While I will definitely be sharing a lot of my own material, frankly, you’ve heard and will continue to hear a ton from me on this site – I want to use this section to hear from all of you and…if possible…brighten up the day for a few bankers, students and whoever else happens to pass by!

Before I close out this article, there is just one more video…and yes…it is a bit lengthy at 7 minutes…that I have to share with everyone. A lot of you will remember a quirky and funny little tirade – courtesy of Maxine Waters – several months ago, where the Congresswoman not only loses her patience, but damn near flies off the handle as the IB CEOs sit below and dodge the shrapnel. At one point, Maxine is even given a timeout…but not before Vikram Pandit has what appears to be a good time with the entire event. Watch the smile on Vikram’s face at more than one point in the segment and you tell me that he isn’t having at least a little bit of fun. The congresswoman definitely means well, but it all completely gets away from her by the end here. Anyway…if you’ve got the time, check it out and stay tuned for more from the Lighter Side, new articles, a fresh product and more!

]]> http://www.bankonbanking.com/2010/06/03/let%e2%80%99s-light-this-bh-on-fire%e2%80%a6welcome-to-the-lighter-side/feed/ 1 http://www.bankonbanking.com/2009/11/23/interview-202-the-art-of-articulation/ http://www.bankonbanking.com/2009/11/23/interview-202-the-art-of-articulation/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:22:12 +0000 IBanker http://www.bankonbanking.com/?p=710 As a follow-up to Interview 101, I am putting out Interview 202, which focuses on some of the more subtle aspects of an interview, which for some reason, are often overlooked, forgotten, or ignored completely. Where 101 covered the broad basics of interviewing, 202 delves into the subtleties of your answers – communicating your responses effectively, how to be ready for various questions, your attitude and so forth. I’ve compiled a list of 8 topics that I think will help interviewees articulate their points in a much clearer manner while still effectively conveying their points and maintaining that genuine quality that interviewers like to see in candidates.

Speak clearly and calmly

Speaking clearly and calmly are qualities that candidates often assume to be a given, yet frequently overlook and even miss. When asked a question, especially if the interviewee happens to be caught off guard by the question or variation of the question, candidates often jumble answers, mumble and combine words, ramble and even rapidly run through their responses like a motor mouth. Keeping your composure, even in the most uncomfortable and/or awkward situations, is definitely something that bankers are looking for in their applicants.

One of the biggest improvements that a candidate can make is in the delivery of his/her answer, and that delivery begins with a clear response and a calm voice and presence. The best way to achieve this is by practicing your responses in both mock interviews and when going through your sample responses out loud. Additionally, this is a skill that you can work on in general – in other words, every time you have a conversation with another student/co-worker/interviewer/stranger, you should be mindful of your speech and your pace. If you feel yourself speeding up and jumbling words, work on slowing yourself down – the more natural a smooth and relaxed pace becomes in normal conversation, the easier it will be to transfer those skills to your interviews.

Watch the “ums, uhs, wells, sort ofs, supposedlys,” stuttering and other filler words

Thinking of the right word/phrase/experience/etc can often be challenging and candidates frequently get nervous by this momentary pause and either consciously, or subconsciously, throw in the “ums, uhs, wells” and so forth to fill this otherwise blank space. For example, instead of saying, “I feel that my experience with Fortune 500 firm X [few seconds] has improved my analytical ability through project X and [few seconds] is therefore directly transferable to this investment banking summer analyst internship,” most interviewees don’t allow themselves the opportunity to develop a statement similar to that, but instead put it together in pieces as follows, “I feel that my experience with Fortune 500 firm X, uhhh, has improved my analytical ability through project X and, umm, is therefore directly transferable to this investment banking summer analyst internship.”

While many candidates don’t see a problem with this, most people will realize that taking a few seconds to compose your response will sound better to the interviewer, and leave a better impression on the interviewer than peppering your response with these filler words and noises. Filler words are exactly that, filler, and your responses do not need fillers do be complete and impressive. While letting a few filler words slip in is not, by any means, a big deal, throwing filler words in every few words as part of every response, is definitely a cause for concern – yes, I have heard this many times throughout my mock interviews. Practice makes perfect, or at least smoother and better responses, so take your time, gather your words, and practice your responses – not to sound mechanical, but just to avoid getting flustered to the point of throwing filler words in every sentence. Confidence is a powerful quality, and composing thoughtful, filler-free responses definitely helps to demonstrate confidence.

