The fund is based on interviews with people who were pretty senior there. I mean, they no longer do, and the book is clearly giving things a negative light, but you can learn a lot from it about who can give who 'Brutal Feedback' and how a utopian vision becomes a dystopia for people further down the chain.
I did work there for two years within the investment engine - the old school core. It was a very transformative two years both as a professional and as a person so I got what I came for.
I got fired. That sounds "bad" but part of working there is that you have to be sober about the reality and are willing to just engage with it as is.
The reality is that my department was people-rich and pretty mature, so when COVID hit and the company looked to lean up, it looked to my area to trim. Out of my peer group, I am pretty sure I was the least valuable (I am excellent at what I do but I was the lest excellent in my peer group there) so I was let go.
It was technically a lay-off but I am sober about the fact that I was chosen for the layoff because of my relative performance, which makes sense.
(FWIW I was given a very comfortable severance package, I would even say very generous and I suspect some of that generosity was because I had recently had a child. While BW is a place that is "brutal" in terms of high expectations and feedback, it absolutely took care of people in this way.)
The fund is based on interviews with people who were pretty senior there. I mean, they no longer do, and the book is clearly giving things a negative light, but you can learn a lot from it about who can give who 'Brutal Feedback' and how a utopian vision becomes a dystopia for people further down the chain.