City Girl is outed! thelondonpaper

Prev

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Next

View gallery

FIVE years ago a naive but determined ­22-year-old girl, living in a midwestern American town known only for being the setting of the film Groundhog Day, packed her bags for London.

Sitting opposite me, on the eighth floor of the Oxo Tower with the City skyline in the background, wearing a black dress and power heels and sipping a glass of wine, it’s hard to ­picture Barbara ­Stcherbatcheff as the unpaid ­intern in the back office of the City firm she started in.

A lot has happened. She ­became a trader. She married and divorced a City boy. She became a financial consultant. She took over thelondonpaper’s anonymous City Girl column, lifting the lid on what it’s like being a woman in a man’s world. She wrote a book. And she quit the City.

“When I gave in my notice I didn’t have a job to go to. I knew I might be shooting myself in the foot. Did I make the right choice? Will I regret it? It was £365 an hour as a consultant but I’ll never get hired again after this.”

But Stcherbatcheff is used to a challenge – her five years in the City have been full of them. From fighting to break into the male-dominated world of trading to gaining her colleagues’ respect once she was in. From learning to ­accept a sex-biased bonus system to getting hit on in job interviews. So why is the City still such a man’s world?

“That’s the way it has always been,” says Stcherbatcheff. “But it’s a vicious circle. Not many women try to get front-office jobs compared to men. Many that do give up easily because they’re too sensitive.

“Men in the City would rather work with other men. Who would go out and pick up chicks with them? I had to get used to socialising in strip clubs. You have to go with it.”

Was she always this thick-skinned?

“No, the City has hardened me.” she admits. “When you’re a trader you’re putting yourself out there every day. If you make a mistake you’ll get f***ing screamed at!”

Money has taken centre stage in Stcherbatcheff’s ­career. It’s what drove her.

But she says: “These people aren’t ­geniuses. A lot of the big financial players believe they deserve all the wealth they can get but the financial ­system fell to pieces last ­autumn because they took crazy risks. ­Finance is more about meticulousness than it is about skill and intellectual prowess. For the most part it’s just about not f***ing up.”

And did she ever f*** up?

“Once I lost my month’s money in a day,” she tells me.

“It isn’t like other jobs,” she explains. “With ­trading you could go in and work for half an hour and make a killing, or you could bust your ass for four hours, and lose loads of money. When it happens you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck. It’s devastating.”

But Stcherbatcheff doesn’t just see her book as an insight into the world of a banker – she is hoping to create a role model in the character of Suzana, who she uses to tell her own story (Stcherbatcheff says the book is a mix of fact and fiction – ­using ­fictional events and characters to tell a true story).

“I’d like it to become like London’s answer to Sex and the City, and Suzana like a smart Carrie Bradshaw. ­Because I’ve always found role models out there pathetic.

“Like Carrie waits her whole life for Mr Big to propose, and he finally does, then he jilts her at the altar.

“You think she might stand up for herself but she goes back to him! Suzana would never put up with that. If she’s not being treated well, she sells her engagement ring.”

As impulsive in her personal life as her ­professional, Stcherbatcheff wed a man she had met four months before. When it went wrong she sold her ­engagement ring at the market for £7,500.

“It could have been a case of right guy wrong place,” she reflects. “I wouldn’t say the credit crunch ruined my marriage, but it took its toll.”

He doesn’t know she is the one who has been writing the column. In fact, Barbara hasn’t told her ex-employers or City pals.

“I made a lot of friends in the City and hope I haven’t burnt my bridges with ­everyone,” she says.

After five years of living, breathing, loving and hating London’s financial district, our City Girl has quit the City. My last question is... any regrets?

“No! I’d do it all again. And I encourage more women to enter the City. Too many girls try to marry a rich banker but it’s more fun just to be the rich banker. You just need to know when it’s time to get out.”