When JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon was graduating from Harvard Business School in 1982, he had turned down some lucrative offers from Wall Street investment banks to take a lower-paying job.
Speaking at a town hall event with MBA students in a conversation hosted by Yahoo Finance’s editor-in-chief Andy Serwer, Dimon recalled his Harvard classmates comparing different job offers they wanted to take solely based on the salary.
“Forget that,” he said. “That’s like not thinking smart. So when you take a job, think about who you are working for directly, because very often that person will help mentor you, or train you, or give you opportunities or stuff like that.”
After business school, Dimon went to work for American Express as an assistant to Wall Street legend Sandy Weill. Dimon followed Weill for 15 years, helping to build Citigroup into a global financial powerhouse. That professional relationship ended when he was asked by Weill to resign in November 1998.
Dimon also encouraged the students to think about the job they want. He added that many of his business school friends tried different jobs until they found what fit.
A company’s culture “is critical,” he said, adding “It should be fun to go to work.”
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Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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