No one likes a robot

As I began to touch on at the end of the last point, just as you shouldn’t rush through your responses, you also shouldn’t slow down to the point of boredom, or rehearse your responses so thoroughly that you sound mechanical, like a robot (and not one of those cool cyborgs that look and sound human, more like those old robots from those old Sci Fi shows). Remember, interviewers want to believe that you are really interested in the position and are enthusiastic about the opportunity, not that they are just one of 20 stops on your interview schedule. Therefore, speak with enthusiasm, don’t be a monotone, but on the same note, don’t get so excited and be so focused on delivering an compelling response that you ramble or speed through it. Be enthusiastic and engaging, but don’t forget all of the other conversation points – calm, confident, engaging, etc.

Poise Counts!

Moving past the verbal aspect of articulating your point, every interview comes with the physical aspect as well. No, I am not talking about your clothing, but rather something much simpler – your body language. Maintaining eye contact (note: eye contact does NOT mean staring and/or gaping at your interviewer – that is creepy, not interesting) is important, but so is smiling, good posture, relaxed hands and legs, etc. Body language in general depicts your confidence as much as the very words you speak and the manner in which you speak them. Don’t believe that delivering comfortable responses will take all of the attention away from the fact that you are staring at the ground and slouching in your chair the entire interview – yes it is rare that one aspect would be perfect, the delivery, and another would be awful, the body language, but you should be mindful of all aspects of the interview.

Regarding a few specifics, you should be sitting up in your chair and relaxed; you should be making frequent eye contact and frown-free (you don’t want to stare blankly and you don’t need to smile continuously – it is fine to have a neutral expression, but you don’t want to appear to be sulking or frowning throughout the interview; make it an enjoyable experience). Additionally, your hands and legs should be relaxed – don’t twiddle your fingers or constantly shake your legs like a nervous twitch – be in control of your actions and stay relaxed throughout the interview.

I know that this point doesn’t sound as important as many of the others have and as others will, but everything comes together in an interview and while you can absolutely be successful without mastering everything, having a firm handle on each aspect definitely increases your chances and will allow you to be much more confident in your interviews.

Stock your answers, but think on your feet

Stocking your answers – in other words having your answers to common questions is good, but if you rehearse your answers so much without being able to think on your feet, you could run into problems for 2 reasons: 1) as we already touched on, you run the risk of sounding mechanical and insincere, and 2) you run the risk of being stumped by question variations and tweaks. Since we already touched on point 1, let’s discuss point 2. By question variations and tweaks I mean changing the phrasing of a question, or changing the number of qualities an interviewer is asking for, or putting an unexpected twist on a question, or even coming over the top of your response with off-the-cuff follow-up questions.

Stocking your responses is absolutely essential to nailing the interview since so many questions or variations are asked in pretty much every interview. However, by stocking your responses, but failing to think on your feet when it comes to these variations and tweaks, you might end up answering a question that was never asked, and failing to answer the question that was asked. For example, I once asked a candidate to describe what makes him a good leader, and instead I received a response that answered “give me an example of you being a good leader.” In this case I was given a nice little rehearsed scenario of leadership, and had no idea what qualities made him a good leader – I proceeded to follow up with several questions on the specific scenario, which resulted in the interviewee eventually becoming quite tongue-tied and uneasy.

Bottom line: stock your responses to the most common questions, but never forget that the key to a truly successful interview isn’t in your stocked responses, but rather in your ability to think on your feet and answer both question variations and follow-up questions. Interviewers like to push the pace at times and test your limits – if you can think on your feet and deliver solid responses, when it finally comes time to toss in the towel and admit that you are stumped, you will have already proven yourself a capable candidate.

Don’t Get Cocky

Confidence is key, but cockiness is rarely an admirable and redeeming quality. Are there arrogant people in banking – of course (that’s a silly question) – but acting arrogantly during your interview before you’ve even earned a slot is just stupid. Keep your ego in check and remember that everyone you are interviewing with in terms of other candidates are all in the same place as you and have the same opportunity as you, and, of course, everyone that is interviewing you is either where you are hoping to be, or more senior than what you are interviewing for – in other words, there is no reason to be a cocky ass. Once you’ve earned the position you can act however you would like, although, again, you are in the same position as the other analysts and are the junior man, but hey, it’s your life and you’ve earned your spot and your right to act how you want – I think that a little modesty goes a long way, but what do I know.

