake walk. Every time he mentioned the 'relative salaries', he always seemed to hint that everyone else had it easier. Like, these kids could've just walked off and gotten a normal job (like the job crash didn't happen.)
You can find more information watching paint dry.
I wonder how much these big banks paid for this PR book. There's nothing about bad, or even remotely scandalous, about this book, and there's a whole lot of 'besides what public opinion might be, they never did anything illegal.' And, seriously, this author says he has to actually 'find' the supposedly "bad seeds" (aka students that were in it only for the money) because all the people he's interviewed are all good people who wouldn't dream of doing anything illegal. And the ones he supposedly finds are remarkably like the ones he's "interviewed".
It's so obviously a PR book that it HURTS.
'These kids could get fired if their bosses knew about this!' Oh, BS.
What you get is young adults who are getting paid a whole lot of money and are complaining about the long hours. My gawd. This author wants me to know about these smart kids and, on the other hand, wants me to believe that these supposedly smart kids don't realize that 75k ~ 90k right out of college isn't going to be some long grueling hours.
I think if I hear one of 'yeah, their is really IS a lot but compared to the others, it's really small.' I'll throw my iPod. Comparing anyone's paycheck to their bosses is STUPID and RIDICULOUS. Hello Idiot. Who starts out and makes what the bosses make? These kids are making more in their first year than people who've been at their jobs for decades. So, yeah, cry me a fucking river and I'll try to drum up some 'give a shit.'
An unintended consequence of this apologetic approach was that the author made the rest of the world seem like a cake walk. Every time he mentioned the 'relative salaries', he always seemed to hint that everyone else had it easier. Like, these kids could've just walked off and gotten a normal job (like the job crash didn't happen.)
You can find more information watching paint dry.
August 22, 2014
I hesitated between 3 and 4 stars. In some ways, this book is "light". But that may be a good thing, as any deep mathematical concepts would have been beyond me. The author follows 6 or so ivy league graduates who are recruited into Wall Street firms. We find out why they chose to go to Goldman-Sachs or whatever financial institution, and how their lives evolved. The hours a 2-year associate are forced to keep are truly punishing. As are the degradations. One guy just stayed at the office Mon-Thurs. Others got 3-4 hours sleep. Some spent down-time getting drunk. Wouldn't you? Despite the great money they were paid as recent grads, I could not understand why anyone would live this way. Let me say that the author was very likeable and casual, and that made the book interesting and readable. The one event that had a huge impression on me: author sneaks into a black tie dinner for the most senior and wealthy execs (you would know the names). He is recording, so you get the dinner speech word for word. It is infantile, disgusting, sexist, racist--any word you want to use. At first I thought it was a farce, that it would stop; but no, everyone loves it and laughs raucously, and it goes on and on. These are educated people? I was stunned. I still am. Not very P.C. myself, but I am none of the words I mentioned. And I sincerely hope I am funnier than those pathetic old white guys.
August 5, 2015
As a Millennial working at an investment bank, I had to read this book sooner or later, and my enthusiasm over Kevin Roose's first book The Unlikely Disciple was a great impetus to finally read Young Money.
In the press tour around the book's release, Roose's interviewers focused on what his three years of reporting meant for American culture, the banking industry, the ethics of finance, and such. Those conversations are good to have, but they're not what the book is about. Young Money charts the journeys of eight new graduates who found themselves, for one reason or another, working at investment banks. Its focus is intensely personal, contextualized when needed with broader looks at the culture and mechanics of banking and finance. I actually wish I could have read this when I first started interning at an investment bank--it would have saved me months of furtive Googling and "um this might be a dumb question but..." conversations.
I do wish Roose either wrote more about each person or cut some of them out, since tracking eight stories is difficult when we only get a few scenes with each person. Still, Young Money is well-balanced, informative, and compassionate. I recommend it to everyone who wants to learn what finance is really like, what motivates the people who work in the industry, and how this handful of 2010 graduates have negotiated the ups and downs of post-college life.
In the press tour around the book's release, Roose's interviewers focused on what his three years of reporting meant for American culture, the banking industry, the ethics of finance, and such. Those conversations are good to have, but they're not what the book is about. Young Money charts the journeys of eight new graduates who found themselves, for one reason or another, working at investment banks. Its focus is intensely personal, contextualized when needed with broader looks at the culture and mechanics of banking and finance. I actually wish I could have read this when I first started interning at an investment bank--it would have saved me months of furtive Googling and "um this might be a dumb question but..." conversations.
I do wish Roose either wrote more about each person or cut some of them out, since tracking eight stories is difficult when we only get a few scenes with each person. Still, Young Money is well-balanced, informative, and compassionate. I recommend it to everyone who wants to learn what finance is really like, what motivates the people who work in the industry, and how this handful of 2010 graduates have negotiated the ups and downs of post-college life.
