Career Advice

[twacowfca]

 

Due to the shallowness it is much less interesting to “analyze” countries and I expect that my working weeks will be a lot less enjoyable once I have to dedicate 1/3rd of my time to macro stuff. In addition, I fear that my re-allocation of time will significantly impact the learning opportunities on the equity side of things (my boss says it won’t, but he is trying to push the right buttons I guess).

 

I am a micro guy by nature but I do have an open mind and think it is important to broaden my horizon (and develop a “helicopter view”), I just do not think that branching out to macro investments is something that will be good for my future career. In the mid term I fear that I 1) will be significantly less happier in 6 months time and in the LT 2) wake up as a pure fixed income manager wondering where my life went... (worst worst case scenario)

 

 

 

You are over analyzing the situation and should reconsider your priorities.

 

In twenty five years in the business,  I have seen hundreds of bright young people, often from great schools, get nowhere in the finance field because they choose to "strategize" their career path instead of responding to opportunities.  I remember laughing at 25-year old Ivy League MBAs who didn't want to run financial models because they feared being pigeonholed as a "numbers guy".  They wanted focus on the "big picture".  In two years these empty suits were gone.  They go it backwards by thinking that the firm was there to serve them.

 

This new fund is a critical test for you.  Ignore the assurances from your superiors that this is your choice.  It isn't.  If you say no, you have put yourself ahead of your firm and for that there will be consequences.  Maybe not tangible way, maybe not immediately, but people will take note and it will happen. The bottom line is this:  you should take the job and work your tail off with a positive attitude to make it a success, or leave the firm. 

 

The best way to advance in your career is to gain a reputation as a "can-do" individual who will do whatever it takes for the benefit of your current boss and your firm.  Once you succeed here (and it will take many years of effort), opportunities will follow.  Lots of them.  When bosses start to fight over you and you start to get job offers outside the firm, then you are making good progress!

 

Phaceliacapital,

 

Onyx' advice is spot on. That's the best way to get ahead in an existing organization.  Robert W. Woodruff had little interest in academics in high school, but he managed seven different programs to help those faculty and staff who were responsible be more successful, grunt work like being the "manager" of the football team to volunteering to help the headmaster save the school in a financial crisis, a mission he accomplished in a surprising way.  He was tapped to become the manager of a company in a new field, Coca Cola, when he was in his 30's, and he had a distinguished career as their chairman for many decades.

 

His favorite saying was, "There is no limit to what a person can accomplish if he doesn't care who gets the credit"

 

However, the fact that you approached the opportunity presented by your boss with less than enthusiasm suggests that your motivated abilities give you strength in a different area than management.  What's your sweet spot?

 

[Phaceliacapital]

I would never say that I am not motivated to do something in management (you are referring to fund management, right? else I misinterpreted), in contrary, I think managing a fund is incredibly interesting but I reasoned that the interest in managing a fund should not outweigh the content that I will be managing.

 

With regards to my sweet spot, I don't know, if you would ask me I would say equities (research and maybe one day, management of), but as pointed out several times, I am quite young so maybe I don't even know..

 

Thanks all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[twacowfca]

I would never say that I am not motivated to do something in management (you are referring to fund management, right? else I misinterpreted), in contrary, I think managing a fund is incredibly interesting but I reasoned that the interest in managing a fund should not outweigh the content that I will be managing.

 

With regards to my sweet spot, I don't know, if you would ask me I would say equities (research and maybe one day, management of), but as pointed out several times, I am quite young so maybe I don't even know..

 

Thanks all!

 

Your motivated abilities will become evident if you will journal how they became manifest over time. Think back to the earliest strong memory you have about what you liked to do and did very well. Write that short narrative down and describe how you did the next enjoyable accomplishment when you were a little older. Keep doing that through the present time.

 

Then , the pattern of your giftedness will emerge.

 

[rmitz]

I have given a lot of career advice in my time.  Most things tend to fall into the same general categories.  You have not been "asked" whether you will take this position, you have essentially been "told" to take it.  Of course you have options.  You don't have to take it as you haven't been ordered to, but there are ramifications for that choice. 

 

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