WHY CAN'T MY JOB BE CREATIVE??? or Things that upset me, Part I

Dearest readers of my blog,
In taking a break from the high stress, tumulous, armaggedon style news bits that we’ve all been reading about the financial community in the past few weeks, I bring you what may be the first enstallment in a series of “Things that upset me”. This particular “thing that upsets me” stems from a conversation amongst my roommates a few days ago. Because our landlords control who takes the rooms in our house (and in exchange we pay rent per room and not a fixed amount for the apartment), we found ourselves living with a student in her first year of the Prestigious Italian university- “Bocconi.” Bocconi, for those who don’t know, is the Italian answer to Harvard (although that is probably giving it too much credit), but it is widely considered the best university in Italy with a renowned Business program.
Now, we were discussing her major and she had mentioned that she wanted to major in Marketing because ultimately she wants a job where creativity abounds. So, naturally, as someone who frankly loves her job- I said, “Sara, why not try insurance??”. Her response was something to the effect of “Insurance?!?!?! Blecchh.”
This brings me to my point- THINGS THAT MAKE ME UPSET: Why is it ASSUMED (and we all know what they say about ASSUMING) that there is a complete and utter lack of creativity in the financial sector?
Look, creativity isn’t SOLELY defined by those working in the arts, or at least it shouldn’t be. I think that creativity is best encompassed by being innovative in thoughts, processes and practices. If the financial services industry wasn’t CREATIVE, we would all still be trading food for animal pelts. Most of the insurance coverage that exists in the market today are the result of somebody identifying an uninsured hole and figuring out a way to indemnify loss. The act of placing monetary value on promises (which is what most financial services are- promises to cover insurance claims, speculation that an investment will go up, etc) is nothing short of an act of calculated creativity based on a working professional knowledge.
Hey, I’ll even go one step further to say that a lot of what we see in the news is based on creativity- “creative accounting” – and who’s idea was it to bundle sub prime mortgages into AAA rated bonds!?!
So don’t tell me that people who work in Finance aren’t creative- oh Italian roommate of mine! Its simply not true.
Sincerely,
Lydia (who recently headed up a group who won a new products competition- Professional Liability for Priests- If that’s not creative, I don’t know what is)