March 19, 2014
I feel a bit harsh giving this book 3 stars, as it probably deserves a bit more (3 and a half)...
It makes for an enjoyable read which you'll get through in a day or two, as Kevin Roose has a good writing style, and the stories of the eight graduates working at Wall Street are interesting. However, ultimately there just isn't much new or particularly deep in the book - while I enjoyed the view from the characters in the story, it feels relatively thin considering we are covering 2-3 years of their life, and we only get glances at some of their challenges.
As the author acknowledges himself, there is also likely to be some selection bias in the eight people he followed, and there are definitely scenes where it is as much someone complaining about their unreasonable boss as it is specific to Wall Street. On the other hand, it does provide a nice view behind the curtain at times.
However, after reputing the book down, I just can't help but feel like a bit like it's missing a grand theory, or at least a longer / deeper attempt to explain more about the psyche of Wall Street. It's nice, but somehow I don't think I'm going to have many dinner conversations about anything I learned in particular.
It makes for an enjoyable read which you'll get through in a day or two, as Kevin Roose has a good writing style, and the stories of the eight graduates working at Wall Street are interesting. However, ultimately there just isn't much new or particularly deep in the book - while I enjoyed the view from the characters in the story, it feels relatively thin considering we are covering 2-3 years of their life, and we only get glances at some of their challenges.
As the author acknowledges himself, there is also likely to be some selection bias in the eight people he followed, and there are definitely scenes where it is as much someone complaining about their unreasonable boss as it is specific to Wall Street. On the other hand, it does provide a nice view behind the curtain at times.
However, after reputing the book down, I just can't help but feel like a bit like it's missing a grand theory, or at least a longer / deeper attempt to explain more about the psyche of Wall Street. It's nice, but somehow I don't think I'm going to have many dinner conversations about anything I learned in particular.
September 12, 2016
Still rearing from the Moneyball-High, I immediately devoured this related book about young people working on Wall Street during the Occupy Wall Street movement back in 2011. Well-written enough to Keep me entertained for the whole Monday Holiday. Getting into the heads of Fresh Grads working at the Big banks. Main Idea was people from Ivy Universities used to go to these too-big-to-fail Banks almost by default until they know what to do with their lives due to the undeniably huge pay, but now things have changed due to the Crash, maybe for the better. I kind of feel similar to their story because somehow, it is similar to mine, just change Ivy League school to Top Philippine Universities and Just change Finance to IT. Similar situation, but somehow a less-cutthroat environment. Their stories seem to be the story of any other Manileno fresh off College.
April 8, 2020
This book was a pleasant surprise!
And RIP Marina Keegan :(
And RIP Marina Keegan :(
June 9, 2017
This is a good behind the curtain view of the inner-monologue of a handful of young Wall Streeters. It should probably be required reading at university business schools in a full-disclosure way. Nothing revolutionary; it's more like confirming some things we already suspect about how the street grinds young people into either submission or oblivion. Glad I didn't chase dollars at a bank.
April 18, 2020
While the premise of the book is great—Kevin Roose follows eight young Wall Street recruits, and utilizes their experiences as a focal point for exploring the hidden world they inhabit—the author falls seriously short with what this book could have been.
From the outset, it becomes abundantly clear Roose does not have anything remotely close to a central thesis or greater point. Besides rhetorically using these eight post-college recruits as a way to lionize 'the youth' and demonize Wall Street without actually exposing any kind of concrete malfeasance whatsoever. What he does do is let the 'young money' talk about the long hours, intense culture, excruciating ennui, and plain old status anxiety of The Street. While these are great ways to draw the reader in and to gather genuine sympathy for it's protagonists, this seems to be a double-edged sword because these are all legitimate and (some would say) necessary aspects of the culture in which they work. Yeah, it's painful, but they are not forced to work there, and they are rewarded amply for putting themselves through this grueling process. This is a huge problem, because all Roose has done is detail what everyone already knows about working on The Street: IT'S REALLY, REALLY HARD.
And speaking of 'grueling', Roose's book, while starting off strong, was increasingly unbearably sullen throughout. With such melodramatic and maudlin prose like...
Now, to Roose's credit, he lays out these details really well, and if this were a book he'd hope a potential recruit uses to gauge whether or not this is the lifestyle they want, then the book could be deemed a success in that respect. But Roose doesn't stay within these modest-but-useful parameters. He conspicuously virtue-signals throughout the book, positioning himself as a moral person, mourning how 'Young Wall Street' gets sucked into the supposedly corrupt and corrosive culture of The Street:
BOTTOMLINE: while Roose is an interesting writer, he seems to be a lot more comfortable with more lighthearted fare, rather than with serious, highly dense and controversial topics. Based on this book, while decently interesting and worth a read for a potential Wall Street acolyte, he should probably stick to those.