Being cocky is often not a quality that applicants are eager to convey, but still frequently fail to hide since they don’t realize what appears arrogant. The biggest missteps that interviewees make is in their responses to “rank yourself” questions or leadership questions, or even when describing your past experiences. Candidates that rank themselves as perfect, or “10”s appear arrogant – as if they know it all and cannot improve. Candidates that describe past experiences or leadership activities in which they describe themselves as being inherently better or constantly needing to correct the shortcoming of others in a smug manner show themselves as cocky. In short, before delivering your responses – ideally in practice – imagine how it would sound to someone hearing you – would you sound helpful and inspiring as a leader, or smug, pompous and better than everyone else. If you cannot see the ability better yourself and improve your skills through new experiences, you are arrogant. Keep any arrogance in check, and remember, landing a banking gig is definitely an accomplishment, but until you’ve done it, don’t act like you are better than everyone else on the same page.

Stay Positive

Staying positive is important in 2 capacities. First, staying positive, in other words, keeping a positive state of mind is good both in terms of your confidence and the way in which you deliver your responses to questions. Keeping that positive state of mind will keep you actively searching for opportunities and not too depressed to talk yourself out of even applying or putting a full effort towards potential opportunities. Too many times have I seen capable and talented individuals convince themselves that it is all over and that they will never break into banking (often as a rising senior in U Grad!) because they were passed up for a few opportunities or bombed a few interviews. These things happen and in this competitive market, for these competitive positions, candidates will certainly be passed up and be passed up often, if for no other reason than a lack of available seats. Stay positive, stay the course, and stay in the game.

Moving past this, the second reason staying positive is important is not regarding your attitude, but in delivering your responses during an interview. In this case I am referring to those self-defeating comments interviewees sometimes make when answering questions – those subtle comments that show you as insecure, or at the very least, definitely not confident. For example – instead of saying “well, I’m definitely not the best with Excel, but I think I’m pretty good,” say something like, “although I definitely see my skills in Excel as strong, there is always room for improvement, and I’m sure after spending a year in banking I will be surprised by just how much my current aptitude can improve.” There is no reason to put yourself down before stating a positive about your candidacy or your experiences. Just as you don’t want to sound arrogant and cocky, you don’t want to be self-defeating and sound borderline sad/depressed. Being confident in your skills and the merit of your past experiences is a positive and does not need to be balanced with some subtle or outright negativity, dark humor, or self-defeating quips – save that for your standup routine. For an interview, keep it short, keep it sweet, and keep it positive.

Closing an Interview

The closing of an interview, although not generally a make or break for any interview, should still be done properly. Closing an interview is by no means difficult, but is often overdone. Simply put, ask a question or two of the interviewer if requested of you and if time permits, then, as the response comes to a halt, thank them for their response and ask them if there is anything else that you can answer for them. Thank them for their time and let them know that you look forward the hearing from them (or a decision, depending on the employer and round) soon. I know this sounds simple enough, but too many times candidates feel the need to end with a joke that goes wrong, or sit around and drag out the completion, etc. Just as with everything else, keep it simple. Leave the jokes out and don’t be afraid to ask if they have any other questions before ending the interview. This keeps it moving and, again, shows your confidence with the overall process.

After completing the interview, send the follow-up thank you email (again, probably not going to make or break your candidacy, but it’s easy and nice) later that evening (no later than 8pm since, if they have their email sent to their blackberry, you don’t want to catch them in the middle of the night), or early the next afternoon. Keep the thank you email short and sweet, and feel free to toss in a solid follow-up question to keep it going. Don’t over think this as it won’t make or break your candidacy – again, it is simply a nice gesture and merely showing your willingness to go that extra step.

That about covers it – stay tuned for upcoming articles on a Day in the life, what to do if layoffs are coming, and much more! As always, comments go below and emails can be sent Here.

Dumb Banker

The All-Nighter Prep

Pulling a few, or many all-nighters to prep for the job is never a good idea. You are expected to be tired at 11pm, or 2am, or, even, 4am, but you are not expected to be sleepy at 1pm because you have pulled 23 all-nighters in the past 30 days BEFORE starting the job. The all-nighter, or the near all-nighter is by no means a fun aspect of the job, and, as such, no one is expecting you to be a master of the activity – no one is – 3rd year analysts will hate it as much as 1st years. Therefore, do not tire yourself out and burn yourself out before you even begin the job – save the all-nighters for when they are actually necessary – when you are on the job! Trust me, if your group is busy, you will have plenty of opportunity to become an all-nighter or late-nighter pro – why spoil the fun ahead of the job? Get some sleep, as much as you can, within reason, ahead of beginning the job – you will be glad you did.

