Carrie Sun

A TIME MUST-READ FOR 2024‘A moving story of how easily a life can be submerged by work, and what it takes to regain one's soul’ Oliver Burkeman, bestselling author of Four Thousand WeeksWhat are you willing to sacrifice to get to the top? What might it take to leave it all behind?Carrie Sun can’t shake the feeling that she’s wasting her life. At twenty-nine, she’s left her job, dropped out of an MBA program and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world – as the sole assistant to the firm’s billionaire founder – she can’t say no.But playing the game at the highest levels comes at a cost. Amid the ultimate winners in our winner-takes-all economy, Carrie soon finds her identity swallowed whole, struggling for balance in a world of extremes: of efficiency and excess, status and aspiration, power and fortune.‘A penetrating but all the more necessary critique of extreme wealth and toxic work culture as [Sun] questions what it really means to waste one’s life’ Oprah Daily, The Most Anticipated Books of 2024

One of TIME Magazine's Must-Read Books of the Year "The joys of Sun's memoir lie in the absurdity of her tasks: coaxing a famous athlete to a company party, sourcing Mitt Romney's phone number on a deadline, coordinating private-jet departures... It's Sun's] personal revelations that elevate the book above a typical tell-all." --TIME MagazineA gripping memoir of one woman's self-discovery inside a top Wall Street firm, and an urgent indictment of privilege, extreme wealth, and work culture When we meet Carrie Sun, she can't shake the feeling that she's wasting her life. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Carrie excelled in school, graduated early from MIT, and climbed the corporate ladder, all in pursuit of the American dream. But at twenty-nine, she's left her analyst job, dropped out of an MBA program, and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the rare opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, she knows she can't say no. Fourteen interviews later, she's in. Carrie is the sole assistant to the firm's billionaire founder. She manages his work life, becoming the right hand to an investor who can move mountains and markets with a single phone call. Eager to impress, she dives headfirst into the firm's culture, which values return on time above all else. A luxury-laden world opens up for her, and Carrie learns that money can solve nearly everything. Playing the game at the highest levels, amid the ultimate winners in our winner-take-all economy, Carrie soon finds her identity swallowed whole by work. With her physical and mental health deteriorating, she begins to rethink what it actually means to waste one's life. A searing examination of our relationship to work, Carrie's story illuminates the struggle for balance in a world of extremes: efficiency and excess, status and aspiration, power and fortune. Private Equity is a universal tale of self-invention from a dazzling new voice, daring to ask what we're willing to sacrifice to get to the top--and what it might take to break free and leave it all behind.

One of TIME Magazine's Must-Read Books of the Year "The joys of Sun's memoir lie in the absurdity of her tasks: coaxing a famous athlete to a company party, sourcing Mitt Romney's phone number on a deadline, coordinating private-jet departures... It's Sun's] personal revelations that elevate the book above a typical tell-all." --TIME MagazineA gripping memoir of one woman's self-discovery inside a top Wall Street firm, and an urgent indictment of privilege, extreme wealth, and work culture When we meet Carrie Sun, she can't shake the feeling that she's wasting her life. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Carrie excelled in school, graduated early from MIT, and climbed the corporate ladder, all in pursuit of the American dream. But at twenty-nine, she's left her analyst job, dropped out of an MBA program, and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the rare opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, she knows she can't say no. Fourteen interviews later, she's in. Carrie is the sole assistant to the firm's billionaire founder. She manages his work life, becoming the right hand to an investor who can move mountains and markets with a single phone call. Eager to impress, she dives headfirst into the firm's culture, which values return on time above all else. A luxury-laden world opens up for her, and Carrie learns that money can solve nearly everything. Playing the game at the highest levels, amid the ultimate winners in our winner-take-all economy, Carrie soon finds her identity swallowed whole by work. With her physical and mental health deteriorating, she begins to rethink what it actually means to waste one's life. A searing examination of our relationship to work, Carrie's story illuminates the struggle for balance in a world of extremes: efficiency and excess, status and aspiration, power and fortune. Private Equity is a universal tale of self-invention from a dazzling new voice, daring to ask what we're willing to sacrifice to get to the top--and what it might take to break free and leave it all behind.