How not to get attention

A word to the wise: If you are applying for a job in the investment-banking industry (or anywhere else for that matter), and you come up with the bright idea of putting together a kind of video introduction as part of your application, try not to make it a howlingly funny tribute to yourself, complete with pompous comments about leadership, clips of you bench-pressing 475 pounds (allegedly), ballroom dancing and smashing bricks with your hand.

vayner

If you ignore this advice, as Aleksey Vayner did, you will be begging for ridicule. And in a world that gave us the Star Wars Kid, the Tron guy, the Numa Numa dance and many other even more embarrassing moments, ridicule is more than happy to come your way with or without the begging. Then the New Yorker will pick it up and expand on it to an even greater extent, and eventually the New York Times will jump on the bandwagon, and you will be the laughing-stock of North America, if not the world.

Maybe investment banking isn’t ready for Aleksey, but there’s a spot for him somewhere on reality TV, I guarantee. Maybe a televised version of Dilbert’s Topper character?

Update:

Check my comments for one from Jay Maynard — also known as The Tron Guy.

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