The Finalists

I ended up going for drinks with the panelists after the event (some who I knew from the same event a year before) and they commented on my appearance and general lack of enthusiasm for my new job as a banker.”

Kulveer Taggar, successful web-entrepreneur

There. This is one of the most profound points of career advice you are ever going to get. It sounds ridiculously simple, but this is the ultimate barometer for finding out if we’re being honest with ourselves, and what we really want to do. To put things into context - Kulveer Taggar studied at Oxford where he co-founded Boso.com while being the President of Oxford Entrepreneurs in his final year. He then joined Deutsche Bank, only to quit 6 months later to become an entrepreneur, get funded, abandon Boso.com, co-found Auctomatic.com and eventually sell it for $5m. Read Kulveer’s full story in an interview with David Langer, another young British entrepreneur.

Having attended a number of company presentations, careers fairs, panel discussions, conferences etc, I can confirm that ‘How do I know if this industry is right for me?’, ‘Consulting, banking and accounting all sound like great careers, how do I choose?’ and variations thereof are some of the most frequently asked questions. The usual answer, unfortunately often coming even from some very senior people, is that one should consider all options carefully, do some sort of an explicit/implicit cost-benefit analysis and ideally consciously decide to try at least 2-3 in the beginning of your career. Rubbish.

The human race has developed a remarkable ability to fool ourselves, on individual as well as collective level. In particular, I’d venture a guess and say that 90%+ of us do indeed lie to ourselves at least once a week - even if it’s about the small things..food, entertainment, alcohol, guilty pleasures, procrastination, relationships and so on. Fortunately, there is one thing that we can’t fake - enthusiasm. Most of us are very good in faking excitement. The difference between the two is quite simple. Excitement is a short-term burst of emotions, whereas enthusiasm is a long-term state of mind that often demonstrates itself through our actions and other emotions, rather than directly.

Kulveer’s story is an excellent example, and I have seen a number of other ones throughout the time I have spent in the City and on London’s entrepreneurial scene. There are plenty of indicators, but one of them stands high above all others - a disparity between one’s verbal language and one’s body language. City firms, in particular, have devised an entire subset of normal language to describe prospective career paths to the students they are trying to recruit.

Fast-paced, dynamic, responsibility, global, exciting, rewarding, commitment, premier, innovative, challenging, personal growth, work-life balance, talent, development, opportunity, world-renowned, develop, diverse, team-oriented, creativity, together, network, inspire, demanding, international, highly meritocratic..etc. Choose 5 words from the list and the odds are, a City firm has already used them as a slogan.

The problem is not the language per se - careers in the City can be all of those words, and indeed I believe they will be for me, otherwise I wouldn’t be soon joining the Square Mile. What does worry me, and should raise your eyebrows too, is if the body language of someone using these words tells you a different story. This applies regardless of who this other person is - it could be your boss, recruiter, colleague, or indeed yourself.

In my last post, From Square Mile to Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, I wrote about Investment Banking 2.0, herd mentality, real passions and opportunities in other industries that have mostly gone overlooked in the past. Some readers misunderstood the point and questioned my decision to join the City after graduating. There was a time when if asked this question by my friends, I would proceed to explain my interests, passions, work preferences, ambitions, dreams etc. Nowadays, I just tell them a four-sentence story.

I met a friend for dinner on a Sunday evening after working a 120hr week. She jumped into my sentence half-way-through the dessert. ‘I have never seen you so happy. You smile whenever you mention work.’

The next time you can’t choose - between industries, firms, universities, courses, or indeed plans for the evening, weekend, or holidays, go and find someone who will listen to your ‘rational arguments’ and dilemmas. Then ask them to forget what you just said, and rather remember which of the options you seemed most enthusiastic about.

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Jan is a prospective trader, entrepreneur and a 3rd year BSc Mathematics & Economics student at the LSE. He is joining Goldman Sachs as an Emerging Markets trader in July 2009, having previously worked in trading and research for Goldman Sachs, Marshall Wace, AKO Capital, UBS and Barclays Capital. Jan is also the founder of Nicube.com, a graduate careers website focused on City professions, and CrewDates.com, and new start-up that is ‘making friends easy’.  He has a brief profile on the 2009 Finalists page and a more detailed one on LinkedIn.

Posted by Jan Sramek in Work & Careers |