Why a City job should be graduates’ last resort

August is the season for conversation about career choices. Every holiday party seems to include new graduates or next year’s graduands in need of grown-up advice. Many yearn to be pastry chefs, having devoted their student years to watching The Great British Bake Off. Some want to be journalists, and I tell them it’s more fun than having a secure job with a decent income. Happily I’ve only met one young man this summer who wants to go into financial PR, the métier in which I believe Satan himself did his first internship. ‘Diplomacy’ is often mentioned, I suppose because there’s a lot of that on the telly these days too; but it is invariably pipped as a preference by ‘wealth management’, or ‘emerging markets’, or some other City niche. Despite my weekly aspersions, I’m not against youngsters venturing into the financial arena — there are vivid experiences to be had for those who can hack it and stay human.