The Unemployed Life

Out on the Street: The Hardest Yard

Joe the Trader chronicles his experiences with life after Wall Street.

Sports is full of clichés about scoring or winning, and fans and analysts are obsessed with the notion of being clutch. In baseball the relief pitcher who comes in the ninth inning to seal the victory is the closer. In football quarterbacks are measured by their ability to negotiate the last twenty yards and how well they can guide their team in the last two minutes of a game. In soccer the forward who can score the goals is called a finisher.

I have never been any of those.

In soccer I played midfield and when I played rugby I was the fullback, the last line of defense. When I played tennis I preferred the slower red clay and Har-Tru surfaces to the fast-paced hard courts. My serve was fairly soft and volleys erratic. I could usually outlast opponents until they made an error, but rarely did I dictate the action on a point. Professionally, my initial work and background was in research—not as flashy as investment banking or sales, and I never needed to close a deal. When I made the move to proprietary trading I tended to capture longer-term themes; I never mastered the dark art of knowing when to really go for a winner with a big position or the clinical finishing of market timing.

Right now in job hunt, though, I can smell the goal line. Fears of a global financial collapse have receded. The banks that have survived relatively well can begin to make strategic business plans, and hiring activity has picked up, especially in the emerging markets. (See The Bucks are Back and Even Your Friends Are Enemies.) It’s a hiring time of year—employers want to execute their business plans before the summer lull. In fact, I now have four job prospects that I would consider live. Two are with established firms and two with new entrants. Now is the time for me to make my big push.

These are the hardest yards. This job search is a new experience for me and it’s one of the most difficult life experiences I have had.

But these are the hardest yards. This job search is a new experience for me and it’s one of the most difficult life experiences I have had. Similar to when my marriage failed, I have questioned my self worth. I’ve been made to feel inferior by the people who are supposed to be helping me. (Read How to Feel Like a Bitch.) It takes effort to continue scheduling networking coffees, lunches and drinks, knowing that nothing tangible will come out of them.  The day-in and day-out of searching for a job that you are pretty sure doesn’t exist—until now—is exhausting.

In the seventeen years since I graduated college, this is only the third time I’ve had to look for work. The first was when I left college and I had no clue what I was doing. But I was able to live with my parents, and at least none of my friends knew what they were doing, either. The second was after graduate school, when I was 28—still there was no real pressure. For crying out loud, I had spent two years living on a $12,000-a-year stipend. I could have temped for more. But now the stakes are high. I have responsibilities, including three kids and seven more years of alimony payments.

The job hunt has taken me longer than I expected— it’s been more than six months since I was laid off. Endurance served me well when I played tennis, and I think it has helped me this year. But now it’s time to finish. How do I do it?

First, I need to be at the top of my game. I have meetings lined up with all four firms in the next week. The jobs are relatively similar to each other, and at each one I will need to be able to explain why I am the best person for that job. I need to focus on getting my message across and not let any oddball questions or unexpected reactions distract me. (Though I have a lot more time on my hands now, I’ve learned that practicing my talking points in the shower is a great way to increase efficiency.) Second, I need to be clear on my business plan for each company. What can I deliver? What resources do I need?  Ok, I can handle those.

Finally, it may be time to bring out the big guns. As I’ve mentioned before, 11 years put me in touch with most people in the emerging markets financial world. It’s now time to call on my heavyweight contacts, to see if they can provide the big push over the goal line. I’ve managed to maintain my contacts since I lost my job, but have been hesitant to really use them up until now. With the goal line near I can’t hold back.  Since I never was a closer before, I am going to have to visualize it. I can hear Ty Webb telling me: “Be the ball Joe, be the ball.”

Joe the Trader spent 11 years as a proprietary trader at a major U.S. bank. He has three children and currently lives in Brooklyn. Some names have been changed to protect the innocent (and the guilty). Read more of his Out on the Street column.

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Tags: job-hunting, Out on the Street, The Unemployed Life, The Working World, Wall Street