Carrie Sun is a former hedge fund EA and her memoir Private Equity gives an up-close-and-personal insight into the work of an assistant – and the burnout that can happen as part of that.
The author doesn’t say who she is writing about and in a tell-all Q&A with Fortune, she said: “I really wanted to tell a perspective from just an average employee because I feel that junior employees deserve to have their stories heard as well.”
The former EA describes a typical day as lasting around 11 hours (but admits she would often work weekends too) and goes into detail about what goes on behind-the-scenes:
Carrie said: “[My boss] told me I was an extension of his eyes and ears and brain. In some ways, it was thrilling, because I really got to understand what it takes to succeed – whether that be [in the form of financial] returns or just having a great reputation. While it was thrilling, it was completely exhausting. I feel like if I’m an extension of him, I need to be off sometimes. There was just no off.”
As she was “trying to hold everything together and keep all the balls in the air going,” Carrie looked to meditation, self-help books and spa days – all recommended by her boss. But nothing worked.
She said: “I’m not saying that those things are not important. I’m sure they work for many people. But I just think that all these are individual solutions to what I think is a systemic problem of the culture of work itself.
“I don’t think it’s enough. And it wasn’t enough for me. I hope it’ll be enough for others, but you know, I want to question the system of work itself.”
Referring to her boss’ approach of keeping everything going, Carrie says she what worked for him didn’t work for her: “He has a whole thing: Humility, modesty, understatement, downplaying. It works for him because of his background – his lineage, his pedigree, his resume.
“It doesn’t work for me. I was born in China. I’m an immigrant. I grew up in poverty… His whole model of success does not translate to someone of my background and experiences. He wanted me to be understated. He wanted me to be humble.
“But I just think – as a woman in the workplace – being humble is a formula for getting passed over. Because how is anyone going to know the work you did if you didn’t advocate for yourself… I am a firm believer in advocating for yourself for the work that you did do.”
Carrie Sun was born in China and raised in Michigan. She holds an MFA in creative writing from The New School.