Life sometimes has a funny way of reminding you that what you do isn't exactly what you love. For every Elon Musk there are a 1000 me's who basically compromised on what they loved in order to pursue something that was 'safe' or basically weren't decisive enough to forge their own path.
In 2007, I started off as an engineer in India and got into the IT offshoring industry as a programmer. That wasn't the only industry hiring but I just went ahead with the first company that came to campus which was one of the largest banks in the world. Moved to a new city, met my wife, learnt a lot and got exposed to equity research for the first time in my life. I never invested a penny in the stock market but I just valued firms in order to see if I was right.
Loved it so much that I really wanted to do an MBA and break into the finance industry. Left for my MBA and on the day I landed the US lost its AAA rating :) But anyways loved finance and everything about it, got a job as a graduate assistant to help manage the FIG(Financial institutes group) for the university's endowment fund. This was and still is the best job I have ever had.
A weak economy coupled with immigration hassles, I couldn't get into the financial industry but there was one industry that still wanted me but not as much as I wanted her. The IT outsourcing industry. Got in as a solutions consultant, moved to WI to help stabilize an account, put account on growth path and now am back in NY working as a consultant.
5 years / 1825 days / 43,800 hours I have spent in the IT outsourcing industry and there isn't a day when I have not missed finance. I don't mean to say that I hate IT, it has had its moments but I just haven't had the balls to really say screw it to a $140K salary and move to finance as an entry level guy. A wife, an MBA loan and a kid on the way haven't made things easy either.
So why this post after all this time? I think I have come to terms with the fact that if I ever want to be happy at what I do, I need to switch and forego the salary for sometime. I might be older than most entry level equity research folk but I am determined to make sure that I at least get a chance to work in the industry and see for myself what its like to do valuations for a living.
In 2007, I started off as an engineer in India and got into the IT offshoring industry as a programmer. That wasn't the only industry hiring but I just went ahead with the first company that came to campus which was one of the largest banks in the world. Moved to a new city, met my wife, learnt a lot and got exposed to equity research for the first time in my life. I never invested a penny in the stock market but I just valued firms in order to see if I was right.
Loved it so much that I really wanted to do an MBA and break into the finance industry. Left for my MBA and on the day I landed the US lost its AAA rating :) But anyways loved finance and everything about it, got a job as a graduate assistant to help manage the FIG(Financial institutes group) for the university's endowment fund. This was and still is the best job I have ever had.
A weak economy coupled with immigration hassles, I couldn't get into the financial industry but there was one industry that still wanted me but not as much as I wanted her. The IT outsourcing industry. Got in as a solutions consultant, moved to WI to help stabilize an account, put account on growth path and now am back in NY working as a consultant.
5 years / 1825 days / 43,800 hours I have spent in the IT outsourcing industry and there isn't a day when I have not missed finance. I don't mean to say that I hate IT, it has had its moments but I just haven't had the balls to really say screw it to a $140K salary and move to finance as an entry level guy. A wife, an MBA loan and a kid on the way haven't made things easy either.
So why this post after all this time? I think I have come to terms with the fact that if I ever want to be happy at what I do, I need to switch and forego the salary for sometime. I might be older than most entry level equity research folk but I am determined to make sure that I at least get a chance to work in the industry and see for myself what its like to do valuations for a living.