From the outset, it becomes abundantly clear Roose does not have anything remotely close to a central thesis or greater point. Besides rhetorically using these eight post-college recruits as a way to lionize 'the youth' and demonize Wall Street without actually exposing any kind of concrete malfeasance whatsoever. What he does do is let the 'young money' talk about the long hours, intense culture, excruciating ennui, and plain old status anxiety of The Street. While these are great ways to draw the reader in and to gather genuine sympathy for it's protagonists, this seems to be a double-edged sword because these are all legitimate and (some would say) necessary aspects of the culture in which they work. Yeah, it's painful, but they are not forced to work there, and they are rewarded amply for putting themselves through this grueling process. This is a huge problem, because all Roose has done is detail what everyone already knows about working on The Street: IT'S REALLY, REALLY HARD.
And speaking of 'grueling', Roose's book, while starting off strong, was increasingly unbearably sullen throughout. With such melodramatic and maudlin prose like...
"That night, after going out to a bar with some friends, Jeremy [/ one of the people Roose interviewed] went back to his usual spot on the roof of his apartment building, lit up a joint, and broke down. It was raining outside, and the tears streaming down Jeremy’s face merged with the water droplets running down from his hair" (p. 206)...one would think he was trying to write a YA novel rather than an exposé of the dark heart of the young finance world. That, and in a book where the author claims "If they had been caught talking to me, they could easily have been fired—a possibility that escaped none of them" (p. 1), there was nothing remotely objectionable outside necessarily tough bosses yelling at these young Wall Streeters when they mess up, and thereby costing their respective company a lot of money.
Now, to Roose's credit, he lays out these details really well, and if this were a book he'd hope a potential recruit uses to gauge whether or not this is the lifestyle they want, then the book could be deemed a success in that respect. But Roose doesn't stay within these modest-but-useful parameters. He conspicuously virtue-signals throughout the book, positioning himself as a moral person, mourning how 'Young Wall Street' gets sucked into the supposedly corrupt and corrosive culture of The Street:
"It saddened me to imagine Ricardo and Arjun spending their lives as the vice presidents of such-and-such obscure finance subdivisions. Both of them had outside passions that, statistically, they were extremely unlikely to ever pursue, now that they’d survived their first two years on Wall Street and decided to press on in the financial industry. And I couldn’t help but think that they’d be able to contribute more, on balance, doing things other than serving as well-paid investors and intermediaries.He also makes a contrived 'mistake' of thinking those initial recruits going into Wall Street are initially 'bad', only to just-coincidentally-find-out that this is not the case at all. Instead he decides that its obviously more nuanced than that. So he goes out of his way to present an excruciatingly sensationalist, painful, and cringe-worthy event in his book: he crashes a private and intimate meeting of Kappa Beta Thi, a secret society that contains many high-profile 'Street insiders. While what they did in this meeting might be objectionable—told crude jokes that 'punch-down', performed risqué skits—he blatantly invades their privacy and tastelessly decides to use this event to not only demonize what he decided to call "Old Wall Street", but also makes claims and reports events that are not at all verifiable. (NOTE: if anyone can verify any of the things he claimed happened, please let me know.) Not only does he utilize them to vilify all he perceives as bad about Wall Street, but he makes utterly dickish and unjustifiable characterizations of the group for things they supposedly decided to say and do in an explicitly private and intimate setting:
But they seemed to be happy to remain in finance. And all I could do was hope that they would remain scrupulous and thoughtful as they climbed the ladder, and that a career on Wall Street would leave their basic decency intact." (p. 429)
Kappa Beta Phi was, in large part, a fear-based organization. Here were executives who had strong ideas about politics, society, and the work of their colleagues, but who would never have the courage to voice those opinions in a public setting. Their cowardice had reduced them to sniping at their perceived enemies in the form of satirical songs and sketches, among only those people who had been handpicked to share their view of the world. And the idea of [me] making those views public had caused them to throw a mass temper tantrum.To keep things short, what really bothers me about this book is Roose could have done so much better with the apparently ample time he had to prepare (several years, I believe). He either could have found actual illegitimate ongoings, or could have done more research to comment on the policy-side, or even showed the progression to 'the buy side' and up the ladder to give more perspective. This latter option would give more context to all that grueling work and show it's worth it for some people. Instead, in my view, he took the easy route and just positioning himself as a Wall Street culture critic. But to his credit, despite all of the aforementioned criticism, he does do a good job of going inside the experiences of these eight young recruits, and outside his book the research he has bother to do yielded great stuff on getting an internship on Wall Street. He also seems to be a fun and interesting writer when it comes to casual, more techy topics.
