Wall Street Job-Hunter Chronicle

Quote from knocks420:

... Here's the kicker, their offering stock options in the company, and quite a few. At first I was really excited, but then I thought about it -why would they offer SO many options to a first year person and also, how many start-ups actually go public? Must be thousands of start-ups offering stock options that are basically worthless. Anyone been through a similar situation?...
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Many have wound up empty handed on stock options. Especially those taking options around 1999,2000, and 2001.

However, the 1996 Yahoo options at $1/share are worth $1200/share now and the 1998 Broadcom options at $0.50/share are worth $300/share now (stock splits). Needless to say ... I could go into the 1980s with INTC and MSFT.

The odds are not "good", but they are many orders of magnitude better than a lottery ticket.

I believe options should be treated as "icing on the cake" ... make sure you would still eat the cake if it has no icing.

To get an idea of the PV of your stock options ask:

1) how many shares outstanding (including options pool)
2) Revenues for trailing 12 months
3) multiplier should be (3-5x)

then, (option_grant/shares_out)*TTM_revenues*Multiplier

this is the value of the call option "trade" entered on your behalf of the company.
 
Quote from knocks420:

I have sent a counter-offer to the firm around DC. Let's see what they say, I have to make a decision by tomorrow.

I will also call the firm in NYC and see if there is any interest.
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I called them today and they actually Rescinded the offer. ARGH! What is the deal? I asked for an additional 3K a year and one or two extra vacation days (my bro is getting married in Europe later this year)

It would have been great to get but it's a negotiation, isn't it? I wasn't expecting to get it all. I figured they would just come back with 'nope sorry' offer as it stands.

My previous job I asked for more money and I got it, this is fresh out of school and I was in no position to even ask for more.
 
Some of us who have had the benefit of living a few more years than you realize that the value of an opportunity is usually more important than the value of a paycheck.

I'm done. I'll let everyone else blast him.
 
Quote from knocks420:

I called them today and they actually Rescinded the offer. ARGH! What is the deal? I asked for an additional 3K a year and one or two extra vacation days (my bro is getting married in Europe later this year)

It would have been great to get but it's a negotiation, isn't it? I wasn't expecting to get it all. I figured they would just come back with 'nope sorry' offer as it stands.

My previous job I asked for more money and I got it, this is fresh out of school and I was in no position to even ask for more.
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I've seen this scenario several times in my career. Sometimes companies are just fishing for someone cheap and exploitable. Don't sweat it, just keep pushing it's a numbers game in the end. There's very little point in working for jerks.
 
Quote from nlslax:

Some of us who have had the benefit of living a few more years than you realize that the value of an opportunity is usually more important than the value of a paycheck.

I'm done. I'll let everyone else blast him.
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Why would people blast me for asking for more money? Most organizations go through quite a process to hire additional personnel, its not done lightly, theres a lot of investment of time devoted to the hiring process. When a company makes an offer, regardless of the industry, this is probably your one and only chance to negotiate. Future pay in any job depends greatly on where you start. It TENDS to be a low risk, high reward situation. It paid off on my first position, obviously not this time.

It obviously hurts and I'm pissed off but it also reflects poorly on the company and the position. I have to believe that I, and the company, may have built up this position too highly, this company is in reality just looking for a body, anybody, to fill the role. I was interested because of the promise of future involvment in product introduction (options, FI, etc.) They probably had little or no intention of actually delivering.

Now I understand that for the right opportunity, pay doesn't matter. There's a NYMEX clerk posting paying 20K and I would take it in a hearbeat. I still have a potential candidate with the research/trading company that would offer far greater future potential then the DC position. In a way, perhaps a blessing in disguise? Will keep posting.
 
Quote from ssternlight:

I've seen this scenario several times in my career. Sometimes companies are just fishing for someone cheap and exploitable. Don't sweat it, just keep pushing it's a numbers game in the end. There's very little point in working for jerks.
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And they were such nice people?!

Thanks for the support, I do appreciate it.

I guess if anyone is interested, I noticed the posting for this position back on craigslist. If anyone wants to give it a spin, PM me, but don't get all caught up in the verbiage. It's not a 'great place to learn trading' its slow-paced, admin, cubicle life.
 
New York didn't follow through, they hired another sales trader who was bringing a small book with him, I was no contest.

This is definetly a setback and quite frustrating. I'll go over my interview notes and resume, see if I can improve on something cause my record blows.

Ha, job hunting sucks.
 
Quote from knocks420:

New York didn't follow through, they hired another sales trader who was bringing a small book with him, I was no contest.

This is definetly a setback and quite frustrating. I'll go over my interview notes and resume, see if I can improve on something cause my record blows.

Ha, job hunting sucks.
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What's the old metric -- one month searching aggressively for every $10K in salary sought.
 
Leads have slowed WAY down. Rejection notes have been piling up nicely, I could probably heat the house this winter with all of them. So yeah, I'm getting frustrated.

I have an interview Thursday with a prop daytrading firm. When I first saw these positions advertised a few years back I was really excited about the opportunity. But after reading through tons of posts on here about shady firms, high failure rates, and lack of proper training-I've been really skeptical of these firms. This firm does happen to offer a salary, benefits, and no cap contribution. I would be an 'assistant' for about a year.

How to tell if this is a legitimate opportunity and not some churn and burn type shop? Anywhere I go I'd have to start as an assistant and get paid shit, follow a senior trader, but I feel like the more traditional companies (agency, principals) would have a higher probability of success because they have more interest in the person succeeding. Any truth in this??

Also if the salary is just a draw on future earnings, then its technically not a salary, its a loan, correct??
 
Quote from knocks420:

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Also if the salary is just a draw on future earnings, then its technically not a salary, its a loan, correct??
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Well, theoretically, a "draw" is a loan against future wages. There is little recourse for a company to recover a draw if it has been paid through a W2. So ... you should consider it a "worst case" salary ... and if the earnings never come to fruition to cover the draw, then leave the company without worries of repaying the draw.

... an opinion, by a headhunter.

danoXP
 
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