The Running of the Bulls - Hardcover

Nicole Ridgeway

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067005867X ISBN 13: 9780670058679

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2006

Synopsis

Forbes journalist Nicole Ridgway takes an up-close look at the stressful and ultra-competitive job- hunting process at the world-famous Wharton School as seniors vie for coveted positions at top investment banks and consulting firms, and attempt to become the next generation of Wall Street power brokers. The #1 ranked Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania is the only Ivy League undergraduate business program in the country, the alma mater of such moguls as Donald Trump, junk-bond king Michael Milken, and Revlon CEO Ron Perelman, and each year it graduates five hundred overachievers all striving to become the new barons of Wall Street. The Running of the Bulls is the first intimate look inside this unique institution, and Ridgway presents an unforgettable portrait of a culture in which a $120,000 education is an investment that needs to produce immediate results—and not landing a job at a prestigious bank like Goldman Sachs is the ultimate failure.

About this title

Review

Partly a coming-of-age tale, partly a survey of job options for recent college graduates at the high end of society's bell curve, and partly a snapshot of a particular school and its culture, The Running of the Bulls offers many things to different readers. The book centers on stories gleaned by journalist Nicole Ridgway during the 2003-2004 school year from undergraduate students at Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania's business program. Ridgway certainly succeeds in getting close to the students: at times, the narrative feels like reality TV in literary format. Readers are treated to gritty, in-depth narratives around career searches by six Wharton students.

The six students profiled by Ridgway are intended as a cross-section of the overall Wharton class: hungry, ambitious, and surprisingly career-oriented for such young people. Hippies these are not. Readers follow the six students as they pursue entry-level assignments at the elite fixtures of modern American business: investment banking on Wall Street (for example, Goldman Sachs and Lazard Freres, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers); industry (L'Oreal, Johnson and Johnson, General Mills, Microsoft); entrepreneurism ("One Stop College Shop"); nonprofits (Peace Corps, IMF, and World Bank); and of course, consulting (McKinsey, Bain, BCG). The diversity of the six students' career considerations, as well as their gender and ethnic mix will lead many readers to find one or another of the characters with whom they feel most sympathetic.

The book's strength lies in its rich detail: students who've recently gone through or will go through the job-hunting process will easily recognize Ridgway's stories about nerve-wracking interviews, the negotiating dance around job offers, and the experience of internships. In particular, students who want a feel for the Penn campus and the Wharton program will relish the details of the physical environment, as well as the sometimes blow-by-blow accounts of interviews faced by the eager-beaver job seekers. If you want to understand what kinds of interview questions Microsoft asks its college hires, or how white-shoe Wall Street firms treat their summer interns after the offer letters are signed and first-day orientation ends, this book is for you. That said, Ridgway supplements this anecdotal detail with macro-level perspective, too. HR professionals and currently employed workers, for example, may be interested in the average compensation of Wharton graduates in 2003-2004--an impressive $50K base salary, and nearly $20K in various bonuses.

Running with the Bulls follows a chronological format, so that readers follow the six students through the school year. Starting with resume submission, going through interviews, in some cases trying internships, and then ultimately ending with full-time jobs, the Wharton class's experiences show the ups and downs faced by young career seekers. In the end, entrepreneurs and nonprofit fans may be disappointed, but perhaps not surprised, to find that all six of the book's subjects, end up in Establishment-oriented jobs, but with this story, the journey, rather than the proverbial final destination, proves to be the most interesting part. --Peter Han

From the Back Cover

"Ridgway describes the trials and tribulations of a handful of undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious school as they race through senior year."
—THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

"An anthropological study of the habits and customs of a subspecies of Homo sapiens training to be masters of the universe. . . . Compelling."
—THE BOSTON GLOBE

"On the money. . . . An enjoyable read for those seeking a risk-free taste of Wharton or for those interested in learning about the arduous path to a Wall Street career."
—FORBES.COM

"If you crave to emulate the ‘Greed is good’ battle cry emitted by Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street, you may want to pursue The Running of the Bulls. . . . It follows seven Wharton School members of the class of 2004 in their single-minded quests in the Big Apple."
—NATIONAL POST (TORONTO)

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 067005867X
• ISBN 13: 9780670058679
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304