Professional Joke (Consulting)

“The Promise of the Interview”

SA

Quechee, VT

November 4, 2020

Informant Data:

SA was born on September 23, 1999 in Parsippany, NJ and has lived there all his life. Both of his parents immigrated to the United States from India for graduate school, and have spent the rest of their lives in the U.S. since then. They continue to identify with the Indian culture, and SA grew up under the strong influence of their culture. He has one brother, Ashwin, who is two years younger. SA is currently a senior at Dartmouth College. He is a computer science and Quantitative Social Sciences major. SA has spent the past several years taking classes, traveling throughout Asia, and working for KPMG, Yelp, and Bain & Co. After graduating Dartmouth, he has committed to working in consulting at Bain & Co. as an associate consultant in New York City.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Bain & Co. (San Francisco) is considered one of the nation’s best consulting firms. It draws its employees from the top universities around the world. They go through a rigorous on-campus recruiting process during which time campus recruiters glamorize the job, describing its many perks and potential for intellectual engagement. It’s also made clear to potential employees that consulting for Bain & Co. is extremely prestigious, and every position inherently occupies a position of power over the firms they advise.

Social Context: SA spent 3 months working as an associate consultant at McKinsey & Co. in San Francisco over the summer of 2020. He will continue working for them full-time in 2021 after graduating Dartmouth. At the time, SA worked remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic that was spreading across the country. His work took place from home, and his interactions with colleagues occurred over virtual messaging and video chat platforms. This joke occurred in one such virtual environment; it was sent in a group chat of first-year summer consultants. It first occurred on one occasion when these associates bonded over the contrast between their shared background at elite educational institutions, in which they constantly push themselves intellectually, and the reality of the day-to-day menial tasks they were assigned on the job. It was then subsequently shared among them any time that same subject would come up.

Item:

Collector’s Notes:

• This joke contrasts the prestige and intellectual promise of the consulting position with the boring tasks typically assigned to new interns and associates.

Tags: 

• Jokes
• Referential humor
• Consulting

 

Delphine Jrolf

Dartmouth College

RUSS 13

Fall 2020