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"How big money seduces Oxford's brains"

Brown Patrick Bateman

10

http://www.newstatesman.com/200707120032

Reply 1

Huw Davies

11

The amount of money sloshing around is pretty scary, and as a medic with every intention of sticking with the noble course I do get occasional pangs of envy towards people who are going to sell out. Oh well.

Reply 2

Athena

6

I worked out - had I had one of those kind of internships this summer - I could have earned my first year battels twice :/

Reply 3

the_alba

12

The idea of working for a bank or anything like that leaves me cold. I want a stimulated mind, a set of friends who don't give a **** about money or impressing each other, and free time to write, read, live a little, and not be surrounded by philistine city boys.

Reply 4

sonar

The idea of working for a bank or anything like that leaves me cold. I want a stimulated mind, a set of friends who don't give a **** about money or impressing each other, and free time to write, read, live a little, and not be surrounded by philistine city boys.

I forgot, Oxford is where pragmatism comes to die, or is that too philistine?

Reply 5

thomasjtl

9

It's scary money. But with the internships especially, it's a case of 'why not?'
It's 8 to 10 weeks, paying 4-6 times what you'd earn doing shop or bar work, and even if you hate it you just have to stick it out then say thanks but no thanks at the end of it, and walk off with enough money to pay for your third year.

Reply 6

Franc Vouloir

11

thomasjtl

... with the internships especially, it's a case of 'why not?'

Yeah, but presumably you have to work pretty hard to get one: "From a pool of more than 10,000 applicants, each of the major banks takes around 200 interns a year."

Reply 7

schmidt

What kinds of courses have most of the students that go to these banking firms? Economics?

Reply 8

Morbo

17

Lots of scientists/mathmos, but your degree doesn't really matter too much, as long as you are good with numbers.

Reply 9

Alive

10

I have actually been looking for internships, anybody know where I can apply for these?

Reply 10

Hoofbeat

14

Alive

I have actually been looking for internships, anybody know where I can apply for these?

The company's own websites usually have online application forms you have to complete.

Reply 11

Mercuria

the_alba

The idea of working for a bank or anything like that leaves me cold. I want a stimulated mind, a set of friends who don't give a **** about money or impressing each other, and free time to write, read, live a little, and not be surrounded by philistine city boys.

I take it you've never been on a trading floor before?

Reply 12

Brown Patrick Bateman

OP

10

jack_sparrow

I'd love to be snapped up by the banks, paid £800 a week and be taken to champagne parties just for being at Oxford, but i do Geography so i'm guessing that's out of the question.

Heh...far from impossible, there's a sizeable handful of us. Geographer I know just interned at Lehman Bros doing complex derivatives stuff and got a full-time offer.

Reply 13

Turdburger

16

when do most people do there interships, after 1st year or after 2nd, or either/both?

Reply 14

Drogue

19

Mercuria

I take it you've never been on a trading floor before?

I have, and I can still see where he's coming from. Perhaps he should have said "mind stimulated by things other than profit"?

Reply 15

the_alba

12

Drogue

I have, and I can still see where she's coming from. Perhaps she should have said "mind stimulated by things other than profit"?

Quite. Unless you're trading in intellectual ideas and New Yorker-style bons mots then it's not the kind of stimulation I value, or the kind I meant.

I don't think wannabe (sorry, potential) city boys and girls should get so defensive when anyone dares to suggest that intellectual stimulation is not chief among their priorities in selecting their chosen careers. Nobody minds that they're in it for the money.

PS. I corrected my gender in your quote, Drogue. :smile:

Reply 16

jumping10

so if you do the internship you get paid £800 a week and you dont even have to get a proper job there after your degree...? tempting.

I might try do it for a week then quit, then relax for th rest of the holiday!

Reply 17

Morbo

17

the_alba

I don't think wannabe (sorry, potential) city boys and girls should get so defensive when anyone dares to suggest that intellectual stimulation is not chief among their priorities in selecting their chosen careers.

I'm in consultancy for the intellectual stimulation. My summer internship was the best application of my intellect outside education that I've ever come across.

Reply 18

sonar

I don't think wannabe (sorry, potential) city boys and girls should get so defensive when anyone dares to suggest that intellectual stimulation is not chief among their priorities in selecting their chosen careers. Nobody minds that they're in it for the money.

Not defensiveness so much as annoyance with someone's lack of sprezzatura.