BankersBall chats with Amit Chatwani of Leveraged Sellout on banking and his new book, Damn, It Feels Good To Be a Banker. More

We get straight talk from two recruiters about the current job market and how to suss out opportunities. More

This week we interview professional beach bum Hans Keeling, who said goodbye to a life of corporate drudgery a few years ago, started his own business in Brazil and never looked back.

Q: To make a long story short, you used to be a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, but now you own Nexus Surf, a surf/adventure travel company based in Florianopolis, Brazil. Tell us about how you went from an idea to something concrete.

A: Wow, where to start… Well, I took a job at S&C as a summer associate in 1999 and stayed on full-time until early 2004, so I had a couple years under my belt to get a good feel for the industry. I worked in M&A and securities, which as everyone reading this knows isn’t an easy field to be in. But in a weird and semi-sadomasochistic way, I enjoyed my work and definitely feel like I learned a lot about discipline, multi-tasking and professionalism (which I basically define as managing to successfully waking up at 6am after less than one hour’s sleep, shaving without cutting your own throat and making it to the airport in time for your flight out to the next due diligence or printer’s session on a semi-regular basis). Most important of all though, I learned what I didn’t want out of a career and work/life balance in the long run, and this gave me the resolve to actually make a change in my situation. Re: the change itself, the real difficulty in going from idea to action is overcoming the mental roadblocks that make getting started so difficult. We’ve all heard colleagues (if not ourselves) bitch and moan about the downsides of the job, or day dreaming about a million odd-ball occupations that one “might” be able to do well. More

This week we grill David Bledin, the author of the Bitter Investment Banker email as well as a new book expanding on similar themes, Bank.

WARNING: the below contains graphic and distinctly unglamorous descriptions of junior investment banking life, and may not be suitable for all readers, especially those aspiring to careers in finance.

Q: Let’s talk about the Bitter Investment Banker email – the genesis for Bank. When did you write that email?
A: I wrote the e-mail about ten months in, after a particularly bleak week of almost-all-nighters. The almost-all-nighters, when you work until 5 or 6 in the morning, are the worst of the bunch. With bonafide-all-nighters, the senior staff typically come in, see you in the same shirt you were wearing the day before, and send you home for a few precious hours of rest. But with almost-all-nighters, you’ve had an hour or two to go home, slip in a tiny stretch of comatose sleep, before the brutal ringing of your alarm clock, a quick wank and a shave, and then you’re back in your cube without anybody taking obvious pity on you, since you’re freshly groomed. So you’re stuck for another 14-hour shift.

Q: Weren’t you afraid you were going to get fired, or did you just not care at that point?
A: I didn’t care. I stopped caring about four months in. You should have seen my corporate e-mail outbox before I left, a lot of subject headers along the lines of “I’d rather gouge my eyeballs out with a paperclip than have to stick around for another six months.” Even though the “Bitter” e-mail was sent out anonymously, my firm was able to trace it back to me, and a colleague relayed that HR did eventually comb through these rather blatant and crude e-mails. But at that point I was already safely ensconced in a new city, so I didn’t care.

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This week we talk with James Buckley, European fund manager by day, novelist by night, about his new book, Celebrate Myself, a book that ”penetrates the hallowed halls of business school academia to reveal a simmering world of unbridled lust and unchecked ambition. When tragedy strikes during a riotous evening on the town, the students’ entangled lives become irreversibly altered. Amidst the recrimination and despair surrounding unfolding events, powerful lessons are learned that could never be taught in any classroom.”

Q: First, great title. What’s the relationship between this little known “shoegazing” genre of music that the title is presumably based on, your own beliefs, and MBA-types?
A: Thanks. Shoegazing was described as “the scene that celebrates itself”, hence the title, which I thought had a great read across for MBAs and in particular, the angle I wanted to give the novel. It was also a chance to link two very disparate themes.

Q: Let’s talk about the book itself. From reading Chapter 1 online, I’m reminded of Brett Easton Ellis’ characters and the satire of Tom Wolfe. Where do you put yourself?
A: I read both authors, so that’s extremely flattering! The idea was to write a readable story that people could relate to, even if they’d not done an MBA or ever listened to a Slowdive record in their life. I wanted to end up with a fast-paced black comedy, which isn’t to be taken too seriously, but nevertheless does make some points about the huge self-importance of the business school industry.

Q: And what are those points?
A: I guess they’re found in the tone of the novel, which is very cynical, particularly towards business schools’ tendency towards pomposity. This is a work of fiction though, not a critique of the global business school marketplace. Nothing turns a reader off as quickly as an editorialising writer.

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It’s the time of year where you may not only be forced to hang out with your family, but your dreaded in-laws or in-laws to be. Isn’t it funny how f’kd up other people’s families can be? But for those of you with bfs/gfs from a different background, these are dangerous times — you’re like a fish out of water, a banker out of of his cubicle, if you will. B.A., our controversial resident WASP, has some tips for those of you who have to spend your X-mas among the white-bread, freckle-faced crowd, and to do it with elan.

Q: First, B.A., where do WASPs celebrate Christmas? Where will they take me????

A: You will most likely be getting on the MetroNorth to New England. New England is the breeding ground for the WASP of the nation, and almost every WASP in the country was either born in this area, or is second generation from this area. Prime real estate areas include: Greenwich, CT Wellesley, MA and Manhasset, NY to name a few. Also, the Main Line areas of Pennsylvania, as well as the Eastern Shore areas of Maryland and DC are WASPalicious too.

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Q: What’s the background check like?
A: For mid/high ranking people, you hire a private eye, police records, all that.

Q: Really? Wow. What about junior level people?
A: At [bulge bracket bank], they do a thorough background check. Any new hires are thoroughly investigated. It’s a regulated industry so they have to do it.

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What’s it like working for a hedge fund … in Tokyo? Read on.

Q: Do you speak Japanese? Do you need to?
A: Speaking the local lingo certainly helps although it is a very difficult language to master for a foreigner like myself. Speaking some Japanese certainly helps when ordering drinks or telling the cab driver where you want to go. In Tokyo most streets have no names so it is crucial to be able to describe the way to the taxi driver if you want to make it home after a night in Roppongi.

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Q: So all interviews must start out with the nitty gritty. Are you working more hours now that you moved back to NYC from California?

A: Slightly more. was 60-65, now 65-75.

Q: There are no good burritos in NYC. True/False?

A: False, but they’re hard to find.

Q: What exactly goes in an awesome California style burrito?

A: For sure, probably the normal stuff plus some Mexican authenticity, love & special sauces; the cuisine doesn’t have to travel as far and therefore isn’t as corrupted or mutated (I realize that I can’t actually defend this argument, but it may have some, though little, merit).

Q: When you say you used to live in San Francisco, does everyone automatically assume you’re gay?

A: Not everyone, but a few people have, including my apartment broker. More

Q: How does one get a job in P.E.? What’s the typical track? More