I worked at a private equity firm – THIS is why Ivy League graduates are so successful
A former secretary who worked at a private equity firm has revealed the real reason why Ivy League graduates succeed.
TikTok user @wonteyem went viral after opening up about her experience working with young Ivy League graduates who were making $250,000 or more a year by age 20.
she sewed the video in response to user @venusbleeds, who joked that “People who grew up with money will literally look you in the eye and ask something crazy like, ‘Did you ski?
The secretary took the opportunity to share some insight into how the rich and wealthy think, and according to her, everything, including college, is all about making the right connections.
TikTok user @wonteyem went viral after opening up about her experience working with young Ivy League graduates as a secretary at a private equity firm.
He stitched up the video in response to user @@venusbleeds, who joked that rich people will “literally look you in the eye and ask something crazy like, ‘Do you ski?'”
The secretary took the opportunity to share some insight into how the rich and wealthy think, and according to her, everything, including college, is all about making the right connections.
“Let’s talk about rich people and how the elite have realized this long before any of us thought about things,” he said.
She recalled how she worked at a “high-end private equity firm in New York” that was friends with all the other equity firms that are now in the news “because they’re the ones pulling the strings.”
“It was normal for me to ask someone who was right next to me, ‘Should we take a helicopter to the private jet location, so they can catch their jet on time? What should we do? “That kind of place,” she said of the company’s culture.
“Now I’m an overpaid secretary at this place, and I’m friends with a lot of the associates, who are very young people who have come from all the Ivy League schools to work at this company.”
The secretary said one of the associates came up to her one day and started talking about how she was deciding whether she should go to Yale or Stanford for graduate school.
‘I know, big problems, right? He was an associate, so he was going to get the master’s degree from him. He had just finished his degree and I was in the middle stages of it,” he explained.
The secretary recalled how a 23-year-old partner approached her one day and started talking about how she was deciding whether she should go to Yale or Stanford for graduate school.
She said that he was making $250,000 a year and told him that “grad school is just one big party.”
‘He was like, ‘Um, you don’t go to school because of the school jerk. You go to these Ivy League schools for the connections,’ he said.
‘Then I started talking about how I thought about going to grad school, but I just didn’t have it in me. I’m a secretary. Remember that,” she noted.
“He laughs and goes, ‘Oh yeah. Well, that’s okay because grad school is just one big party anyway.”
She remembered looking at him in shock.
“I’m like, ‘You graduated from any other Ivy League college, and now you’re making $250,000 at age 23, and now you’re going to grad school and it’s going to be one hell of a party? It makes sense,” she said.
And he said, “Um, you don’t go to school for the school idiot. You go to these Ivy League schools for the connections.”
I learned a very powerful lesson that day.
The secretary’s video has been viewed more than 862,000 times and has received hundreds of comments.
The secretary said she ‘learned a very powerful lesson that day’
The secretary’s video has been viewed more than 862,000 times, with many commenters sharing other places where people make elite connections.
‘I 100% believe this. It’s not the grades you get, it’s the hands you shake,” one person responded.
‘So true,’ another agreed. ‘The rich aren’t smart, they’re just well connected.’
I went to an Ivy. There are two groups. Super smart kids and rich kids. Rich kids are almost always in business or in law. Smart kids are STEM’ added someone else.
Several commenters also shared other places where people make elite connections, including private schools and sports.
‘There is an even better way to get these connections. Send your children to private schools and play sports. Trust me,’ one viewer advised.
‘plus get [your] kids into sports that the rich are into. Golf, polo, rowing, canoeing… ya da ya da’, added someone else.