After The MBA

The Job Search Begins (Sort Of)

After a week of job searching, I have made two observations:

#1) There are not many finance jobs out there at all.

#2)  It sucks to have “finance” plastered all over your resume right now. (BS in Finance. MBA in Finance. Diversification apparently is not in my vocabulary.)

To be honest, it isn’t like there aren’t any equity research jobs in San Francisco. They just all happen to be related to highly technical fields like biotech, pharma or semiconductors. Here are two (out of like three) equity research postings within 20 miles of my zip code in the past month:

Investment Analyst – Capital World Investors

• The ideal candidate will have at least 3 years of experience analyzing relevant investments.
• Interest and experience researching small and mid-cap investments (as well as large cap)
• MD or relevant PhD Preferred.
• He or she will value the accountability of investing money in the research portfolio but enjoy being immersed in analysis as a long-term career.

I can smooth talk my way through most of those bullet points but #3 (the part about having an MD or PhD) sinks my battleship. And yes, there are plenty of MBA/MDs applying for these jobs. Just ask my classmate Dr. Sasha why he decided to go back and finish his residency after completing his MBA.

Equity Research Associate (IT Hardware and Imaging) - J.P. Morgan

· More than three years work experience in PC, server, storage, or printer industries.
· Sales, marketing, or business development work experience.
· Deep understanding of and an interest in Information Technology trends.
· Proficiency in business writing and verbal presentations.
· Financial modeling and market sizing experience strongly encouraged.

Okay well I don’t have any sales, marketing or biz dev experience, and certainly not in the IT Hardware and Imaging industries. And do they really expect people out there to have a deep understanding of, and an interest in Information Technology trends? Good luck to J.P. Morgan finding a bunch of former computer engineers looking to career-switch into finance!

Maybe I am being too picky....perhaps I should be more open minded and set my search criteria to jobs within 50 MILES of my zip code.

Stand-Up Comedy Is Harder Than I Thought

So I have decided to take a break from pursuing a career in stand-up comedy because frankly, it doesn’t pay anything (not even subway fare). Maybe I was crazy but my dream was to do my first open mic, and have the MC and comedy club manager pull me aside after my act and tell me that I was a natural and the funniest rookie that they had ever seen and that they wanted to book me for the following week. Basically, I was hoping to be the Lebron James of comedy aka The Chosen One.

Although my first open mic went well, none of that ever happened. The following week, I performed my second open mic, which was much improved from the first time around and yet no one was offering me a contract. After I completed my stand-up comedy course, I asked my teacher if my dream about getting offered a contract was realistic or not. Apparently, my dream scenario was totally nuts (he thought I was joking at first) and his expression was priceless once he realized I was being serious. I was told that the most talented and driven comedians take at least 2-3 years before making enough money to support themselves from comedy alone. On average, most decent comedians spend about 7 years doing comedy on the side before they are able to make enough money to quit their regular day jobs.

On one hand, this meant that I still potentially could be the Lebron James of comedy. But on the other hand, I would need at least 2-3 more years before I would be seeing any sort of payout. I love making people laugh and I’m totally not in it for the money but I do have a ton of student loans to pay off and my alcohol expenses have skyrocketed now that I have left Ithaca, NY where drinks were cheap. Seeing that I don’t have enough savings to last me 2-3 more years without positive cash flow, this means that I have to put my stand-up career on hold and keep it as a hobby.

I hate to admit it but I need to find a job (that pays money). At least I can put San Francisco Comedy College on my resume now! =P

I'm Living With 3 Women

I haven’t written a new post in awhile because I recently moved into my NEW apartment and have been unpacking and settling down. Ironically, despite all my in-depth analysis about the optimal roommate scenario, I have ended up living with three females. How did this happen you ask? Well, after not finding a housing-share that I really liked during the first few weeks in SF, I decided to get a 1-month sublet to hold me over while I continued my housing search (never settle for crappy long-term housing!). My 1-month sublet was in the Mission neighborhood, which is something of a mix between the East Village/Alphabet City in Manhattan and Oaxaca, Mexico.

After I started living in the Mission (in my sublet), I felt that this was the only neighborhood in San Francisco that I wanted to live, which significantly reduced my options for housing. Therefore, I had to be a little more flexible with my preferences, even if it meant giving up the optimal roommate scenario. And to be honest, the three ladies that I am living with are really chill and low drama (thus far). It is also pretty clutch that I have my own bathroom so that I can take bubble baths at my leisure and I don’t have to worry about someone else being inconsiderate and leaving the toilet seat down in the middle of the night.

And you might also be wondering why 3 women would choose to live with me (what a silly question might I add). As much as I would like to credit my boyish charm and good sense of humor, I have a feeling that it was my ability to make buttermilk pancakes from scratch that won them over. So fellas, if you ever want to impress the ladies or weird your guy friends out (yes Jae and Lou I'm talking about you), offer to make them homemade buttermilk pancakes!