Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist - The F.S.A.

I received an offer from the hedge fund and I declined it. This marks the second time I have successfully interviewed and received an offer from a hedge fund and also the second time I turned it down. While last time I had a tinge of regret, this time I was significantly disappointed.

First some backgroud information. The firm is in NYC, they are very small (7-8 investment people) with $1.5 billion in assets under management and more waiting on the sidelines from potential investors. There was an immediate need for some project work involving excel and vba to automate some processes, and from there I would be thrust headfirst into analysis and investment decision making. The person who was going to be my mentor (of sorts) was a seasoned professional and appeared to be an all-around nice guy. In short, I was extremely excited about the position, the people, and of course, the potential for untold riches. A few weeks after interviewing they came back with an offer which I ultimately declined.

So why did I decline another offer? Work-life balance. My wife and I sat down and she basically said, if you can come home by at least 7:30-8:00 everyday, then we can go to this firm (assuming we can negotiate a more than adequate relocation package). I told her I couldn't do that. The guys at the fund told me that there were days where everyone was in the office until midnight. Given the current challenging market environment and the small nature of the firm, that would have been impossible to follow through with. When I told her this, she said, I'm sorry honey.

I was really upset about the decision. I spoke to the firm the next day and while they appeared willing to try to negotiate on compensation, I had to be firm and say that comp wasn't the overriding factor. Indeed, I wasn't looking at other opportunities because of compensation, I was doing it more so for career prospects. I wanted to have some idea of what my future career could look like. I don't really have that right now and I'm not sure when I will.

Until then, it's back to the drawing board for me. I need to buckle down and try to continue by efforts at my current employer. Hopefully it will mean good things further down the road.

I just couldn't resist this one. From Jim Lippard:

Webster Cook smuggled a magic biscuit out of the service of a lunatic cult, in order to show a friend what it was like. Members of the cult issued death threats, the local spokespeople for the cult suggested that he was in danger of eternal damnation and called it a "hate crime," and completely insane national spokespeople claimed that he had committed the moral equivalent of kidnapping.

Real quick, net worth is ~$20K. Assets were down (damn stock market) and liabilities were up (damn kids!).

On to the here we go again part.

I interviewed with another hedge fund. This time in NYC and if I get a good offer we are seriously going to consider moving. There are various reasons for why we would do it now, that I will detail later. I don't have an offer from this place yet, but I am 90% confident that I will be getting an offer. It's just a matter of how good an offer it will be.