Harvard students dream of arts jobs, end up becoming bankers
An interesting new study by Harvard student publication, The Crimson, underscores the extent to which students who end up going into finance would really rather be doing something else.
According to a survey of this year's graduating class, the dream jobs of the moment are in the arts, public service and education. However, with the exception of education, opportunities in these areas are limited.
Despite banks' unwillingness to hire, around 12% of Harvard students get jobs in finance. Only 5% of them are thereby fulfilling their dream.
In the graphic below, the right shows the percentage of students who dream of doing jobs in each category. The left shows the job they end up doing. The steepness of the dividing line shows the extent of the disconnect (Click on the image to expand it).
It's not clear whether these figures are representative of the state of affairs at European universities too, but they go some way to explaining why banking is seen as a get-rich-quick option rather than a career for life.
Source: The Crimson
