Morning Coffee: Ex-Goldman Sachs partner and VP offer strangely similar career advice. How dark is your personality?

There's something about the people who work at Goldman Sachs: they like to opine on the components of a good life. Lloyd Blankfein has done it. So has Gary Cohn. So has ex-Goldman VP turned hedge fund Anthony Scaramucci. Now Scaramucci is at it again, and so is ex-Goldman partner and CEO Jon Corzine.

Scaramucci has been busy discussing the time he was sacked from Goldman's investment banking division (IBD) only to be almost instantly rehired by its sales and trading business. In retrospect, he says IBD wasn't the right place for him to be: "You got to do the things you like to do, and don't get sucked into the hype or the social status of certain things." You have to live with yourself, says Scaramucci: "Focus on things that are fun and you're comfortable doing — you're comfortable in your own skin, you know?"

Funnily enough, Jon Corzine, the former Goldman Sachs CEO who later became engulfed in the MF Global scandal, has reached much the same conclusion. In a presentation to students last week, Corzine's preeminent piece of careers advice was that the students need think about what about success looks like for them in particular. Before they embark upon a career, students need to think about how they'll judge success, said Corzine.  It's, "really important that you know yourself when answering those questions," he added.

Separately, if you've ever suspected that you might be a Machiavellian psychopath with narcissistic traits, you now have a chance to confirm or refute this. The BBC has published a 'Dark Personality Test.' Take it here. 

Meanwhile:

Barclays might cut another 20% of investment bank staff, mostly in Asia and mostly in cash equities. (Reuters) 

Rob Leach, former head of EMEA capital markets at BlackRock, is becoming head of European ECM at Jefferies. (Reuters) 

After it became apparent that a senior Hong Kong regulator had referred his son for an internship at J.P. Morgan, the HK regulator has banned its staff from referring candidates to banks. (Financial News)

Two heads of investment banking at Citic Securities in China have gone AWOL after reportedly being asked to assist in an investigation. (Reuters) 

Senior banker becomes senior consultant. (Consultant) 

One financial professional whose salary just breaches £100k, said the curtailment of childcare has forced him and his wife to revisit their plans after the birth of their first child this year: “When my wife goes back to work four days a week, our nursery bill will be £16,000 a year . . . I’ve worked out that after tax, the nursery and commuting costs, she will keep 23p in the pound.” (Financial Times) 

A poem about corporate finance. (WSJ)

Photo credit: Lego Darth by Shawn Taylor is licensed under CC BY 2.0.