UK
This week’s Cheering Tale © concerns an M&A analyst who voluntarily left the bulge bracket in search of a new life free of pitchbooks. He is now very happily employed at an investment start-up.
Current role
I’m an investment associate at a start-up investment fund in London. We recently completed our FSA registration process and are about to launch our first deal to investors.
Previous role
I graduated from a leading UK university with a Masters degree in engineering, interned at Goldman Sachs during my course, and went straight into the M&A department of a bulge bracket investment bank.
When the lights went out
They didn’t really go out, they came on. I voluntarily left my M&A role in late 2007 while the storm clouds were gathering. Two things motivated my decision: I saw people being hired into lucrative and more rewarding buyside jobs earlier and earlier in their careers; and I saw little upside in another 3 years of banking pitchbooks.
There is a secular decline in bulge bracket investment banking and the credit boom has only delayed this.
Job search techniques
I disregarded almost all headhunters early on in my job search. Contacts are far more important. If you have no personal contacts, find a name from news sources or industry publications and cold email them. Wait 24h for a ‘read receipt’ from that email and then call them at a sensible time in their working day. Have a short script prepared about why you’re of interest and ask to meet them.
That said, one or two headhunters really impressed me or my friends, and I would always make time for their calls.
The low point
When Lehman collapsed. I realised that was going to have a very negative affect on my job search
Life without income
There was never really a time when I had no income – I always found ways to monetize my banking skills.
Lessons learned
Don’t waste time ‘taking time out’ – strictly only take as long as you need to get fit again and to examine your options. Decide quickly what you want to do next- speak to friends and mutual friends for information and don’t go by much else. Their advice is the best insight you’ll get.
What do you mean by you always had ways to monetize your bankning skills?
@Douche – I asked that too and the author provided this reply (which I’d intended to add to the article) –
If you have written an investment memo or a fairness opinion for a client then you can probably provide a similar service on a freelance basis, even if it’s for smaller businesses than you might have been used to dealing with in banking. Be bold and go large when you negotiate your fee – you’ll be surprised what people are prepared to pay to outsource a financial headache.
Honestly I think that guy is brilliant but I only buy half of what he said. The “email your CV to the big guys and then call them the next morning” strategy seems quite interesting but I really wonder if he has had any interviews out of that…
“When Lehman collapsed. I realised that was going to have a very negative affect on my job search”
This sentence is grammatically incorrect – and it’s effect, not affect. So much for a masters at a top UK university. Sounds like a bull-you-know-what to me.
In light of the market rally this year and the huge profits being generated by Goldmans, Deutsche, Credit Suisse and Barclays does the author truly believe bulge bracket is in secular decline?
Because when I look at 2009 results of these banksso far, I see rude health for the ‘winners’.
I have skepticism over at least parts of this article. The comment about monetizing his banking skills and even more so the follow up explanation he gave to the Editor don’t ring true at all (especially for someone so junior).
How long did it take him to find that start-up role? He said he left in 2007….
The person who posted the artcle needs to got back to college..the grammar errors are really shocking..very bad use of the english language..
I read his article 3 times and half of the content of his article did not make sense???/ what were you thinking when you posted this article ? Shocking for a wanna be “Fat Cat”
Which university did you get a masters degree from ?
ABC – 123 university, waste of eduation if you ask me.
You cant write proper English – mate !!!