BOTTOMLINE: while Roose is an interesting writer, he seems to be a lot more comfortable with more lighthearted fare, rather than with serious, highly dense and controversial topics. Based on this book, while decently interesting and worth a read for a potential Wall Street acolyte, he should probably stick to those.
January 30, 2018
‘Young Money’ is a fly-on-the-wall account of a handful of young bankers just out of college who found jobs working on Wall Street around 2010. Kevin Roose convinced a few anonymous employees of such august institutions as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America to sit for interviews so that he could present this account of Wall Street following the financial devastation and drop in status that came with the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. He supplements the personal narratives with thorough research on the way that Ivy League colleges feed Wall Street, typical career paths on Wall Street, and some reporting on things like a secretive Wall Street fraternity and a dating event organized around bankers and models. His subjects let Roose in on their private thoughts regarding their jobs, many of which seem to have been near accidental career choices, rather than an occupation they’ve been set on from an early age. The jobs that banks make available to new college grads are high-paying and high-status but they also seem to attract a lot of graduates who don’t necessarily have a passion for banking itself. It’s interesting to read these personal stories where college students find out about Wall Street jobs from older students or students they play with on a sports team and this leads them to apply and get jobs which otherwise seem like the kind of competitive job that only the most driven and prepared students would qualify for.
The work itself seems boring and often futile, consisting of preparing reports that must be written and formatted perfectly but that as often as not get thrown in the trash without being read or having any impact whatsoever. And the young employees must be available around the clock to do whatever their bosses tell them whether they had plans for after work or not. It’s perhaps not surprising that a lot of the subjects of this book leave the industry after a period of hating their jobs and looking for a way out.
This is a great work of journalism which presents a panoramic portrait of Wall Street culture and will answer many of your questions about what it’s like to work in finance.
The work itself seems boring and often futile, consisting of preparing reports that must be written and formatted perfectly but that as often as not get thrown in the trash without being read or having any impact whatsoever. And the young employees must be available around the clock to do whatever their bosses tell them whether they had plans for after work or not. It’s perhaps not surprising that a lot of the subjects of this book leave the industry after a period of hating their jobs and looking for a way out.
This is a great work of journalism which presents a panoramic portrait of Wall Street culture and will answer many of your questions about what it’s like to work in finance.
March 28, 2018
Entertaining read. Finished it in 2 settings.
May 23, 2020
I knew nothing about finance and wall street before and still found this so good! I would say my knowledge of the field went from a 2 to a 21 but progress is progress :)
March 25, 2024
Read for research but was well structured and provided an earnest look into the lives of financially ambitious college grads.
February 25, 2015
Interesting expose venturing into the hellish lives of 1-2nd year analysts at the major banks of Wall Street post-crash which was revealing to see that not much has changed since a decade ago when many of my own Ivy League classmates would forsake their health and personal lives for the prestige of making a stupid amount of money in a job they hate surrounded by assholes. Reliving to see though that even in this day and age, the number who burn out and choose to pursue a different career rather quickly remains the same... Probably at even higher percentages now that the money is not the same as before (only $100K/yr as a 23yr old vs $130k/yr). This was an entertaining read - well done by Kevin Roose, but not as interesting to me as his first book venturing into the evangelical world of Liberty University (purely because this world of finance is one that I know well already and had little to be surprised by). I hope that his predictions at the end come true - fewer going into this field driven by the negative image of greed and excess that caused the recession. So far this seems to be the temporary case which I expect will return to the abusive and unsustainable ways of old once profits return again.
Most interesting to me was Roose's entry into the "Fashion meets Finance" dating event meant to pair the richest men with the prettiest women and the annual dinner of the Wall Street "Kappas" (a play on phi beta kappa, as most of the top bankers were not top of their class), both the epitome of the over-the-top shallow 1%. About Fashion meets Finance from p.95: ‘“Women in fashion need men who can facilitate their pre-30 marriage/retirement plan,” read one early invitation. “And men in finance need women who will allow them to leverage their career in their dating equity.”’
At the Kappas dinner, finding here the obnoxious behavior of so many corporate leaders, thinking that they all once upon a time began as an abused 1st year analyst leads to the time old question... As bright eyed bushy tailed young graduates who want to change the world, how does the transformation to heartless greed monger precipitate? (Speaking not just about finance types, but any adult who forgoes his passion upon reaching the realities of the real world) Speaking from experience myself, this fits well the concept of the "hedonistic treadmill", referenced also by Naseem Taleb in his books. From p.92 – “In social psychology, this phenomenon is called ‘the hedonic treadmill’ – the shifting of desires relative to achievements.’
