That's part of what scares me about much of the thread. I'm hearing, "In order to get a job at the elite companies, they base their hiring practices a great deal on if the candidate came from an Ivy League school."
To that I have to ask, "Is that what is going to take to make that person happy? Having a job with an elite company? As for me and mine, we're quite content in jobs we feel passionate about and / or take pride in making a reasonable living and using the time outside of our normal working hours jobs to pursue other passions. In short, work to live, don't live to work. Everyone is different of course, if it takes an elite job to make someone happy, by all means, play the game of the Ivy League schools / Elite companies.
I agree that people should think about what will make them happy and what they think is worthwhile. One study portrayed a grim life for entry-level investment bankers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204062704577223623824944472.htmlHazard of the Trade: Bankers' Health
By LESLIE KWOH
Wall Street Journal
February 15, 2012
Add investment banking to the list of things that could be dangerous to your health.
A University of Southern California researcher found insomnia, alcoholism, heart palpitations, eating disorders and an explosive temper in some of the roughly two dozen entry-level investment bankers she shadowed fresh out of business school.
Every individual she observed over a decade developed a stress-related physical or emotional ailment within several years on the job, she says in a study to be published this month.
Investment banking has long been a beacon for ambitious people who crave competition, big money, steak dinners and paid-for town-car service. The 100-hour workweek, these ironmen and ironwomen tell themselves, is just the opening ante in a high-stakes game.
But investment bankers, salespeople and traders are only human. Under the immense stress of their jobs, many suffer personal and emotional problems that escalate into full-blown crises, with some bankers developing conditions that linger long after they have left the industry.
Of course, no one is being drafted into high finance. Aspiring Wall Street stars sign up for the punishing hours with eyes open. What's more, the study's small size and the lack of a control group raise questions about how closely the findings apply to the broader population of roughly 267,000 would-be masters of the universe.
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The published study is
Michel, A.A. (2011). Transcending socialization: A nine-year ethnography of the body’s role in organizational control and knowledge worker transformation. Administrative Science Quarterly: 54: 1-44.
