I have a feeling that this isnt the ‘change’ you are looking for in your life/career.
Going from derivatives trading (if that’s what you do) to ER will get MORE boring not less. You should just start your own firm bro.
Or just quit finance and join one of these social media/ whatever companies.
Yeah, definitely aware of that possibility. Also, the short term financial impact from changing jobs will be huge - both from probable pay cut and loss of deferred comp. So even if I do get offered a job, it’s far from certain that I will accept it. However, I still think it’s worth taking the recruitment process seriously and maybe hope for surprise upside.
^ Never hurts to have a conversation. I never turn down a conversation about potential employment as I see it as a way to build out my network and learn something new, and potentially get surprised on the upside. Your post reminded me of an article that I had read in Graham & Doddsville when they interviewed the founders of JANA Partners. Barry Rosenstein was asked how he got the job offer from Asher Edelman in the first place, and here’s what he responded:
Asher was the corporate raider back then, and I was a nobody associate at Merrill Lynch; no one there even knew who I was. He started by telling me that he’d been talking to the heads of the M&A departments at various investment banks about coming to work for him to co-head his takeover business. I didn’t understand why he was telling me this as it had nothing to do with me. After about 15 minutes, he turned to me and said, “I think you and I are going to do a deal here.”
I had no idea what he meant. Then he asked, “What’s it going to take to get you to take this job?” At the time, I was making a salary of $40,000 and hoping for a $30,000 bonus, but my reviews were not strong so I didn’t have high hopes. I had heard that the top merchant acquisition bankers made $1 million, which was more money than I had ever heard of in my life. So I said to him, “ one million dollars." He stared at me for 30 or 45 seconds, which is a long time when you’re completely full of crap. Then he said, “Alright, done. You just have to start tomorrow,” to which I responded, “I’ll start right now.”
^ Moral of the story: You never know what’ll happen. Upside surprises are always good.
Make us proud bro!
Agreed
Or try a non profit org like the Bill Gates foundation. I hear they have one of the most rigorous interviewing process. Might be worth the experience
dp
Trading is the best job in this industry. You will get bored doing ER. Nothing like being on the front line and pulling the trigger.