While I see great benefit of equity and financial markets, certainly it has gone beyond the edge of value creation... To the point where it's questionable if the pros continue to outweigh the cons considering the direction we've been heading for the last 2 decades. Hopefully the social consciousness of people continues to rise high as a counterbalance for those who work in the field.
Most interesting to me was Roose's entry into the "Fashion meets Finance" dating event meant to pair the richest men with the prettiest women and the annual dinner of the Wall Street "Kappas" (a play on phi beta kappa, as most of the top bankers were not top of their class), both the epitome of the over-the-top shallow 1%. About Fashion meets Finance from p.95: ‘“Women in fashion need men who can facilitate their pre-30 marriage/retirement plan,” read one early invitation. “And men in finance need women who will allow them to leverage their career in their dating equity.”’
At the Kappas dinner, finding here the obnoxious behavior of so many corporate leaders, thinking that they all once upon a time began as an abused 1st year analyst leads to the time old question... As bright eyed bushy tailed young graduates who want to change the world, how does the transformation to heartless greed monger precipitate? (Speaking not just about finance types, but any adult who forgoes his passion upon reaching the realities of the real world) Speaking from experience myself, this fits well the concept of the "hedonistic treadmill", referenced also by Naseem Taleb in his books. From p.92 – “In social psychology, this phenomenon is called ‘the hedonic treadmill’ – the shifting of desires relative to achievements.’
While I see great benefit of equity and financial markets, certainly it has gone beyond the edge of value creation... To the point where it's questionable if the pros continue to outweigh the cons considering the direction we've been heading for the last 2 decades. Hopefully the social consciousness of people continues to rise high as a counterbalance for those who work in the field.
September 29, 2015
Certainly a fast read, and in some ways informative and in others, irritating.
Roose has done what seems a fair amount of research, and some of the statistics are compelling. But my guess is they are haphazard and used when they further the point he is trying to make. On occasion, they are misleading. He says more than once, for instance, that 46% of the Princeton class of 2008 went into finance. You have to read the end notes to find out that this is of students who had jobs at graduation. Wall Street hires in the fall; most other fields do not. For all graduates, the Princeton finance figure is actually 16%. I don't find that either surprising or alarming.
The book certainly makes the world of high finance seem both dreary and reprehensible. Analysts typically work 100-hour weeks (why?) -- and one of Roose's subjects did 100 hours straight. They have no reliable work schedule, having to be available on demand. They sit and wait for work in the office, and work as "Excel grunts" and create long and complex "pitch books" which prospective clients frequently never open. Hard to see the satisfaction in that, eh?
The problem with this book, for me, is that the subjects of Roose's research (who all have names, albeit assumed, and whom he follows through the book) never come through as three-dimensional human beings. I have no recollection of any of them after reading the book, nor did any of them capture my interest. (This is very different from the students profiles in "The Running of the Bulls," which follows a group of seniors at Penn's Wharton school through their job searches).
Roose's conclusions are never documented, either. He describes his informants as becoming increasingly immoral, and says things like "social relationships start to feel transactional," but the stories behind these conclusions are not shared with the reader. The result is a kind of journalism which on too many occasional felt glib and slick to me.
The book reads like a smart writer decided to capitalize (pun) on the US financial meltdown and wrote a book about it. Ironically, the story is undercut by the fact that many of the things he decries about working in the world of high finance are diminishing as the industry reformulates itself (as the final chapters of the book documents).
Fun, yeah, but also disappointing, This book could have been so much more.
Roose has done what seems a fair amount of research, and some of the statistics are compelling. But my guess is they are haphazard and used when they further the point he is trying to make. On occasion, they are misleading. He says more than once, for instance, that 46% of the Princeton class of 2008 went into finance. You have to read the end notes to find out that this is of students who had jobs at graduation. Wall Street hires in the fall; most other fields do not. For all graduates, the Princeton finance figure is actually 16%. I don't find that either surprising or alarming.
The book certainly makes the world of high finance seem both dreary and reprehensible. Analysts typically work 100-hour weeks (why?) -- and one of Roose's subjects did 100 hours straight. They have no reliable work schedule, having to be available on demand. They sit and wait for work in the office, and work as "Excel grunts" and create long and complex "pitch books" which prospective clients frequently never open. Hard to see the satisfaction in that, eh?
The problem with this book, for me, is that the subjects of Roose's research (who all have names, albeit assumed, and whom he follows through the book) never come through as three-dimensional human beings. I have no recollection of any of them after reading the book, nor did any of them capture my interest. (This is very different from the students profiles in "The Running of the Bulls," which follows a group of seniors at Penn's Wharton school through their job searches).
