Tombstone with Goldman Sach's logo with a rose in front.

My first job after college was as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. The three years I spent there were very long — time plays tricks on you when you're working 100 hours a week — and very unhappy. But they were also very formative. I learned how to think about how a business makes money. I learned how to work really hard. I learned how not to be intimidated. And I acquired a deep and lasting paranoia of being even a minute late, a mindset that is familiar to anyone who has been a junior analyst at Goldman, and one that my friends today find equal parts baffling and amusing.