Occupy Wall Street?

This one goes out to everyone who saw this and went “BADASS”

In case any of you out there still thought that jobs were awarded purely on merit, think again! 

Tess Amodeo-Vickery ’07, writing for GOOD (which counts among its associate editors none other than Nona Aronowitz ’06), lays it out for us, stating, “I got my job on Wall Street by making a Father’s Day card” (yeah, I know what you’re thinking).

Her post comes in response to a theory recently posited by Ezra Klein (of the Washington Post) that jobs on Wall Street remain popular among graduates of elite universities because of the “weakness in liberal arts education” (that is to say, that class you took on “Japanese Horror Fiction and Film” did not exactly leave you with a marketable skill set).

In his mind, Wall Street—like the sympathetic, “vampire squid” that it is—soothingly jams its blood funnel into the inner workings of your post-college confusion until you passively submit to the familiarity of its application process (who doesn’t miss the days of the Common App?) and the “practical graduate school” environment it offers (plus, you get to make $$$!—ok, fine, he gives Teach for America a two-line shout-out, too).

But back to the illustrious Ms. Amodeo-Vickery.

Using the assertiveness and self-confidence afforded her by her time at Wesleyan (not to mention the “networking skills” which allowed her to “skip the formal application” process), she landed a coveted spot (though she didn’t know she was vying for it) as a Business Development Analyst (yeah, that’s what I told my kindergarten teacher I wanted to be, too).

In the end, she left with her head held high… oh, that and a bulked-up savings account accompanied by a “status of position that’s important in hypercritical New York.”

Then again, she now runs a magazine and sings jazz professionally all over Europe.

So, cheer up seniors! At least you get to hear the lasting wisdom of one of the co-sponsors of PIPA. And hey, it could always be worse, I suppose.