Roose's conclusions are never documented, either. He describes his informants as becoming increasingly immoral, and says things like "social relationships start to feel transactional," but the stories behind these conclusions are not shared with the reader. The result is a kind of journalism which on too many occasional felt glib and slick to me.
The book reads like a smart writer decided to capitalize (pun) on the US financial meltdown and wrote a book about it. Ironically, the story is undercut by the fact that many of the things he decries about working in the world of high finance are diminishing as the industry reformulates itself (as the final chapters of the book documents).
Fun, yeah, but also disappointing, This book could have been so much more.
August 24, 2014
I read this book back in May and forget some of the finer details. My overall impressions remain the same however. This book was a fairly interesting, but ultimately forgettable read. The impression one gets from both the young, anonymous protagonists in the book, as well as from the author himself, is that these things the young professionals are experiencing are somehow unique to them.
The type of navel-gazing outlook does nothing to dispute the reputation of the Millennial Generation, certainly not from my perspective. I experienced many of the same things in my first few professional years out of college – enthusiasm, greed, resentment, disillusionment and apathy – but never did I think my experience was particularly unique.
The people profiled and author provide some tangible if ultimately frivolous reasons for why their experience is unique – the emergence of Silicon Valley as a different alternative, the “safety” of going into finance given the industry’s rigorous on-campus recruitment methods, the cynicism of the older generation. None of these experiences are “new” in the sense that they are really unique. That does not mean I did not empathize with some of the protagonists in the book, even if that overriding sense of entitlement continued to permeate many of their complaints.
The author does do a good job of calling into question the finance industry’s preoccupation of “face time” and the seemingly endless number of meaningless tasks young analysts are given to do at all hours of the day for no other reason than because it’s always been done that way. The inane initiation period belongs more at a fraternity than a financial institution.
The type of navel-gazing outlook does nothing to dispute the reputation of the Millennial Generation, certainly not from my perspective. I experienced many of the same things in my first few professional years out of college – enthusiasm, greed, resentment, disillusionment and apathy – but never did I think my experience was particularly unique.
The people profiled and author provide some tangible if ultimately frivolous reasons for why their experience is unique – the emergence of Silicon Valley as a different alternative, the “safety” of going into finance given the industry’s rigorous on-campus recruitment methods, the cynicism of the older generation. None of these experiences are “new” in the sense that they are really unique. That does not mean I did not empathize with some of the protagonists in the book, even if that overriding sense of entitlement continued to permeate many of their complaints.
The author does do a good job of calling into question the finance industry’s preoccupation of “face time” and the seemingly endless number of meaningless tasks young analysts are given to do at all hours of the day for no other reason than because it’s always been done that way. The inane initiation period belongs more at a fraternity than a financial institution.
June 13, 2014
Young Money tells the stories of a handful of recent college graduates (most of them from Ivy League schools) who are beginning their careers on Wall Street as investment bankers and analysts of various types at some of Wall Streets largest firms: JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse.
These Wall Street neophytes work 80 to 100 hours a week in an extremely high stress environment: they often put in 16 hours or more a day during the week and many times even 10 hours a day on weekends. They make starting salaries of around $70,000 and received bonuses that can range from $10,000 to $30,000 or even higher. Their jobs are obviously very taxing to their personal lives and, due to lack of sleep and high stress, effect their physical and psychological health, but if they can make it through their first two years, then they can move on to better paying positions where they don't have to work such horrendous hours. But making it through those first two years proves exceedingly difficult.
In telling the stories of these young Wall Street bankers and analysts, Kevin Roose provides a fascinating insight into the financial world and shows us what kind of people it takes to succeed in that world. He also documents many of the recent changes on Wall Street in the aftermath of the 2008 fiscal crisis.
If you are at all curious about the inner workings of Wall Street, this book will pull back the curtain for you.
These Wall Street neophytes work 80 to 100 hours a week in an extremely high stress environment: they often put in 16 hours or more a day during the week and many times even 10 hours a day on weekends. They make starting salaries of around $70,000 and received bonuses that can range from $10,000 to $30,000 or even higher. Their jobs are obviously very taxing to their personal lives and, due to lack of sleep and high stress, effect their physical and psychological health, but if they can make it through their first two years, then they can move on to better paying positions where they don't have to work such horrendous hours. But making it through those first two years proves exceedingly difficult.
In telling the stories of these young Wall Street bankers and analysts, Kevin Roose provides a fascinating insight into the financial world and shows us what kind of people it takes to succeed in that world. He also documents many of the recent changes on Wall Street in the aftermath of the 2008 fiscal crisis.
