I made it.. You can make it too!

Hello all...

I never made an account, but I've read a lot of these forum posts, and they too have made me a more motivated person. Hearing the success stories are great. I, too, have a success story, albeit it'll be different like all the other stories, but we all the same ending; we got it.

I graduated from school in December, took a job in a Capital Markets as an inst. sales person; worked for a shitty company that said we could only be paid 25k a year--we'll get sponsored, and we won't earn any commission because we're considered "overhead costs," being naive and pushed by everyone around me to take a job, the economy sucks, its in finance, it's not so bad, its on a trading floor, etc. etc. etc.

Anyways, I was miserable working stupid long hours, to get rewarded for shit for money. An organization without a vision, a real meat grinder. Anyhow, I began to vent at work with the other kids who were in my/our position. The pay sucks, and I started to think, I'll do my year without commission and we'll wait and see how things work when I get commission. I lasted about 2 months their, they said I performed poorly on some bullshit mock sales pitch shit, I probably did b/c I didn't take it seriously, b/c when you get paid shit, you don't take anything seriously. I also, didn't go to work the next day because I decided to go on a road trip and have some fun. When I got back on Monday, I was 'let go,' and I was happy to be let go. It felt like a huge weight was off my chest, because I wouldn't have quit, I liked the work, but lets be honest the whole purpose of sales is to generate revenues, and be rewarded for it accordingly. I thought of it the best role to start my career because people skills are probably the most important skill set you can learn, all the analytics and whatnot, you can learn.

I don't know how to financial model, but I learned how to decipher an analysis report, and really highlight the key points in any investment. I've built a successful portfolio for my mother, and at one point her portfolio had returned 20% diversified! One thing I have though, is pure drive. Pure ambition, and I love dollars and cents, and to make sense out of it.

After the horrendous experience, it dawned on me, I don't have a job, and I need to get one ASAP, any one, but one that would pay me a whole lot more than 25k a year. So I got some good interviews in my home state, but somehow shit would fall through, I kind of went on a party rampage, and got a little cocky because all the screening interviews went well, but I just would forget to send the thank you letter. Or thats what I assumed what happened; one example of this, is the HR girl said she thinks I'm a great fit, the hiring manager would be out, so we'll set up in person interview for you on next tuesday. I go and celebrate, and then call on monday, and the lady tells me she hired someone else already... pfft!

Then I was getting desperate did a final interview for a shitty 3rd party logistics sales job, but I knew I didnt want it, I just wanted a job to earn something, so I didn't actually want the job... it was a 3 hour interview process, which is ridiculous, I mean c'mon, it's not rocket science-- or Goldman Sachs--hell its a fucking 3rd party logistics company.

So, I did all the things you shouldn't do in an interview, and I naturally did not get the job. I enjoyed the interview though, as I just made crazy jokes, and laughed the entire process.

Mind all of you, I've sent out my resume to probably north of 300 companies? And that's a wide range of stuff, such as trading to institutional sales to investment banking to corporate strategy to anyhting that would even let me travel.

I got positive responses from a lot of people, but still no follow up with an actual interview, mind you, I left my job at around march, no recruiting going down. So I move to NY, and I get a bunch of responses, from a trading firm to a hedge fund and at a small business loans company, to a stock broking job.

Stock Brokers wanted me, but they wanted a 300 dollar draw,a nd I get 25% of everything, I thought to myself, nah I'm good on that. Then the small business loan place offers me a position as a credit analyst -- trading company and hedge fund still hadn't got back to me, so I was done pestering people, I took that job. After a week, and I really liked the job too, all I did was have fun, albeit it was easy as I was starting off in the underwriting department, but still all I did was laugh in the office and do my work.

After a week, another company gets back to me, a company I sent the president an e-mail, and he mustve past that off to the PM-- anyhow, the company is a hedge fund or an investment fund, they don't trade they only do mezzanine financing at 16% a year,f or only a year to two years, and it sin my home state, I got the offer and I was never interviewed, albeit the PM thought I had already been interviewed, so when she called me to give me an offer I was extremely surprised. I wasn't telling my job shit until I had an offer letter, as a matter of fact, I still haven't told my job, and I feel really bad about leaving them for a better opportunity. They gave me back my swagger; in NY i was going to get about 60k a year with OT, in my home state, i'm going to get the same, but taxes are not nearly as high, so its probably really like 80-90 in NY as cost of living and all that should be accounted.

My plan is to fly back, give my current job an excuse, check the fund out, make sure I like the people, and if I like it the first week, I'm going to keep it and then have to tell them I won't be able to come back blah blah blah. If I don't like them, I'm going back to the company(I really like NYC)... They're two different animals, the companies, one is a huge operation, the fund has about 15 people. One is going to do an IPO in 2 years, etc. etc.

However, at the end of the day, I want to do high time finance- and all I want to do is be about my money. Anyhow, the new position is me doing a little bit of everything, I'll be a cross between sales and the analyst, to even a bit of investor relations.

Anyhow, this is just my thank you to Wall Street Oasis, you all inspired me to go out there and get it. And some of you may frown on my tactics such as applying to everything in finance, and not spending my money for one of those programs, and I'll tell you what, you're all very right(the people who will criticize me, I hope they keep that to themselves and dont post negative shit on my first posting ever, that'd be real dick).

I had a 3.3 GPA in school--went to a top 100 USNEWS school--but I don't think it's target, or maybe regionally it's a target, I have no idea, alumni base is good but not the greatest.

Needless to say, I did it on my own. And all I had was pure hustle, pure drive, pure motivation, pure optimism-- I also learned when it comes to dealing with companies, especially in Finance, you really have to look out for what's in your best interest. These companies will fuck you over faster then you know it-- the first horrible job I had strung me along like a damn fool, trying to get me to sell stock without a Series 7, sell stock and investment ideas, as long as I don't mention payment i'm alright. I ended up being canned without even sponsorship of the damn license... like really?

But now you know what, I thank my old boss everyday in my head, because I knew I was going to find something better. Now I'm on the buyside, doing structuring and deal origination.

Anyway, it's late, but this thing I wrote is for everybody whose felt so down, stressed, and worried about having a career that's going to fulfill them, whether thats ibanking, or whatever other industry is just as brutal to enter. Don't give up. Move forward. Don't forget about your dollars and cents, and make sure they always make sense.

Cheers!