Middle Office IB role in Eastern Europe to a ... Gulfstream G650

This post is for all of you out there who have failed to secure that all-important front office IB job that you were craving, and settled for the middle or back office position.

All is not lost yet … really not lost ...

Let’s face it, the majority of users on WSO desire front office IB jobs or something better (PE, HF, etc.). However, we don’t get what we always want. This leads us to settle for other roles in the hope that one day we could make the transition to the front office (the odds of this happening are minuscule)

So it’s 2004, Brad’s got a pile of rejections from all the BB’s for his dream IB job. He’s worried that he’ll have to head back home to Eastern Europe and look for a job. Attending a Semi-Target in the UK was not enough. He thinks maybe he did not network enough, thought the school name alone would get him through the door. All rookie mistakes, which he would not have made if he had access to WSO. Unfortunately, he had never heard of WSO while he was in University.

Eventually Brad moved back to Eastern Europe and was able to secure a middle office position at a boutique IB. However, Brad’s boss was nice enough to let him attend certain meetings that would help him in his search for a front office role. Brad never got that desired front office offer, but he did make some very good connections and friends over his 5-year search.

Back to present day, Brad is no longer in the financial sector and now works in the FMCG sector (fast food to be precise). Neither is he flipping burgers nor does he own a few locations of a particular fast food franchise. Brad has built an African fast food empire. All this was possible because of his network of connections and friends he made during his time in Eastern Europe. So together with two of his connections, the “three amigos” set out to revolutionize fast food in Africa (a relatively untapped market). None of the three had ever done business before, in fact the only two common things among the three was that they had a desire to succeed and they all came from the financial sector.

As of yesterday, Brad had this to say:

"I just dropped a huge f****** deposit on a brand new Gulfstream G650"

Monkeys, let the networking games begin!

ALL THIS IS BECAUSE OF NETWORKING.

NETWORKING MATTERS

DISCLAIMER: This article is based of an interview with a family friend. He did not want to disclose too many personal details, hence, the name "Brad"

Every other part of the story is factual.