If you are at all curious about the inner workings of Wall Street, this book will pull back the curtain for you.
April 10, 2018
I feel like this should be required reading for college students. Roose may have focused on the banking industry, but his story can apply equally to many competitive jobs in the corporate world.
As a junior at a university which regularly sends top students to banks, this was a really eye-opening read. In fact, it just may have changed the direction of my own life. Before reading Young Money, I barely engaged in any sort of introspection about my future career goals or interests. Yet somehow after reading the sobering account of my fellow twenty somethings working themselves death in this soul sucking industry really changed me. Without getting into too much personal detail, it made me pursue more independent and entrepreneurial opportunities and guided me out of going corporate.
Roose takes great care to explore the emotional impact that this lifestyle has throughout the course of a young banker's short career. We hear from prideful graduates once wide-eyed with their early success slowly devolve into a spiraling depression. Many of them lacked any real reasons for entering the industry beyond reasoning with themselves that it's just "what you do" after graduating from a elite school.
Roose doesn't have a political agenda in this book, it's not about reforming wall street or exposing corrupt bankers. It's totally about the personal impact that the profession has on young people and the profound alienation it produces in their lives.
As a junior at a university which regularly sends top students to banks, this was a really eye-opening read. In fact, it just may have changed the direction of my own life. Before reading Young Money, I barely engaged in any sort of introspection about my future career goals or interests. Yet somehow after reading the sobering account of my fellow twenty somethings working themselves death in this soul sucking industry really changed me. Without getting into too much personal detail, it made me pursue more independent and entrepreneurial opportunities and guided me out of going corporate.
Roose takes great care to explore the emotional impact that this lifestyle has throughout the course of a young banker's short career. We hear from prideful graduates once wide-eyed with their early success slowly devolve into a spiraling depression. Many of them lacked any real reasons for entering the industry beyond reasoning with themselves that it's just "what you do" after graduating from a elite school.
Roose doesn't have a political agenda in this book, it's not about reforming wall street or exposing corrupt bankers. It's totally about the personal impact that the profession has on young people and the profound alienation it produces in their lives.
June 27, 2020
Personally spending the past three years in the finance industry, the novel is relatable.
Brings up good points on the "allure" in working on Wall Street: develop a coveted skill set, prestige, work with smart people, decent pay. The book is a bit dated (released around ~2014), so there may be better works that capture the changes the industry has gone through the past six years.
Overall, it offers good insight into the lives of investment bankers/finance professionals
- the recruiting process, two-year analyst track, work environment, types of people that go into finance/reasons why
- Explores the effects of the Recession on Wall Street
- Covers a broad selection of finance jobs (traders, investment bankers, credit analysts, private equity professionals) and tracks their thoughts/experiences as they begin their careers on Wall Street.
However, the author carries a preconceived negative bias towards Wall Street and throughout tries to push his "higher" moral standards upon the reader. Would have enjoyed the novel more if it was more unbiased (especially since I'm in finance! Hence, the three stars). Also, the book profiles eight young professionals, which is a little cumbersome to keep track of but could see this being valuable in the interest of capturing as many unique experiences as possible.
Brings up good points on the "allure" in working on Wall Street: develop a coveted skill set, prestige, work with smart people, decent pay. The book is a bit dated (released around ~2014), so there may be better works that capture the changes the industry has gone through the past six years.
Overall, it offers good insight into the lives of investment bankers/finance professionals
- the recruiting process, two-year analyst track, work environment, types of people that go into finance/reasons why
- Explores the effects of the Recession on Wall Street
- Covers a broad selection of finance jobs (traders, investment bankers, credit analysts, private equity professionals) and tracks their thoughts/experiences as they begin their careers on Wall Street.
However, the author carries a preconceived negative bias towards Wall Street and throughout tries to push his "higher" moral standards upon the reader. Would have enjoyed the novel more if it was more unbiased (especially since I'm in finance! Hence, the three stars). Also, the book profiles eight young professionals, which is a little cumbersome to keep track of but could see this being valuable in the interest of capturing as many unique experiences as possible.
May 27, 2020
For a book that touts how risky its stories are to the careers of the people who have shared them with the author, it's incredibly boring. There's little in this book besides self-pity and excuses for the amorality of Wall Street firms. Even when Roose finds real assholes, what he choses to transcribe is hardly shocking or interesting. He even downplays any antipathy one might feel towards an undergrad who finds Goldman Sachs' occassional socially conscious work a distraction from the sole worthy pursuit of profit by saying that, after all, maximizing profit is this young man's true passion. Despite even featuring journal entries from one young banker, none of these portraits feel like real people. Roose often mentions that over time, their outlook on life becomes one based on transactions, but never provides any concrete example of this.
