How do you deal with the feeling of being smarter than the others and not at the right place (can be in society, or your company/team)? Doesn't necessarily have to be true, but if you strongly perceive it to be true is enough to make you think.
How do you tolerate the fact that you are right more often than your PM is and still you get little to no gratification out of that (lack of acknowledgement, PM too competitive with the whole world to tell you he was wrong and you were right)?
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If you truly are smarter than the people on your team:
1) Whatever your intellect, there's still a lot to learn even from people you deem less intelligent than yourself.
2) Given you are so smart, why are you on your particular team? Are you lacking in other areas (socially, perhaps) that are preventing you from leaving your co-workers in the dust?
3) Just wait. Everyone will have a moment in life sooner or later when they look around the room and realize they're below average. Happens to some in high school, happens to others at the board level, but it's worth seeking out, and it always happens at least once.
Also consider the huge number of studies that indicate that nearly everyone thinks they're above average. Not good to think you're smarter than others even if you are, but even worse to think you're smarter than others when you're not...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/everyone-thinks-they-are-above-average/
This reminds me of how Wall Street analysts try to be "above consensus" against each other.
I've never spent a day on the sell-side so enlighten me on that pls: when analysts see they are BUY on a name rated BUY by everyone, what do they really think?
Very valuable points.
What I mistakenly put together with being smart is being motivated. I'm aware anybody can teach me something (worse case they'll teach me how not to be or do stuff), but working with people around you that see what they're doing just as a job is disappointing at the very least. I do love my job and what I'm learning, I don't even see it as a job - I'm probably just in the wrong place.
Interesting to learn that most of the people think to be smarter than average. It's something I considered but never looked for more info about.
Hear you on wanting to work with people who are excited about what they do, excited about the craft and getting better for its own sake (not just for money).
You mentioned in the OP that you're right more often than your PM. If you're really a great investor, you can always try to compound your PA at 15% for 30 years - it'll be hard not to get rich. That's always an option for those in our industry, and one that I'd find most satisfying personally (if I had the skill to pull it off).
1) is a good point, but not sufficient
Re 2) and 3) my 5c is that many bosses in this business are there just because of relationships. I've seen so many bad PMs stick to their jobs (esp. at FOs) just because LPs are friends/like them, despite underperformance. If you choose to wait, you can waste several years and the opportunity cost of working with better people. You also cannot assume that you will work with bright people if you are bright enough. Relationships. Few seats are available. High competition per seat. Those things often explain OP's situation.
In a similar vein: I’ve been in a few rare situations where I know the Partner/MD I’m working with is incompetent. I flat out did not agree with the way they ran things nor did I agree with their investment views.
In the short term, I basically ranted hard to my coworkers and shit on these incompetent seniors over drinks (chance is you’ll have a few buddies who also feel the same way about them).
In the medium to long term, it’s more likely than not that their superiors (aka the boss of your boss) is already aware of what’s happening. People in this industry are generally pretty socially aware and understand who’s competent/who’s not (even if they don’t say it out loud). My experience has been that - eventually - meritocracy plays itself out and incompetent seniors eventually get pushed out (whether voluntarily or involuntarily).
I don't think this actually happens very often in a mature, established firm. Sometimes the incompetent people are at the very top but are politically entrenched and difficult to remove. In fact, they hire people under them for just this reason, so they can take credit for successes and blame others for failures while keeping their own jobs.
Oh definitely agreed. The deeply entrenched incompetents at the top are the worst (aka the “un-fireable bureaucrats”). Fortunately I haven’t really had to deal with those personally…fingers crossed.
Been there at an SM HF. Moved to another shop. Make sure you network hard to get a decent next gig. Also be sure you have built a track record/something solid to show to others before moving. Be patient - decent gigs are not many.
Yeah, happened to me. Ended up finding another place where I felt 'less smart' than peers/seniors.
Someone truly that much more intelligent than those around them would have figured this out already on their own. Such a person also wouldn't need constant validation from their PM that their ideas have merit, and would instead be researching how to present their ideas in a more convincing manner. Or searching for a new role if they've decided that they're ultimately in a toxic environment.
Being intelligent with your interactions and communication is just as much a component of "being smart" as the other more conventional aspects that you may be too focused on.
Fair considerations. I needed to hear opinions from others (as I know the feeling is shared by many), but I'm already working on moving elsewhere.
WSO is a beautiful place for thinking aloud and considering options I hadn't before.
There are plenty of smart back office folks. Smart gets you in the door, but violence of action makes you successful. If you're better than your PM, sack the fuck up and do something about it.
Everyone thinks they’re smarter than everyone in hedge funds, you’re not supposed to say it. And usually it’s smarter at one aspect while acknowledging other people are smarter (at least) in the other aspects.
I infer three possibilities:
- you might be on the spectrum and leaving out some important context about the work relationship.
- you might be diametrically opposed in personality and investment approach - there are ways for that to be supplementary, but sounds like it is not and neither of you are flexible and sounds like you’re both playing the blame game a lot (so assuming you don’t have discretion or a sleeve, or else you wouldn’t need to debate)
- psychologically, you are both going to underallocate the subjective portion of the blame to yourself… for reasons of ego preservation, human nature and self-interest re: comp, etc.
- Or option 3, maybe the guy is actually just not that sharp or good as you say, entirely possible. Maybe he got lucky as - you say. Why would you work for someone you resent and think is dumb? Why is it even a question what to do if you really believe that? Maybe you’re playing a tier below your raw ability because of social skill or teamwork deficits?
I’m gonna guess that you guys are having a down year and you don’t yet really have any meaningful PnL ownership. Fix the relation and find a supplementary approach, if you can’t do that then leave, if you can’t leave, suck it up
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