GUEST COMMENT: If Nick Clegg wants social mobility, he should encourage people into investment banks

6 April 2011

3 minute read

GUEST COMMENT: If Nick Clegg wants social mobility, he should encourage people into investment banks

After a sham budget from Osborne, we were told yesterday that more public spending is on the way with the launch of Clegg's 'Social Mobility Strategy.' The "Coalition" also announced plans for "proper remuneration" for interns.

Personally, I have mentored and hired many interns for trading desks at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. They are all paid 1k per week!

Meddling with how the private sector chooses to hire people is dangerous. As things stand, internships work for both employer and employee. Employers don't have to commit to long term (red tape) employment contracts and graduates get valuable work experience. That's why internships exist. They don't exist because employers are trying to take advantage of people!

In the City, social mobility already exists from the ground up. Trading desks regularly take on scores of interns from a variety of backgrounds.

Why is the City so socially mobile?

In trading, your P&L dictates your value in the labour market - not the school where you did your A-Levels.

In the world of sales, commission is king. A roofer's son from Essex can be just as good as a Law Lord's son from Eton. Everyone knows it and everyone gets a chance.

In corporate finance the Old Etonians and Oxbridge types still prevail, but it's changing. Walk into any office and you will now see young corporate finance executives from South America, Eastern Europe, Russia and India. I've never even heard of their schools! It is still true that most top firms when recruiting U.K. graduates only recruit from select universities. But if you achieve four A's at A-Level you can go to any university you want! Clegg isn't lubricating the wheels of 'social mobility'; he is creating social bailout.

If you really want to help people into top businesses then raise the general level of educational standards in state schools to an acceptable international level, decrease the fee burden on students and decrease the tax burden on businesses (Reaganomics style). For a career politician to really understand these issues, he should try risking his own family's capital and set up a U.K. business hiring ten people. I can guarantee that his perspective will change dramatically.

Anton Kreil started trading from his bedroom in Liverpool at the age of 16. He was hired from Manchester University by Goldman Sachs as an Equities trader at the age of 21. He now runs the Institute of Trading and Portfolio Management.

AUTHORAnton Kreil

Insider Comment

Ma
Mark A. R.
5 June 2011
A few points, to the guy who wrote "you can't teach people how to trade", that's just not true. Sure, you can't teach *anyone* how to do it, you've got to be willing to learn and have a few underlying qualities, but that's no different to anything else.
It's like saying "you can't teach people how to drive", of course you can, so long as they have the underlying characterisitcs to begin with. If you believe that it's an instinct that you either have or don't have, without any room for being taught properly, you're falling prey to a misconception.
I fear you give yourself away saying things like "if you were the real deal you'd be making millions at a hedge fund still!!!", it's probably the reason you'll never make money. Anton retired at 28 from the kind of job that 90% of the people on here spend their time dreaming of. Is it a surprise that someone like you can't understand that? Not in the slightest.
I think some people need to seriously ask themselves why they're on sites like this. Are you looking for insight or just a way to vent at people? If you want a more productive use of your time, try thinking of ways to make yourself more employable, and less of an embarrass
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betaadjusted
27 April 2011
errr when I was a GS intern back in the late '90s I got paid ~6k for 5 month's work. OK, times have changed. But 1k/week? maybe for an MBA but not a grad.
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Pe
Pepe
13 April 2011
The article is well written by a professional with enough experience in the City and all these people offending have just time (and often) money to lose......
Respect other people and we are in a free speech country, luckily!
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ba
bank3r
12 April 2011
You seem to forget the information asymetry that deprived student have... they just have never heard about target schools and career opportunities back when they attended hight school...
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Si
Simon
11 April 2011
For the last 5 years I have been helping those who don't tick all the boxes get into Investment Banking and I agree with Anton that it is possible.
I was a Market Maker on a trading desk (KBC) where most of the traders did not have a degree. The question you have to ask youself is what are they doing differently to the people that think it is just reserved for the elite universities.
There is always a way. I have seen it too many times.
I think people prefer to think it is impossible because it has not been possible for them. If you don't have contacts, you make them.
If people continue to bitch about people on blogs it gives a good insight into why they have not been successful.
Get on with your own game, you have to build your reputation to make it in Investment Banking and a reputation built on cheep shots at those trying to help people is a bad reputation to have.
If this article inspires somebody that does not tick all the boxes to figure out how to make it, then that is a good thing in my book
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