Options in life?

I posted here quite some time ago stating my desire to get into equity research. I wasn't well received but I thought I might post to get the readers on this forum an update and perhaps maybe get some more advice.

Since I've moved back to the states my job search has been pretty miserable. I've been unemployed now for nearly 5 months but I feel luck is on the horizon. During the first 4 months of this time I was living with relatives in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. I had a feeling a lot of people weren't taking me seriously when I only had 1 phone interview for an associate position with a firm back east (maybe it was because I lived in “carefree”). It turned out they really liked my creds and I was their 2nd choice, but I got dinged because I lack experience/an MBA.

Additionally, I created a website to host my resume and published material. I gave passwords to different firms so I could secretly store their IP views in a MYSQL database. A few BBs actually checked out my website and stuff however all I got was rejection letters. I realize now that it was dumb idea to just bank on an equity research position and not consider other routes. I feel pretty stupid about it, don’t remind me.

So I decided to just fuck Carefree, Arizona and go where the nearest action is at least, thus I moved to San Francisco for the past month. In this job market I'm willing to consider anything at the moment. Best idea I've had in months.

So far I've had about 5 interviews, 3 in person, rest over the phone however most of them are not with banks/financial firms.

So I'm going to state my progress but I would greatly appreciate your comments regarding my situation. Just know that my GOAL is to get into finance as an analyst for the next decade and learn the business, ideally equity research. I really have a passion for the markets, honestly.

So far I have the following opportunities

A) Nearly sealed a product development position with a data/software developer that creates products for hedgefunds, banks, etc. I talk with the CEO tomorrow so I’ll know tomorrow.

B) Slug it out in Biotech in some operations position, e.g. sales engineer, analyst, etc

C) Keep applying for analyst roles, only this time consider hedge funds, PE, Investment banks, PWM, etc. So far I have tried this all week and I've already had some recruiters interested in my resume for 3 more positions, so we'll see how this turns out. I just got out of an interview today with the recruiter.

D) Fuck finance altogether and start a business. One of the great things about being unemployed is that you get bored and have a lot of free time to think about the world. I do have a lot of ideas swirling in my head, one of which includes creating an innovative way to get finance across to consumers, either by starting some sort of research website or through media. Another is a tech product that I've been working on via tinkering around with microcontroller technology through a development board I've purchased. I've also thought about making a new type of “legos” for kids. I won’t go into detail about them.

E) Everyone says I'd make a killing in IP. Some people say I should go to law so I took a practice lsat. I got a 166 without studying or prior knowledge of it. The section I performed horribly on was the reading comprehension. I attribute this to the fact that I'm actually really dyslexic and as a result my reading speed has always been horrible because I have to re-read a lot, thus I ran out of time. Believe me, I’ve come a long way but this still hinders me when I’m reading dense complex material. Regardless I guess a 166 on the practice test is pretty good but law doesn't interest me in the slightest, but maybe if I have no options..

In case you don't know here are my "stats" so to speak

Deg: Astrophysics
GPA 3.2ish, lower because I only studied the night before and I did a bunch of other stuff like run a piano teaching business and a radio show
Top 30 world school
WE: Biotech Industry consultant/ published market-business researcher
General E: Presently selling preamps to musicians for small pocket change

 

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