Models and Bottles (and Televisions)

You should not be running around spending thousands of dollars when you haven’t even stepped foot into the building, let alone, the cube (I know, you most likely stepped inside the building when you interviewed, but go with me on this). Many analysts come decked out day 1 in expensive shoes and brag about their new purchases – you sound like an idiot, and probably look like one as well to the senior guys. Once you get your first bonus check, you can absolutely have at it, but don’t get ahead of yourself and start spending the money before you see a dime. There are a lot of analysts who don’t even make it to bonus time, and even if you do make it, in this market, many of you will not be pleased with what you get. Living in NYC is expensive as it is; you don’t want to dig yourself into a huge hole before you even move there for the job.

Hounding Bankers/HR (/Anyone who will listen)

It really is an accomplishment to break into this business, and if it was one of your goals, then by all means, congratulations, you’ve done it – you should be excited! That said, please, an email or so to HR expressing your thanks is fine, and a thank you email and/or an email inquiring into the specific group (if your interest is genuine) sent to a few of your interviewers is fine, but please do not start sending daily (I am exaggerating) emails to every colleague you’ve ever met. Everyone is excited that you’ve earned a spot, but you don’t want to be “that guy,” before you even start. A few questions are fine; the bankers should be more than happy to answer them. But keep it brief and intermittent – perhaps, for example, after receiving the offer, then just before sell day to learn about that process, their group, etc is fine. Then once you learn what group you’re in, you can by all means shoot your group contact an email to learn more about the group. Just keep all of these interactions light and relaxed – the interviews are done, you can loosen the tie and take it easy. Trust me, you will have more than enough time and opportunity to know your team VERY well once you start and a deal hits.

Taking expensive excel modeling classes

Personally, I don’t believe that it is necessary to take financial modeling classes at all (a simple primer should more than suffice), if it isn’t part of your job, you will not retain or learn as much anyway. However, for those that insist on taking the classes to “get ahead,” I would recommend staying away from the classes that cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Honestly, there is no reason for it. The most important aspect of analyst training is the financial modeling. In there you will learn a large number of shortcuts, macros (if any) the bank uses in excel (more shortcuts) and how to build the basic financial models. The rest will be quickly learned on the job as needed. If you are not in a group that works extensively with Excel on modeling (many industry groups), you will not remember much of what you’ve learned in the overpriced training course, and if you are working in a group that performs a lot of financial modeling, you will have MORE than enough opportunity to become an Excel pro – the training course is not expected and usually not recommended, as some outside training courses will teach you different ways of doing things that at your new employer, and you will have to be detrained of the “bad habits” before you can be trained in the bank’s “habits.”

Smart Banker

Keeping your grades up

I know I could have gone the negative route with this one and said, “don’t let your grades slip,” or something, but I decided to take the high road and encourage you not to just coast by (and not let them slip), but to keep at it. Unless you are planning to remain with your new FT employer from analyst up to and through VP (and have a guarantee from the firm that you will be promoted), you do not want your grades slipping, and should work towards keeping them up or bringing them higher. Considering most of you are either uncertain where you want to be in 2-3 years, or, at the least, don’t have that bank employment and promotion guarantee, you will need good grades to move on to other opportunities later.

Whether you are considering Business school, P/E, boutique IB, V/C or something else entirely, your next potential employer/opportunity will take your U Grad grades into consideration when analyzing your resume and candidacy. Sure, it is not going to be the most important factor in making the decision, but if you have a 3.8, why let it fall to something mediocre, or if you have a 3.5, why fall into the borderline GPA category (3.2, 3.1) for top shops – there is no reason to. No one is telling you to pull all-nighters studying, but you shouldn’t be pulling all-nighters drinking and partying, while nearly failing your classes either. Keep your head on straight and focus on the prize. A few more months, a little more work and you will be done, a graduate with strong grades, and no worry about your GPA potentially coming back to haunt you a few years down the line. For those students who didn’t do as well on the SAT as they would’ve liked, remember how annoyed you became when some companies asked for your SAT scores, 4 or 5 years later, as if that mattered – well it did to them, and so too will your U Grad GPAs when it comes time to move from the IB position you are about to start. Don’t potentially give yourself a few years down the road – keep your grades up and put at least that concern to rest.