So to save you some 300 or so pages: being an entry level analyst is boring. You make a lot of money, but not as much as a CEO. Also pointing out that big banks fucked up the economy unfairly blames 22 year olds who get $70,000 a year to make Excel spreadsheets at 2am on a Saturday. But apparently weak government regulations mean that big banks are shedding money, so everyone's moving to tech anyway, which is great for society.
So to save you some 300 or so pages: being an entry level analyst is boring. You make a lot of money, but not as much as a CEO. Also pointing out that big banks fucked up the economy unfairly blames 22 year olds who get $70,000 a year to make Excel spreadsheets at 2am on a Saturday. But apparently weak government regulations mean that big banks are shedding money, so everyone's moving to tech anyway, which is great for society.
March 22, 2019
I can probably resonate with somewhere between 80-90% of most of the anecdotes here.
It reminds me of the days of being an adrenaline addict (maybe I still am) - always overwhelmed, seem to have a constant need for urgency, even panic, to get me through the day. In the cult-like culture of an investment bank, I was brainwashed to believe in any deceleration is a lost opportunity - a short and more fulfilling life always triumphs one that is extended and uneventful.
Like an alcoholic after a night of binge drinking, an adrenaline addict will often sit at night wondering how life became so chaotic, and vowing to take back control the next day. The thing about addiction is, it never ends well. Because eventually, whatever it is that was getting us high, stops feeling good, and starts to hurt.
From the book:
It reminds me of the days of being an adrenaline addict (maybe I still am) - always overwhelmed, seem to have a constant need for urgency, even panic, to get me through the day. In the cult-like culture of an investment bank, I was brainwashed to believe in any deceleration is a lost opportunity - a short and more fulfilling life always triumphs one that is extended and uneventful.
Like an alcoholic after a night of binge drinking, an adrenaline addict will often sit at night wondering how life became so chaotic, and vowing to take back control the next day. The thing about addiction is, it never ends well. Because eventually, whatever it is that was getting us high, stops feeling good, and starts to hurt.
From the book:
During dinner, an acquaintance mentioned that she'd just gotten a job in finance. "Where?" a parent asked. "Downtown," the acquaintance replied. "At a bank?" the parent prodded. "Yeah," she said. "Which one?" The young woman blushed, cast her eyes downward, and sheepishly croaked out:"Gold...man...Sachs?"
August 11, 2018
This is a great book to read for someone who isn’t really sure they want to go into finance, or whose kid isn’t sure about it. It should be required reading for all finance academic advisors. While the end of the book revealed the particular usefulness of the book after the financial crisis, it’s still an accessible book for any college student to read quickly and learn about life post-graduation in finance world.
The stories do mirror the experiences of students and friends I know who work in finance. Moreover, I don’t think these stories are that different from those who go into consulting only to find out the work can be quite meaningless.
I like that he ended it with the emphasis that finance jobs should be for people who actually wanted to go into finance, not as a last minute decision for those who can’t figure out what they want to do.
I wish it would have talked more about the missing element of self reflection in these students’ lives, which seems obvious to me and was mentioned briefly a couple times.
All in all, glad I read this.
The stories do mirror the experiences of students and friends I know who work in finance. Moreover, I don’t think these stories are that different from those who go into consulting only to find out the work can be quite meaningless.
I like that he ended it with the emphasis that finance jobs should be for people who actually wanted to go into finance, not as a last minute decision for those who can’t figure out what they want to do.
I wish it would have talked more about the missing element of self reflection in these students’ lives, which seems obvious to me and was mentioned briefly a couple times.
All in all, glad I read this.
February 5, 2015
Fast and interesting read. As someone who entered the job market in 2010, this book hit home on a lot of issues facing college graduates at that time. Even though I wasn't heading to Wall Street and 100 hour weeks, the attitudes reflected in the book by the young investment bankers were attitudes that I could connect to my experience, or the experience of people I know.
The book provides a nice, brief crash course on investment banking, but doesn't bog down the story in technical details. You can feel some bias from the writer, but as he mentions, he isn't much older than the bankers he shadows, and much of his bias is confirmed by these kids as well. I appreciated the friendly tone he took with the bankers too, allowing for a much more candid view.
Attitudes toward Wall Street have changed since 2008 and I think this books does a great job of capturing the immediate aftermath.
The book provides a nice, brief crash course on investment banking, but doesn't bog down the story in technical details. You can feel some bias from the writer, but as he mentions, he isn't much older than the bankers he shadows, and much of his bias is confirmed by these kids as well. I appreciated the friendly tone he took with the bankers too, allowing for a much more candid view.
Attitudes toward Wall Street have changed since 2008 and I think this books does a great job of capturing the immediate aftermath.
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