The first significant lead I had was with Pluris Valuation Advisors. I had met with Espen Roback, President of Pluris, a year earlier, and we had much to talk about. I called him, and he agreed to meet for breakfast at Balthazar’s, a trendy SoHo restaurant, where we discussed our experiences and outlooks concerning the valuations business.
A few days later, Espen suggested I visit his office to meet his colleagues.
I knew I had to develop as many leads as I could, so I did not sit back and wait to see what happened with Pluris. I had learned my lesson with Duff & Phelps.
Expanding my search to other types of positions, I reached out to the father of one of my daughter’s classmates. He had a senior business development position with Hewlett Packard and regularly commuted over 3,000 miles to the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
I met with him several times at school-related events, and he was very friendly and encouraging. He said he would speak with his colleagues and try to fit me in—and then he put me in touch with one of his colleagues in Palo Alto.
After a long and intensive telephone interview with his Palo Alto-based colleague, I had doubts about how the conversation had gone, but my contact later told me he had gotten positive feedback and we could move forward. He only needed to get budget approval for a new full-time employee—and I was in!
Another good lead that manifested itself at that time was via my wife’s cousin whose apartment I was using as an office. David Goldman helped me set up an interview at the hedge fund where he worked, one of the world’s largest and most successful, Fortress Investment Group.
In the middle of April, I had a round of interviews with an asset management and in-house valuations group at Fortress, and although my chemistry with the colleagues I met was not perfect, the meetings went well enough—and I assumed David’s pull would enable me to get my foot in the door.
Another great lead came through a friend of my wife’s family in Omaha. I was put in touch with a recruiter who worked closely with D.E. Shaw, another of the world’s largest and most successful hedge funds. The recruiter was excited by my resume, especially my MIT education and investment banking experience. She thought she would at least be able to get me an interview.
Unfortunately, although they each in turn seemed close to happening, none of these great leads worked out. As the weeks passed, initial interviews, follow-up meetings and all decisions were pushed off indefinitely. After all my efforts and great expectations, I could not seem to get a firm answer Yes or No from anyone. Sometimes, I could not even get a reply.
One contact had to wait for a budget review, while another had to go on an urgent business trip, while the others had to talk to their colleagues when they returned from vacation before they could get back to me. It was all taking too long.
What was I going to do? What was I doing wrong? Why couldn’t I find a job?
Cindy and I knew our time was running out fast. If I did not find a job by the end of June, we would not be able to renew the lease on our apartment. We not only had to start thinking about Plan B, we had to start preparing for it.
Where were going to live? How were we going to survive?
We did not have any practical solutions. We spoke about moving out of Manhattan and finding an inexpensive place to live, but I still needed to find a job. Otherwise, we were going to need some serious help.
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