How important is camaraderie to you?

I’m on a team at a Top Pod shop. It’s been 3 years, I’ve made good money, I enjoy the work, but I don’t get along with anyone on my team - it becomes hard to get excited about work or navigate drawdowns when you don’t really feel a connection with the team. Would you leave a good seat for the potential of finding a team you get along with more? Or not really worth? Would it even be possible to evaluate chemistry with another team before joining? Feels hard to do

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Have you tried to organize any outings for the team? Could be dinner, drinks, pickle ball, etc. sometimes there isnt anything you can do about it if everyone is different from each other. But if people have good intentions it shouldnt be too bard to find something that gets everyone excited about.

 

Are your team mates outright rude to you?

Or are they just dry professionals focused on their job?

If it's only the latter, realize that's probably the reason business is good and you have a stable seat. 

As someone else said, find friends outside work and be grateful for what you have - everyone else on WSO is asking how to land on a team where one can have stability and make money.

 

Even if you do value camaraderie over a stable seat that pays well, and even if you're willing to take a pay cut to get that, it's still irrelevant because you can't actually know whether it would be any better at another company until after you've joined and worked there for six months. And it's real hard to give up a good seat now without proof that the new seat is better.

 
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I've worked in 1) cold, toxic environments at a top shop and 2) on a lean team with a few similarly-minded bandits.

The second experience was exponentially more fulfilling though at the cost of firm stability.

I'd prefer to share a trench with people who have my back come hell or high water. To know their families. To attend each other's weddings and watch their kids grow. There were plenty of heated arguments (nearly physical) but I value authenticity. No politics or lingering animosity. No obligatory exchanges of disingenuous pleasantries. It's comparable to setting sail on a long expedition. You can't abandon ship in the middle of the ocean and have to rely on each other to navigate choppy water. It reveals character and elicits genuine connection. And its fulfilling to arrive at your destination with the crew you set sail with. 

 
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I'd bet the house that you use your finance job to flirt with girls

 

I agree with this, but sometimes the same place and people can be both. When the fund performance goes south, all that friendly culture turns into backstabbing and paranoia in just a month or two. This thread is a good description. At one of my previous jobs, everyone cut off all contact with each other afterwards.

 

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