Morning Coffee: Mocking Goldman interns becomes a thing for students. The ‘jerk’ test

If you achieve an internship at Goldman Sachs, you might well think you’re special.  Yes, there may be some short term pain in the form of long hours and lost sleep, but in the long term it will be worth it and you will vanquish your peers with your giant pay packet and pair of Ferragamo loafers. Suddenly, however, students who haven’t succeeded in getting Goldman internships are adding to the pain side of the equation by taking pot-shots at their diligent peers.

New York Magazine reports that students at NYU are using Yik Yak, an anonymous sharing app, to post humorously derogatory comments about this year’s Goldman intern class. In contrast with the elitist tone of parodies like Goldman Sachs Elevator, the NYU Goldman-intern-mockery-meme implies that Goldman interns are socially awkward. Posts reportedly include the following:

Summer interns are due to turn up at banks in New York and the City of London in the next few weeks. Intern mockery has yet to cross the Atlantic, so Goldman interns in the City may not be assailed by snarky comments from university colleagues. If they are, they can take some consolation in the fact that they’re part of the lucky 2% of Goldman intern applicants who got a summer place and that in IBD at least, this should be a good year for getting a full time job offer.

Separately, Aeon Magazine has come up with a simple method of establishing whether you’re an obnoxious person to work with (AKA a ‘jerk’ of the kind that was previously excluded from working for Barclays Capital.)  Aeon says you’re a jerk if you think that everyone but you is incompetent:  “The jerk culpably fails to appreciate the perspectives of others around him, treating them as tools to be manipulated or idiots to be dealt with rather than as moral and epistemic peers.” Or more plainly: 'The jerk himself is both intellectually and emotionally defective, and what he defectively fails to appreciate is both the intellectual and emotional perspectives of the people around him.' The opposite of the jerk is the ‘sweetheart’. Most people fall somewhere between the two.

Meanwhile:

Citigroup is relaunching its European real estate investment banking group. (Financial News)  

Asia’s finance regulators are asleep at the wheel. (Euromoney)

Deutsche Bank has set up a bullion vault in London. (Yahoo) 

Why you don’t want to take melatonin as a sleep aid. (NYMag)  

How to answer competency interviews using the STAR technique. (Guardian) 

Further confirmation that Generation X have full reason to be cynical and dejected. (Bloomberg) 

Compulsory clothing for this year’s male interns. (Business Insider) 

Related articles:

How long before you earn £350k at a U.S. bank? Breaking the ‘emotional ego barrier’ at Bridgewater

Deutsche discloses troubles in trading. Blankfein answers tricky job interview question

Goldman adding bankers who work for nothing. Fund managers targeting the academically mediocre