Occupy Wallstreeter commits heresy...and gets a job

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**Frazzled**

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/07/us/occupy-wall-street-job/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Ex-Occupier now holds Wall Street job
By Chris Knowles and Raelyn Johnson, CNN
updated 5:38 AM EST, Thu December 8, 2011

Occupy protester gets job on Wall Street
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Tracy Postert was fully committed to the Occupy Wall Street protests, she tells CNN
• The biochemist says she had been looking for work, but couldn't prove it to naysayers
• She showed up at Zuccotti Park with her résumé, and soon had a job offer
• She now researches biotech companies for John Thomas Financial -- on Wall Street
New York (CNN) -- The occupiers of Wall Street have been portrayed by some as radicals, young kids without focus, ne'er-do-wells who'd do anything but get a job. But one woman used her time in at Zuccotti Park differently, and as a result she has gone from Occupy Wall Street to occupying an actual office on Wall Street.
In the gathering of the so-called 99%, Tracy Postert had no idea she would be the one who would be working for the 1%.
"There were some days it was a carnival, or lots of music, drumming, costumes, marching, protesting," said Postert, describing the weeks she spent demonstrating at the park in downtown Manhattan.
Frustrated with the economy, Postert says she jumped right into the Occupy Wall Street movement -- all in -- banging drums and washing paint- and dirt-covered sidewalks.
She sounds like the protester stereotype, but she isn't; she has a doctorate in biochemistry.
In the past few years, the biochemist said, she had found herself at times unemployed or underemployed. Until a few weeks ago she decided to change her protest sign to a "Job Wanted" sign and hunkered down in Zuccotti Park with a handful of résumés.
"Passers-by would say, 'Get a job,' and I didn't have a really good response to that," Postert told CNN.
"I wanted to say, 'Well, I'm trying to get a job,' but you know you can't really prove it." Postert said. "So I said, why don't I make a sign (and prove) that I am actively looking for a job?"
Within two days, she said, someone spotted her. They exchanged e-mails, and an offer followed.
That someone was a top executive at a Wall Street financial firm -- in other words, the enemy.
"It might sound like it's a fish-out-of-water story -- (round) peg in a square hole -- but it's really not," said Wayne Kaufman, a market analyst at John Thomas Financial.
"She was standing there. She had her sign, she had her résumé, and I just passed by her and I chatted with her just for a brief few seconds. And she was obviously an intelligent person," Kaufman said.
"The résumé spoke for itself, it was very impressive," he said. "So, I sent her an e-mail the next day and ... she responded almost immediately.
"I asked her if she wanted to come in for an interview; she said yes. I told her what I had in mind for her according to her skill set, and the rest is just history."
For now, Tracy is researching early stage biotech companies for John Thomas Financial. She says she plans to take a test that would allow her to become a broker, and thus a full-fledged member of the 1%. So what are her former Occupy Wall Street compatriots saying?
"I have been accused of being a traitor to both sides. Some people are saying that the whole time I was at Occupy Wall Street I was really a Wall Street insider," says Postert.
She said she plans on keeping her sign. She pledged to protest again when she finds something she feels is worth protesting.

**Ahtman**

I don't recall part of the OWS demands being that a person must remain jobless; there are a lot of people that support OWS that have jobs. Wanting to see some financial reform doesn't require martyring oneself financially.

Being a broker doesn't make one a part of the 1% either by any stretch of the imagination.

I also don't think it is a shock that there are idiots in the OWS either that would react poorly to the news, nor that they would make up the majority.

**Jihadin**

Only takes a few

**daedalus**

Okay? I support them and I have a job.

Also, how does being a broker make one a part of the 1%? By the same token, I'm tangentially involved in the financial industry. I should be part of the 1% also.

And the story reeks of "not getting it". It's not about not having a job, it's about bringing to light the issues in the system, and getting them fixed. The first thing I thought about as I read this was that leaked memo to the ABA talking about a proposal to "discredit" OWS: http://boingboing.net/2011/11/19/memo-to-american-bankers-assoc.html

The story sort of has that "OWS is just lazy, we WANT you to have jobs. We want you to work for us. That's all this is about. We're the good guys." feel to it.

**Frazzled**

daedalus wrote:Okay? I support them and I have a job.

Also, how does being a broker make one a part of the 1%? By the same token, I'm tangentially involved in the financial industry. I should be part of the 1% also.

And the story reeks of "not getting it". It's not about not having a job, it's about bringing to light the issues in the system, and getting them fixed. The first thing I thought about as I read this was that leaked memo to the ABA talking about a proposal to "discredit" OWS: http://boingboing.net/2011/11/19/memo-to-american-bankers-assoc.html

The story sort of has that "OWS is just lazy, we WANT you to have jobs. We want you to work for us. That's all this is about. We're the good guys." feel to it.

Occupy Wall Street...evil Wall Street bankers are EVIL and should be purged...then she gets a job with evil Wall Street firm.

**SagesStone**

Good for her.

**dogma**

Frazzled wrote:
Occupy Wall Street...evil Wall Street bankers are EVIL and should be purged...then she gets a job with evil Wall Street firm.

