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Archive for category Work

Egregious finance douchebaggery

Oct 25

Posted by Louise in Finance, Work | 11 Comments

Everyone loves to hate bankers. Their hefty bonuses, inflated egos, and “models and bottles” lifestyle framework often make them a public target for contempt. The prestige of a banking job is coveted far and wide by top business school graduates, and some of these douchebag attributes have trickled down to analyst levels. Let’s examine four infamous case studies:

Aleksey Vayner

Probably the epitome of puffery blown out of proportion. In October 2006, Vayner, a Yale student, sent UBS AG a job application. Except it wasn’t your typical CV+cover letter+transcript+references. No, it was a video resume. “BALLIN!”, you say. Well maybe, sort of. Take a look:

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Busy busy busy

Sep 21

Posted by Louise in Life, Work | 2 Comments

Tomorrow marks the first day of autumn, so of course it’s going to feel like 32 and be humid. Co-op terms are generally more relaxing than academic terms, but these next few months are going to be nothing short of hectic. In addition to work-related stuff, I have to apply to grad jobs (which is like a full-time job in itself) and study for CFA (which is like taking a few extra courses). So yes I am starting to feel the pressure.

Due to the above mentioned encumbrances, I will also have no social life until December 5. And then I will probably need to go all out holiday-festive-style. I would say that this past week wrapped up my fun quite nicely. Last Saturday I had lunch with Nic, then went for a haircut in Pacific Mall. Jo and I decided to try that new place upstairs (I forgot what it’s called already). It was okay, nothing remarkable. I will keep trying different salons to find a really really good one, or at least somewhere with a decent price-to-quality ratio. Afterwards, we wandered around the mall and moved on to Market Village. As some of you may be aware of, Market Village will soon be no more. Instead, they intend to replace it with the biggest Asian mall in North America (a title currently held by none other than Pacific Mall). There was a pretty large model in the main foyer, so I snapped some shots:

You can see P-Mall as the red building in the front. Behind it is the proposed reconstruction of Market Village

You can see P-Mall as the red building in the front. Behind it is the proposed reconstruction of Market Village, with a luxury hotel attached. Those lush looking trees in the parking lot are LIES.

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Goodbye, summer

Sep 12

Posted by Louise in Life, Work | 1 Comment

Labour Day is over, marking the unofficial end of summer. I’ve been working for the past two weeks, and it went as well as any first couple weeks could have. The people are very nice, and I haven’t been bombarded with tasks as in previous co-op terms. Things will pick up this upcoming week though, so I need to review my STAT372 material and become an expert in writing Excel macros.

Last Wednesday I joined quite a few Waterloo’ers for an end/beginning-of-term dinner. Half of us came from work while the other half had gone rock climbing earlier in the day, so there was this palpable disparity between our states of dress formality. There were people I haven’t seen in a while, and people I won’t get to see for a while, and I enjoyed catching up with everyone.

On Friday I skipped out on work a bit earlier to give myself a head start on the weekend (also there was really nothing for me to do). I bummed around at Fairview Mall until some friends who were returning from the CNE came to pick me up for dinner. It’s amazing how many new friendships are formed with high school acquaintances once you go to the same university… In any case, we had dinner at Lemongrass, and dessert in the same plaza. Then they decided to drag me to Mix2 to shoot some pool. I didn’t really feel like playing, so I just became the photographer.

Sunday, I was up bright and early to hit the beach one last time before we Canucks hide out in our igloos for the winter with our stash of bear and walrus meat. It was essentially with the same people I went camping with, and we decided to visit Sibbald Point. I’ve already gotten a threat from Herbert to give this trip a glowing review. Otherwise he will eat my babies or something. Initially, we were supposed to leave at 8am. But then I guess someone realized it’s a vacation, not military boot camp, so departure time was pushed to 9. We had a very uneventful drive.

Getting this shot was probably the most exciting part of the drive

Getting this shot was probably the most exciting part of the drive

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Feeling the squeeze

Jul 5

Posted by Louise in School, Work | No Comments

The Promised Land is kind of a letdown for over-achievers these days. As the NYT article puts it,

Members of this generation have lived their lives like track stars trying to run a marathon at the pace of a 100-meter dash — their parents typically waiting at every turn with a stopwatch.

And it’s like the biggest reality check you can have thrown in your face. All that hard work, just to… move back in with your parents? Ugh. FIX IT!

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