{"id":257123,"date":"2026-01-25T16:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T16:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/257123\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T16:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T16:38:08","slug":"gen-z-oxford-grad-turned-down-mckinsey-and-morgan-stanley-to-find-out-why-students-keep-selling-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/257123\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z Oxford grad turned down McKinsey and Morgan Stanley to find out why students keep selling out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vice-chancellor stood at the podium in Oxford\u2019s Sheldonian Theatre, her voice echoing against the carved ceiling: Now go out there and change the world. Robes rustled. Cameras clicked. Rows of classmates smiled, clutching degrees that would soon deliver them to McKinsey<\/a>, Goldman Sachs, and Clifford Chance: the holy trinity of elite exit plans.<\/p>\n

Simon van Teutem clapped, too, but for him, the irony was unbearable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew where everyone was going,\u201d he said in an interview with Fortune. \u201cEveryone did. Which made it worse\u2014we were all pretending not to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Career paths for the elite have indeed consolidated over the last half-century. In the 1970s, one in twenty Harvard graduates<\/a> went into careers of the likes of finance or consulting. Twenty years later, that jumped to one in four. Last year, half of Harvard graduates <\/a>took jobs in finance, consulting or Big Tech. Salaries have similarly soared: Data from the senior exit survey<\/a> for the Class of 2024 shows 40% of employed graduates accepted first-year salaries exceeding US $110,000, and among those entering consulting or investment banking nearly three-quarters crossed that threshold.<\/p>\n

Months after that ceremony, van Teutem received two of those kinds of offers: a job at McKinsey or Morgan Stanley<\/a>. Instead, at 22, he turned both down and spent three years working with Dutch news outlet De Correspondent<\/a> writing a book about the subtle gravitational pull that makes such decisions feel inevitable.<\/p>\n

Van Teutem took on the project after watching the prestige treadmill siphon talented, creative kids into trivial work\u2014and then close the door behind them. Everyone always says they\u2019re just doing their banking job just to get their foot in the door, he noted, but they always end up staying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese firms cracked the psychological code of the insecure overachiever,\u201d Van Teutem said, \u201cand then built a self-reinforcing system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why does everyone go into consulting?<\/p>\n

The book<\/a>, The Bermuda Triangle of Talent, grew out of personal frustration. A longtime nerd who was fascinated by economics and politics, he had arrived at Oxford as an undergraduate in 2018 determined, in his words, \u201cto do something good with my talents and privileges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within two years, he was interning at BNP Paribas<\/a> and then Morgan Stanley, falling asleep at his desk working on mergers and acquisitions with the intensity of \u201csaving babies from a burning house.\u201d<\/p>\n

His discomfort wasn\u2019t with the work itself \u2014 he isn\u2019t one of the Gen-Zers who thinks all corporations are \u201cevil,\u201d he insisted. \u201cI just thought that the work was fairly trivial or mundane.\u201d \u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

At McKinsey, where he interned next, the work seemed more polished but no less hollow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surrounded by rocket scientists who could build really cool stuff,\u201d he said, \u201cbut they were just building simple Excel models or reverse-engineering toward conclusions we already wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

He declined the full-time offers and instead began interviewing the people who hadn\u2019t. Over three years, he spoke with 212 bankers, consultants, and corporate lawyers\u2014from interns to partners\u2014to understand how so many high-achieving graduates drift into jobs they privately despise. The damage, he concluded, wasn\u2019t villainy, or even greed, but lost potential: \u201cThe real harm is in the opportunity cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Money, he found, wasn\u2019t the magnet, at least not at first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the initial pull, most elite graduates don\u2019t decide based on salary,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the illusion of infinite choice, and the social status.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Oxford, that illusion was everywhere. Banks and consultancies dominated career fairs; governments and NGOs appeared as afterthoughts. He remembers his first brush with the system: BNP Paribas hosting a dinner at a fine restaurant in Oxford for \u201ctop students.\u201d He applied because he was broke and wanted a free meal and ended up interning there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game we\u2019re trained to play,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re hardwired that way. You\u2019re always looking for the next level, the Harvard after Harvard, the Oxford after Oxford.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time many graduates realize that there is no gold star at the end\u2014that the next level is simply higher pay and longer slide decks\u2014it\u2019s already too late. Most people believe they can leave the corporate world after two or three years to follow their dreams, but very few actually do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least I can buy my children a house\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200bHe tells the story of \u201cHunter McCoy,\u201d a pseudonym for a man who once wanted to work in politics or at a think tank, to illustrate the point. McCoy imagined a future career in advocacy. Fresh out of university, McCoy joined a white-shoe law firm and told himself he\u2019d stay two, maybe three years, just long enough to pay off his student loans. He even had a name for the finish line: his \u201cf\u2013k you number.\u201d That was the sum that would buy him freedom to pursue policy work.<\/p>\n

But freedom, it turned out, was a moving target. Living in an expensive city, surrounded by colleagues who billed a hundred hours a week and ordered cabs home at midnight, McCoy was always the poorest man in the room. Each bonus, each new title, pushed his number a little higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trap tightened slowly. First came the mortgage, then the renovations, then the quiet creep of what has been called<\/a> \u201clifestyle inflation.\u201d You buy a nice apartment, you want a good kitchen. If you buy the kitchen, you want the knife set that goes with it. Every new comfort demanded another upgrade, another late night at the office to keep it all intact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh income stimulates high expenses,\u201d van Teutem said. \u201cAnd high expenses breed more high expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