Enjoying your life pre-banking

Enjoy your life. Make time for some hobbies, maybe a trip to unwind and decompress from the interviewing and college work. Gather your bearings, because before you know it the analyst program will be starting and where there was once freedom, now an iron ball and chain; where a phone for casual text messaging once dwelled, a blackberry filled with late night emails and assignments has now taken its place. Is it completely miserable, no, I don’t think so; but it is definitely not college and not the freedom that most of you once knew. So before starting the job, be sure to take a vacation, even if you don’t go anywhere, just relax, decompress and enjoy yourself and freedom.

Wardrobe It

Before you start the job, make sure to track down the sales (See: Clothes Make the Man…) and get yourself a banker wardrobe. Once the job starts, you will be surprised by how little time you have for shopping (and that little time is time that you would rather spend doing something else). I’m not saying go out and buy 4 pairs of shoes, 25 shirts, 4 suits, etc, but you should at least have a few dress shirts, a few pairs of pants, a suit or 2 and a pair of dress shoes or 2 to hold you over until 1) the first paycheck comes in and you know you’re spot is there and 2) you find out exactly how casual//formal your group is; how often you will need a suit, etc. Additionally, with the holidays around the corner, it will be a perfect time to capitalize on some nice sales at Brooks Brothers, Nordstrom, etc – pick up a few things and don’t worry anymore about it until you start the program. You’ll have time to do some shopping, but it is always nice to be ready to go ahead of day 1, so that you can have more time to get to know the city, adjust to the new life and lifestyle and ideally meet some new interesting people.

More articles, a fresh product and more is on the way…Stay Tuned! As always, comments go below and questions/suggestions can be sent Here.

Deal team contact information

Keep contact information for your team’s active projects in your blackberry. Specifically, include: Client name, company name, phone number, email address, and dial-in information (if they frequently use the same dial in phone number and code). There have been numerous instances where the deal team gathers in the conference room, picks up the phone, and no one has the dial-in information – it is only to your benefit to be the person who has that information, and pulls it up on the blackberry to hand off to your director. It sounds silly, but it makes a difference, and before you know it, your director will be coming to you on a regular basis to see if you have so-and-so’s phone number to get him on for a quick call.

Maintain a team calendar

Along the same lines as the previous point, maintaining a team calendar (for your own benefit, not to be the team’s admin) will surely earn you a few brownie points, or at least allow you to get an idea of who is traveling on which day, so that you know when you can pop in a few minutes late…win, win. Additionally, I have been asked on several occasions where our director or VP is, and with a click of the button, I can say that he is meeting with client X in CA today, or she is on her way to Houston for a conference – looks like she’ll be out through Thursday. Additionally, if you know, for example, a meeting with Company Y is coming up in a week or so, you can swing over to your VP/director and mention that you just realized the team is pitching/meeting with Company Y next week, and you wanted to know if you should start putting a pitch together, or gather any market intel, etc. If nothing else, this is just another way to show that you are committed to your group, and that you stay on top of situations and are detail-oriented, win, win, win – and I think Michael Scott would agree that the win, win, win is ideal.

Know the financials, know the project

As an analyst, one of the most interesting tasks you will perform is financial modeling. This is where the money is made, so know it well. The more on top of the modeling you are for your deals, the more you will be asked to participate both within the team, and on conference calls. Knowing the project and the financials governing the project decisions is one of the best ways to impress your team, and the client. When someone wants to know why we can’t lever up to 85%, even with a 10% bump in production revenues, it will be your job to say that the coverages can’t hold it and then support that position by citing various coverage metrics that fall just shy in an 85/15, D/E structure. The more comfortable you become with the company (client) and the financials, you more you will be able to participate in meetings. Accordingly, the more you are able to contribute to meetings, the more you will be asked to run with tasks in order to further contribute.

Offer help, and check in

Inevitably, there will be times when you are slammed, and a lot of your team is relaxing, and vice versa. In the case of vice versa, i.e., you are relaxing and one of your teammates is slammed, make sure to offer some help (yes, even with the trivial things). Be a team player, if someone is working on a deadline, offer to pull in some research, review a pitch, and create a chart or the like to help him or her out. Not only will they probably return the favor, but the rest of the team will see that you’re not just out for number 1’s well being, but for the entire team’s best interests.