Of course, since "Purge the bankers!" is a slogan you invented, I'm not sure how accurate your account of these events are.

**mattyrm**

Like most things people protest about, its not about "the message" its about looking after yourself. There is nothing wrong with that, so why cant people be honest?

Charity workers rarely work for free, they get something out of it for themselves, and Im not talking about a "warm fuzzy feeling"

Policemen dont REALLY care about protecting the innocent, they care about the money and the benefits.

Teachers don't REALLY care about "the kids" they care about the holiday and the pension and the money.

Nurses don't REALLY care about the patients, they care about the money and the benefits.

I mean, there is nothing wrong with that, why the hell do ANY of us go to work? I didn't join the Marines because I care about my country, and I think patriotism is an exercise in idiocy. No, you guessed it, I joined because I thought it might benefit me. (Oh and I get to shoot some foreigners)

That's why I'm not a protester. nobody has any principles these days. At least I'm honest about it. I dislike Islam, but give me a million quid and ill pray 5 times a day to any fether you want me to!

You could buy every single one of the OWS movement.

Offer them $150,000 a year to be a PA for some fat cat banker and they would be shining his shoes faster than you could say "Hippy"

**notprop**

mattyrm wrote: ..............
Offer them $150,000 a year to be a PA for some fat cat banker and they would be shining his shoes faster than you could say "Hippy"

Now that is a reality TV show I would watch.

You could call it "Rags to bitches" or somint.

**Frazzled**

dogma wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Occupy Wall Street...evil Wall Street bankers are EVIL and should be purged...then she gets a job with evil Wall Street firm.

Of course, since "Purge the bankers!" is a slogan you invented, I'm not sure how accurate your account of these events are.

Invented, I shout it every day!

**Da Boss**

Matty, if I didn't care about society and children I would not be a teacher. It isn't the ONLY reason I'm a teacher but there are other jobs I could do where I would have to eat a lot less crap.

On this issue, I don't see the problem. You can work for Wall Street while desiring better regulation of wall street and higher taxes on the top earners. Gotta follow the work and take it where you can get it, doesn't mean your opinions have to change.

**Easy E**

Yup. I support the OWS message, that the system is broken; and I am part of the system.

Crazy I know. Clearly I don't live in a black or white enough world.

**mattyrm**

Da Boss wrote:Matty, if I didn't care about society and children I would not be a teacher.

Well of course you care about it! So do I, and I'm not a teacher. Most people do, and we take the perks (mental or otherwise) as extra's. You know, so you can say "I am helping children" as a bonus, but the main reason your the there is for the salary. I can say "I am helping the country" if I want, but I joined the marines because I had a violent streak, I wanted to travel, I wanted a decent wage, I thought completing commando training would look great on a CV for the future, gak like that. If the salary was half what it was, you got half as much leave, and it looked gak on a CV, I most certainly wouldn't have done it!

My point is, the number one reason we all go to work is because it benefits us. It gets the food, the water, the flat screen TV and the Ipod.

I wasn't slagging off teachers/nurses per se, I just picked that because I thought it was a good example considering the strikes last week. In that I heard a teachers union bloke on radio 2 basically say "Oh we don't want to strike cos we love the kids and that BUT WERE OFF ON STRIKE" And lets get down to brass tacks, what is the pension strike about? Money.

We work for money. Everyone does it, and there is nothing at all wrong with that Is all I was trying to say, because holier than thou fethers who love to talk about morals with their "Im doing this for the principals!" gak, are totally full of it (Look at Arthur scumbag Scargill) and my point about buying them all stands, It was simply this.

Everyone has a price, and if I was in the OWS movement but I got an offer to work a 20 hour week for some fat cat and he was going to pay me 150k a year I would have his hand off and principals be damned. And so would every single bloke sat in a tent in NY/London or anywhere else.

If my brothers boss (Mike Ashley) said he wanted a personal teacher to home school his kids, doing 4 hours a day and the salary was £100,000 a year, would you stick around for "the kids" at your current school?

**asimo77**

I think you're trying to come off as the hardcore cynic but instead you are incredibly naive to think that there does not exist an ounce of altruism in people. In fact I don't think society could really exist without altruistic people. For one, I doubt people would have children or at least even care for them if what you said is true.

**mattyrm**

asimo77 wrote:I think you're trying to come off as the hardcore cynic but instead you are incredibly naive to think that there does not exist an ounce of altruism in people. In fact I don't think society could really exist without altruistic people. For one, I doubt people would have children or at least even care for them if what you said is true.

No I'm not.

Did you read the rest of the thread? I'm not trying to derail the thread, I'm merely saying that it is of no surprise, because ultimately everyone wants to get a good job, and there is nothing wrong with taking the job anyway.

I didn't say "not an ounce" of altruism exists, its the exact opposite. Altruism exists because of our evolution alongside our fellow man, thus we feel bad if we see a crying child, and an unexplainable desire to help it. Empathy is a natural thing, that's why almost everyone feels it, though some far more than others.

