When 18th-century moral philosopher and father of modern economics Adam Smith wrote: “Man is an animal that makes bargains; no other animal does this – one dog does not change a bone with another”, he was reckoning without the typical City boy. One would hope that in these enlightened times it wouldn’t be so difficult to strike a bargain; but too often we find we’re dealing with a self-serving dog.

Recently, a high-flying City lawyer saw fit to demonstrate his true colours with a fresh-faced ¬intern. ¬Showing her another side of the capital, he took her to a Soho strip joint and allegedly promised she could “advance her prospects” by having sex with him. The girl subsequently high-tailed it to HR, and cost the City slicker his dignity and a six-figure salary.

Now, it’s true that strippers and bankers, like birds of a feather, flock together. Yet it is entirely different to turn your mack on the starry-eyed dreamy intern who fetches coffees each morning with dizzying enthusiasm. In this drunken night of debauchery, vanity and animal instinct reigned supreme. It begs the question, how do attractive City girls deal with it? One might think that this lawyer’s idiocy is an isolated case but, alas, I found myself in an almost identical scenario.

Months back, I left an impression on one sly director at the office, and he invited me to interview for a lucrative position on his team. Finally, I thought, someone had noticed that I was working like a dog. So I was surprised, but not alarmed, when he emailed me an off-site location at which I was to be interviewed. After all, I wouldn’t want to be caught interviewing for another team on home turf. But when I arrived at the Mayfair address, it was apparent I was to be interviewed over a Michelin-starred dinner – sea bass, a bottle of Bordeaux, some talk about how his wife didn’t understand him, the lot. And then he asked me to spend the night in one of the hotel suites. As I stumbled out on to Park Lane, I literally screamed in the middle of the street. I had risked my already unstable job for a director’s rabid sex drive.

The fact that City girls work like dogs may never be taken seriously by the senior guys for one simple reason: they’re dogs. I realised that if I left a job every time a director made a pass at me, my resume would be so chequered I would never get hired anywhere.

As a City girl, you’ll always get more than you bargained for.