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lost
 

Zero bonus, only option to get more into debt?

mclaren686's picture
(Monkey, 63
 
Points)
 on 3/12/13 at 4:00am
no bonus.jpg

Hey guys,

So bonus time finally came around in my current job as a middle office financial reporting analyst for a mid size buy side asset management firm. We had a record year. But due to policy changes, since I'm not a front office employee, I got a big fat zero. This is after pulling 60+ hour weeks and making personal sacrifices.

If I wait for another year, I'll probably be bumped up to a front office role. Only thing is, all my friends who have been promoted here did not get a pay increase. Wow.

The pay is rather bad, even for this very low cost of living area, at $45k.

I've been accepted to Fuqua and Kellogg for an MBA but I'm nervous about adding more debt to my current 50k with an uncertain outcome.

Completely Lost

lseactuary's picture
(Chimp, 10
 
Points)
 on 2/16/13 at 6:56pm

Dear WSO readers.

I'm a long time fan and a 1st time poster. I know a lot of people already in the industry read WSO so I am keen to get your input.

I am currently an undergraduate in the UK and am graduating next summer (target, solid GPA, quantitative degree).

I am very lucky to have 'experienced' the following roles in some shape or form (combination of insight days/uni modules/work experience/shadowing etc):

accounting
actuary
trading (mainly equities)
capital markets (more ECM than DCM)
IBD/M&A
marketing and advertising
consulting (not so much but a reasonable amount)
entrepreneurial work
tech startup firm
large tech firm
law (mainly M&A/capital markets)
operations
voluntary work at a big charity

Career Changing Advice

hopesanddreams's picture
(Orangutan, 329
 
Points)
 on 8/27/12 at 10:28am
Young_caucasian_worried_businessman_with_a_laptop.jpg

I'm an undergraduate at LSE - studying BSc Stats with Finance - and will graduate next Summer (2013).

I am very confused about what to do with my life.

My CV is highly finance/mathematics focused, but I have really lost interest in the financial markets during my time at LSE.

I originally wanted to be an Actuary - so enrolled in BSc Actuarial Science. I then realised (after studying the actuarial modules) that its incredible boring/too mathematical for my liking and also networked with Actuaries - realised it wasn't for me at all.

Career Changing Advice

hopesanddreams's picture
(Orangutan, 329
 
Points)
 on 8/27/12 at 10:28am

I'm an undergrad at LSE - studying Stats with Finance - and will graduate in Summer 2013.

I am very confused about what to do with my life.

My CV is highly finance/mathematics focused, but I have really lost interest in the financial markets during my time at LSE.

I originally wanted to be an Actuary - so enrolled in BSc Actuarial Science. I then realised (after studying the actuarial modules) that its incredible boring/too mathematical for my liking and also networked with Actuaries - realised it wasn't for me at all.

Advice?

nebben2k10's picture
ER
(Monkey, 47
 
Points)
 on 3/22/11 at 8:26pm

I have been out of undergrad one year. I graduated from a decent school (non-target but with target business school) in Economics and Applied Statistics. My GPA was a 3.1 rounded. I have completed 4 courses in a MSF program at an unheard of business college. My graduate GPA is a 3.85. I took the classes mostly to get myself over the HR hurdles for commercial banks (finance and accounting coursework). I have taken Financial Statement Analysis, Financial Accounting, Financial Management and a Quantitative Management course.

Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake

Michael Scott's picture
CF
 
Points)
 on 3/11/11 at 2:37pm

Website created by Google in response to today's earthquake:

http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

It could help many friends and family connect and avoid additional stress and worry.

Better to Have Been Rich and Lost It, or Never Been Rich at All?

Edmundo Braverman's picture
ST
(Human, 14,386
 
Points)
 on 12/1/12 at 7:30am
empty-pockets.jpg

mod (Andy) note: "Blast from the past - Best of Eddie" - This one is originally from November 2010. If there's an old post from Eddie you'd like to see up again shoot me a message.

When I was in my teens and early 20's, all I could think about was being rich. I didn't care what I had to do to make the money, I just knew that I wanted to be rich. Not just wealthy, either. I wanted the private jets, the boats, the mansions, the proverbial "fuck you" money. What I didn't spend any time thinking about was what would happen if I made that kind of money and then lost it.

I was reminded of this when I read the story of the Martin family of Paso Robles, California. This is the story of a husband and wife with three kids who made $10 million after taxes from the sale of his father's company in 1998. Today all the money is gone, along with their sprawling estate, his Aston Martin, and her horses - one of which cost $173,000. He went from jet-setting and dinners at the "21" club to teaching at a community college in Kansas in just over 10 years. And it got me thinking about which was worse: to be rich and lose everything, or to have never been rich and not know what you're missing?

lost all my silver bananas :(

lifeofpurpose's picture
(Gorilla, 523
 
Points)
 on 9/14/10 at 9:17am

so, i lost all my 81 silver bananas :(

I wish someone told me this before all the hard work i pulled into it.

I mean, if the website didnt want me to send the CV books THEN they should have said something before i spent all that time in sending them just for some silver bananas. they do have moderators, who could have said so at the very beginning. I am not mad, but i dont see the point of removing the silver bananas.

The ironic thing is that i got the CV books like 2 years ago from an WSO user and didnt know that you were not allowed to share it.

anyways, still loving this website :) but i miss my bananas!

Need help getting my nonexistent career on track

MessedUp's picture
IB
(Baboon, 101
 
Points)
 on 3/18/10 at 8:15pm

Hey there. I've posted before when I was trying to figure out what I was doing with my life, and ways that I could break into finance. Well I graduated from school last May, had terrible, irrelevant internships, and therefore am not working anywhere near the financial industry. I took the only job I could find in the health care industry doing glorified data entry. I gotta pay off my debt somehow...

Anyway, I don't want to be stuck in a position like this, I just can't figure out how to find something else. Can anyone give me some input on things that may help me leverage myself into a career in finance? Obviously I'd love to do IB, but as it stands right now, I have no chance.

I graduated from Rutgers with a BA in Economics. Cum. GPA was 3.5 and major GPA was ~3.75. I maintained around a ~4.0 for the last 2 years, I just had 2 very, very shitty semesters (extenuating circumstances that kind of threw off my college career from then on). My internships are so irrelevant it hurts.

Can anyone offer some advice?

If you're fired, whats Plan B?

raoul duke's picture
 
Points)
 on 11/17/08 at 12:19pm

As someone who is waiting for the other shoe to drop, I'd be curious to hear what other people in finance who have been laid off or are waiting for impending layoffs plan to do if they're let go.

I'm looking into Teach for America or considering going to a non-top 10 B-school.