By his mid-forties, McCoy was still in the same firm, still telling himself he would leave soon. But the years had calcified into guilt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I never saw my children, because I was always working so hard, I told myself no, I want to continue for a few more years,\u201d McCoy told van Teutem. \u201cBecause then at least I can buy my children a house in return for me missing out on so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The saddest part, he said, was McCoy\u2019s uncertainty about what would remain if he ever walked away.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me he wasn\u2019t sure his wife would stay with him,\u201d van Teutem said quietly. \u201cThis was the life she\u2019d signed up for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confession struck him as both raw and deeply tragic, a glimpse of how ambition hardens into captivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me happy I didn\u2019t go into it,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause you think you can trust yourself with these decisions. But you may not be the same person three years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long shadow of Reagan, Thatcher, and the Big Three<\/p>\n

What van Teutem describes, however, is part of a systemwide phenomenon that\u2019s been decades in the making.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That explosive growth of what researchers<\/a> call \u201ccareer funneling,\u201d where students narrow down only two or three industries that are socially deemed prestigious enough to work in, runs in tandem with the financialization and deregulation turn Western economies took in the second half of the 20th century. The neoliberal revolution, driven by former President Ronald Reagan in the United States and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, expanded capital markets enough to create whole new industries out of manipulating financial instruments; thus, exploding the finance industry.<\/a>\u00a0 At the same time, governments and corporations began outsourcing expertise to private firms under the banner of market efficiency, giving birth to the modern consulting industry. (The last of today\u2019s \u201cBig Three\u201d consulting firms was founded as recently a<\/a>s 1973.)<\/p>\n

As these firms captured an ever greater share of the nation\u2019s profits, they became synonymous with meritocracy itself: exclusive, data-driven, and ostensibly apolitical. They offered graduates not just jobs, but a sense of belonging and identity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another quieter trap, here, too: the cost of living in the big cities has never been higher. In cities like New York and London\u2014the gravitational centers of global finance\u2014living comfortably has become a luxury good. A 2025 SmartAsset study<\/a> found a single adult in New York now needs about $136,000 a year to live comfortably. In London, a single person needs around \u00a33,000 to \u00a33,500 a month just to cover basic living, transportation, and housing expenses, and financial advisers now say<\/a> a \u00a360,000 salary merely buys relative comfort \u2013 the ability to save and not live paycheck to paycheck \u2013 an amount that only 4% of British graduates expect to make <\/a>coming out of university.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How many early-career jobs pay more than $136k, or \u00a360k a year? If a 22-year-old comes out of college with the natural desire to explore the big city, a la Friends or Sex in the City, but doesn\u2019t have the cushion of parental support, they have to be within the narrow band of roles that clear the threshold.\u00a0 That means many careers only begin by chasing a salary level rather than pursuing mission-driven work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How to escape the golden handcuffs<\/p>\n

Van Teutem doesn\u2019t think the solution lies in moral awakening so much as in design.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can gear institutions toward change or toward risk-taking,\u201d he said. His favorite example is Y Combinator<\/a>, the Silicon Valley accelerator that since its founding in 2004 has turned a few dozen nerds with ideas into companies now worth roughly $800 billion\u2014\u201cmore than the Belgian economy,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\u00a0YC worked because it reduced the cost of risk: small checks, fast feedback, and a culture that made failure survivable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIn Europe,\u201d he added, \u201cwe do a really bad job at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governments, he argues, can do the same. In the 1980s, Singapore began competing directly with businesses for top graduates, offering early job offers, and eventually linking senior civil service pay to private-sector salaries. Controversial, sure, but it built a state that could keep its best talent.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit world has learned similar lessons. Teach First<\/a> in the U.K. and Teach for America <\/a>copied consulting\u2019s recruitment tactics\u2014selective cohorts, \u201cleadership program\u201d branding, fast responsibility\u2014to lure elite students into classrooms instead of boardrooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey use the exact tricks from McKinsey and Morgan Stanley,\u201d van Teutem said, \u201cnot as charity, but as a springboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Material pressures still distort those choices. In the U.S., unemployment is soaring for recent college grads<\/a> as the labor market slackens.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

He hopes that universities and employers copy the YC model: lower the downside, raise the prestige of trying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made risk-taking a privilege,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the real problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on October 26, 2025.<\/p>\n

More on Gen-Z in the workforce:<\/p>\n

Gen-Z is facing a \u2018readiness paradox\u2019 that is crippling them at work and on dates<\/a> <\/p>\n

BoFA is asking<\/a>, \u2018Dude, where\u2019s my job?\u2019<\/p>\n

Jensen Huang says<\/a> six-figure-jobs are about to open up for Gen-Z because of data centers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The vice-chancellor stood at the podium in Oxford\u2019s Sheldonian Theatre, her voice echoing against the carved ceiling: Now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,4195,33443,243,110272,268,18379,85,23405,46,23189,8457,20625,30570],"class_list":["post-257123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-colleges-and-universities","tag-consulting","tag-education","tag-evergreen-refresh","tag-finance","tag-harvard-university","tag-il","tag-investment-banking","tag-israel","tag-kpmg","tag-law","tag-mckinsey","tag-oxford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}