Along the same lines, frequently (but don’t be a pest) check in with the more senior team members to see if there is anything that they need some help with (note: don’t ask unless you’ve got some downtime, you don’t want to offer help if you are already slammed and have 3 seconds for them). It can be reviewing some docs, revising a model/running some sensitivities, editing a pitch, or just gathering some research on an upcoming opportunity. Show the initiative, it will definitely pay off – after all, working a lot is not terribly fun all of the time, but showing the initiative will definitely allow you more opportunities to work on the live deals that close – which are enjoyable and have the added benefit of being resume powerhouses.

Proofread documents, review pitches

You should always ask to proofread any document, whether pitch, memo, etc before going out to a client. In the case of pitch books, I usually take a quick first run-through to check for consistent formatting, then a second run-through where I read through the book to check for spelling or grammatical errors, and then a last run-through which I like to think of as the sanity check, where I run through the financials and sensitivities to make sure everything fits together – i.e. we don’t suddenly have $50 billion in EBITDA in 2012, when every other year EBITDA is around $25 million (yes this is an extreme example, but sanity-checking the numbers and figures often results in catching more than a few subtle and not-so-subtle errors). This process works in two ways: first, you are seen as detail-oriented and committed to helping the team win, and second, you can become the go-to-analyst when the team is on a tight schedule, and needs things to be done quickly and accurately.

Familiarize yourself with the deal team (external)

When you are working on a deal that seems to be moving forward, take some time to learn who the participants are: who is/are the company contact(s) and what titles do they hold in the company. Gather their contact information, research the market conditions, niches, and subtleties of the company, if you haven’t already, and research a few of their competitors and whether they have taken the same steps your project company is taking and why? Begin by digging into the company’s (and competitors’) financials, annual reports, recent headlines, analyst reports, etc. When the internal round table discussion comes around to you, it would be worth a gold star to have something relevant to say regarding the company’s choices and that of their competitors, while knowing who is who on the phone or at the table, rather than sitting confused and disoriented (I love gold stars).

Keep track of team deals whether live or pitched

Keep an ongoing log of the pitched, mandated, live and closed deals of your group – frequently members of your team and other teams will want to know, out of curiosity or for presentation purposes (to impress and highlight strengths), what deals your team has recently closed, and are working on. Keeping a library makes it easy to immediately pick out which deals would be relevant to a given team, what we did, how we did it, and what would work in the current market and why. I would recommend highlighting the Sponsor, participants, transaction size, transaction type, timing, fees earned (or potential), industry and sub sector, relevant rating(s) (whether as broad as high yield or specific such as Moody’s – Ba3), and team members working on the deal (down to the analyst level). This is a surefire way to show that you are on the ball, and have a strong interest in the projects your team is working on.

Be a straight shooter

Last, but certainly not least, be a straight shooter. This one is pretty self explanatory, but in short, don’t be a phony, don’t pretend to be interested in activities just to be like everyone else. There is nothing wrong with being original and having your own opinions (see upcoming article: Ugly Duckling to Banking Swan), as long as they are expressed courteously and without offending anyone else’s interests. Once feigning enthusiasm becomes a habit, it becomes hard to tell what you’re really interested in at all – before you know it, everything just seems kind of bland, and you are but another analyst drone.

Like what you’re seeing, drop a comment or shoot me an email with your opinions, criticisms and interesting subject ideas for future posts – I love to hear it all! Also, keep your eye out for future posts, new services and banker news!

I think a far better solution would involve tying compensation to performance in terms on bonus, and only to a degree – to tie 100% will only, in my humble opinion, lead to ultra conservative actions or ultra risky actions – the entire game will lack common sense and shareholder judgment, which is what we are trying to bring back, not move further from. And yes, some employees will still take risks under this alternative, but that is why we have credit committees and supervisory groups to monitor exactly how risky these bankers or traders are becoming – too risky, cut it off. If we can all learn from our mistakes, and not try to fix them by making new ones, maybe we can actually get this machine running again.

Don’t take my word for it though, check out the article on Clusterstock (link is below) – even if you don’t agree, it’s worth a look. As usual, comment away, I love a good debate.

Pay for Performance