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Couple adapts post-Bear Stearns
Justin Brannan, left, was a touring punk rock musician before he landed at Bear Stearns. He and his fiancee, Leigh Holliday, have struggled at times to find work since the takeover.
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For some, the motivation to leave Wall Street is the same one that drew them to Wall Street in the first place: money.
No one dreams of being a stock broker. They dream of making a lot of money BY being a stock broker.
That said, no one got a free ride at Bear and I know a lot of folks who say the camaraderie at Bear was very unique.
I have a feeling the story was edited and came out sounding a certain way.
There's no way Justin will make more money at a non-profit. The collapse of Bear has made many people reassess their life and livelihood and taking a job at a non-profit means he wants to do something he can feel good about.
I feel I learned the most about Justin with his final comments that he is now working at a non-profit because it is holds close to his beliefs. He also feels he can make more money at the non-profit then he did at Bear. Kind of sounds like he is not missing working at Bear he is just missing the money.
Scott, I'd hate to say it but it sounds like sour grapes. Perhaps the story was edited in a way to sound as if these two "took the money and ran" but I don't think it was that easy and moreso, I think the crux of the story was that these two particular people (and many at Bear) came from a left-of-center background which may enabled them to surf the storm more deftly than others who were groomed more typically with MBA's and whatnot. Whether you worked for 12 years to get where you were or whether these guys stepped in you know what, is irrelevant. No one had a free ride at Bear Stearns. These two included. Hard work by smart people who wanted to be rich is what drove that firm.
Its hard for someone like me who actually studied for my career and does technical work with public saftey in mind, and took 12 years to finally earn 6 digits to hear about these guys (and the 1000's like them) who walk in off the street, move some numbers around on a spread sheet and walk out with almost the same pay that took me 12 years to earn. Yes it could be the green eye monster, but its also called career value, and the value of the dollar. To many people earning boo-coo money for doing little or nothing. VP at 30 - get real - if you dont value the dollar you devalue it - and look what happened.
I loved this piece. Bear truly was the rebel/outsider firm. They had this thing called "PSD" it meant "Poor, Smart and Determind to be rich". They would say that having a PSD was more important than having an MBA. Oh, and that watch he's wearing is a Bell & Ross. It's a $6,000 watch.
