Zero Beta

I recently accepted a position as an analyst for Yoonew.  If you haven’t heard about them, you should check the site out.  Yoonew is, at its core, a sports ticket futures/options exchange.  While they offer a depth of products, they are best known for their “Fantasy Seats”.  These allow the average fan to buy tickets to the big game (Superbowl, World Series, NCAA Final Four, etc), if their team (or whatever team they choose) makes it to the game.  As you can guess, the creates a much more efficient and free market for these tickets.  Thanks to the growth in information and technology, the ticket industry, as many other industries have in the past, is experiencing increasing transparency and dynamic pricing, and Yoonew will be a very exciting place to be during this period of time.

I first heard about yoonew from a post on All About Alpha and found it to be very interesting.  When I started to look for a new job saw that they were looking for someone, knew where I wanted to be.  For someone whose major interests are financial markets, derivatives, exchanges, web technology, startups, as well as sports, working at Yoonew will be a dream come true.  I’m really excited about it and while for quite some time I was worried it wouldn’t happen, I found exactly what I was looking for.  It is also quite fitting that these products are in fact zero beta assets.

To those of you who responded to my post on looking for a job, I truly appreciate your help and advice, and the response was much greater than expected.

To those who are looking for a job in this market, or may have to soon for whatever reason (especially those in New York), it is quite difficult out there - trust me I know.  Below is some insight from my own process that I think is useful to those who are looking for whatever reason that may be..

1. Don’t get discouraged and don’t settle.  Find a few jobs you will really want and go after them hard.  Many people are playing quantity over quality right now because they are scared, insulted, and/or never really looked for a job.  It won’t work.
2. This is not a seller’s market, and getting worse by the day.  There are tons of people looking for very few jobs - a good portion of which are becoming available because a previously higher paid person occupying was fired so that they could hire someone for much less.  Many positions that a year or two prior someone with a good background, education, and skill set, but little to no experience are being offered at significant discounts in compensation but requiring MBA’s and 5+ years of experience - the supply demand is so skewed that they can.
3. If you wish to look for a job, or are forced to look for a job, EXPECT to take a pay cut - its nothing personal, its just the way it is.  Those who don’t, are going to find themselves unemployed for quite some time and eventually earning something far less than what they “deserve”, doing something far removed from what they want to do. Also, realize that these layoffs should make things like rent cheaper in NY, as demand will dry up and supply hits the market - but it should take some time before it works through (its called deflation).  So a pay cut may be offset by a cost of living cut - don’t dick around looking for a salary, look for a job that you want.
4. Send a Cover Letter.  Your resume may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there are so many resumes getting sent, that the easiest way to make the first cut is to take out all the people who didn’t send a cover letter.
5. If you are going to write a cover letter pointing out the obvious on your resume, or give some generic cover letter,  your resume better be good.
6. If on your resume there isn’t at least two of the following words: Goldman Sachs, MBA, CFA, CPA, C++, SQL, or “Willing to Work for CDO’s”, if you don’t plan on sending a really targeted cover letter (something that takes a few hours to write), don’t waste your time sending any cover letter at all.  You can email a resume, but I would almost say that the process of emailing it, and following up on it, along with the rejection that you will probably feel cause that to be a net-negative activity.
7. You are going to find the bullshit on your resume is going to be noticeable and its really going to  stink.  Everybody bullshits on their resume to some extent, and the urge to do so will be greater this time around, as you feel the weight of the competition.  It will only hurt you.  Since nobody wants to take risks and the people who are evaluating your resume are worried about their OWN jobs, and there are many resumes flying around, any resume that is bullshit free will strictly dominate your resume - because its much more transparent.  And when I mean bullshit, I don’t mean lying.  I mean the fluff.  If you were Junior Analyst at Retarded Bank and you write that your responsibilities were way above what a Junior Analyst would do - even though you may have “kind of” did stuff like that, there is someone who had a job that actually did stuff like that.  You are much better served toning down the bullshit as there may be other jobs available, that if your entire resume wasn’t in doubt, you could get.
8. Just because a job is posted, it does not mean that there is necessarily an immediate need to fill it.  Many jobs on these boards are posted new, but have actually been posted and reposted for months to look fresh and stay current.  Many people are looking for this as an opportunity to come across the right person.  If you are not sure right person for a certain job, don’t waste your time taking a flyer.  If you think you are the right person, you better spend a lot of time convincing people why you are.
9. Headhunters may actually blow you off.  They have no incentive on making a “risky” sale at this moment and piss off a client.  They have way too many people looking for way too few jobs.  If they say they’re looking for you, don’t count on it.  They are salesman like anyone else and don’t risk much saying that.
10. Using your network doesn’t work like it has in the past.  Many people are worried about keeping their own jobs and have no incentive to pass on a resume.  The further out you get on your network and the less they know you, the more this is true.  They are not being assholes or blowing you off, they are just either being realistic or looking out for themselves - there is a difference and dont’ take it personally.
11. For many on Wall Street, there are not many great “opportunities” out there.  One opportunity that I saw was in positions that you may have dreamed about doing or would liked to have done, but never had an economic incentive to do because you were paid too much not to for so long.  It is a decent time to make strategic moves with your future in mind, or moves where you are compensated through some intrinsic intangible such as happiness, growth opportunity, work environment, etc.  Right now this is where the value is, as many people have not yet realized that they are not going to make as much as they used to and are wasting time applying for jobs they are not qualifed for because they filter based on salary.  This won’t, however, last for long, so the earlier you realize it, the better you are.
12. You are selling yourself.  Some people who are looking for jobs right now dont’ understand that.  Many got their first job through posting their resume on Monster or their college job board, going to an interview, and then being sold that job.  In most cases this is not happening right now.  Always be closing.