Since relocating to London I haven't checked up on the people I used to go to school and university with for half a decade. I was floored by what I saw on Linkedin tonight.
Most of the guys and girls I went to school or university with back in Melbourne have plum jobs. Consultants (Bain & Company, Boston Consultancy Group), govt (DFAT, PMC, Treasury), Big 4 accountancy (PwC, Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG), finance (Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Macquarie, ANZ), top law firms (K&W Mallesons, Minter Ellison, Allens), the big mining, oil & gas companies (Shell, BHP, Rio Tinto), etc.
All the med students ended up as doctors, no surprise. But the rest are all pretty much top level consultants, lawyers, bankers, accountants, engineers.
What surprised me is how competitive it is to get these jobs (thousands of applicants per position) and how much I underestimated the majority of them. The fatties have slimmed down and looking sharp. Many of these guys I thought boozers, plodders or just straight up thick. But they seem to be kicking ass.
I finished top 5 at my school and won a national scholarship for academic results, had a high distinction average in history/politics but I struggled at law school and couldn't crack psychometric tests for govt jobs. I had a negative experience of job hunting for my first position and thought it would be similar for everyone else. Not so it seems.
Is this just me or are others seeing the same thing with their peer group really doing impressively as a whole?
Most of the guys and girls I went to school or university with back in Melbourne have plum jobs. Consultants (Bain & Company, Boston Consultancy Group), govt (DFAT, PMC, Treasury), Big 4 accountancy (PwC, Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG), finance (Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Macquarie, ANZ), top law firms (K&W Mallesons, Minter Ellison, Allens), the big mining, oil & gas companies (Shell, BHP, Rio Tinto), etc.
All the med students ended up as doctors, no surprise. But the rest are all pretty much top level consultants, lawyers, bankers, accountants, engineers.
What surprised me is how competitive it is to get these jobs (thousands of applicants per position) and how much I underestimated the majority of them. The fatties have slimmed down and looking sharp. Many of these guys I thought boozers, plodders or just straight up thick. But they seem to be kicking ass.
I finished top 5 at my school and won a national scholarship for academic results, had a high distinction average in history/politics but I struggled at law school and couldn't crack psychometric tests for govt jobs. I had a negative experience of job hunting for my first position and thought it would be similar for everyone else. Not so it seems.
Is this just me or are others seeing the same thing with their peer group really doing impressively as a whole?