What I am saying is that self preservation is however, far more important than principles. If you won a million dollars you might give some to charity, but you wouldn't give ALL of it to starving kids. If you are telling me that you would indeed give every single cent of your million dollar win away to starving African kids, instead of looking after your own kids first, then your being dishonest.

If you got offered a job with ten times the salary of your current one, but it was slightly more morally questionable (working on wall street isn't exactly eating babies, even if you are in the occupy movement) then you would take it. Anyone would.

I suggest you read what I wrote, because I don't think that altruism is rare, I don't think i am a hardcore cynic, and I agree wholeheartedly that a decent society could exist if not a single ounce of goodness occurred in human beings.

**MrDwhitey**

mattyrm wrote:
If you got offered a job with ten times the salary of your current one, but it was slightly more morally questionable (working on wall street isn't exactly eating babies, even if you are in the occupy movement) then you would take it. Anyone would.

Quite simply, nope.

Most probably would though.

**mattyrm**

MrDwhitey wrote:
mattyrm wrote:
If you got offered a job with ten times the salary of your current one, but it was slightly more morally questionable (working on wall street isn't exactly eating babies, even if you are in the occupy movement) then you would take it. Anyone would.

Quite simply, nope.

Most probably would though.

What do you do for a living?

**MrDwhitey**

That has no bearing whatsoever.

Neither does the inevitable "Well I bet you would if offered" (which I would, frankly).

When you stated "Anyone" though, you were wrong. That's all.

**mattyrm**

MrDwhitey wrote:That has no bearing whatsoever.

Neither does the inevitable "Well I bet you would if offered" (which I would, frankly).

When you stated "Anyone" though, you were wrong. That's all.

Oh ok. Almost anyone then.

Anyone with sense!

**J-Roc77**

Is that the job the 1% are creating? Excuse me, I meant to say jobs. The article has a feel that it is more of a feel good we're not so bad vibe. Is it really newsworthy, a person looking for a job got a job and a company with a need filled a need? It does nothing for the 1% or the 99% really. Slow news day I guess? Now if the company hired a large percentage of the people outside then that's pretty cool!

**asimo77**

"We work for money. Everyone does it, and there is nothing at all wrong with that Is all I was trying to say, because holier than thou fethers who love to talk about morals with their "Im doing this for the principals!" gak, are totally full of it (Look at Arthur scumbag Scargill) and my point about buying them all stands, It was simply this."

This right here seems to suggest that no one would ever turn down a lucrative job because it doesn't coincide with their morals. Maybe I'm not understanding what you wrote but it seems like you don't think it's possible for someone to refuse an offer or sacrifice in order to do good. Also this seems to suggest that everyone who claims to be good is really a liar.

"If you got offered a job with ten times the salary of your current one, but it was slightly more morally questionable (working on wall street isn't exactly eating babies, even if you are in the occupy movement) then you would take it. Anyone would."

See this here is the assumption that is just silly. I cannot understand why it is so hard for you to imagine a scenario where someone turns down a job because they do not like what it entails, regardless of the paycheck.

"I agree wholeheartedly that a decent society could exist if not a single ounce of goodness occurred in human beings."

I'm not sure if you made a typo or I my reading comprehension is off today, but are you saying society could exist without altruism? Because I said the opposite.

"Oh ok. Almost anyone then.

Anyone with sense!"

This addendum makes your position a whole lot more defensible.

**Mr Hyena**

I don't care for either group, but I do wish the '99%' would stop saying they speak for me. Thats kind of arrogant.

Good luck to the person who got a job though. Thats all that matters.

**CT GAMER**

mattyrm wrote:

Charity workers rarely work for free, they get something out of it for themselves, and Im not talking about a "warm fuzzy feeling"

Teachers don't REALLY care about "the kids" they care about the holiday and the pension and the money.

I can only speak to these two from experience, but as usual your desire to speak in broad generalizations is far from accurate...

**xxmatt85**

Occupers what occupers? *Hears loud explosion follow by sceams and gunfire* Oh those occupers.

**Jihadin**

WHAT!?!?! No sounds of the water cannon?

**xxmatt85**

Jihadin wrote:WHAT!?!?! No sounds of the water cannon?

You know the cost of water now a days.

**CptJake**

xxmatt85 wrote:
Jihadin wrote:WHAT!?!?! No sounds of the water cannon?
You know the cost of water now a days.

Think of it as gov't provided baths.

**Jihadin**

Think of it as gov't provided baths

Its so on...DDAAMMMNNN THSE FIREMEN!!!! Well...they got teenagers which is even better

**Miraclefish**

Impressive initiative. And surely the only way to radically alter an institution like Wall Street is for a new generation of free-thinking people to become a part and steer positive changes?

Or are people hoping that one day the bankers will snap and go 'you know what, that guy with the jester's hat and vuvuzela who's riding round on a unicycle outside with a sign is right, I'm going to change my ways effective immediately. For the first 453 days, I disagreed but today I repent."...?

**Jihadin**

Impressive initiative. And surely the only way to radically alter an institution like Wall Street is for a new generation of free-thinking people to become a part and steer positive changes?

Some of those older Wall Streeters protested the Vietnam War to