On the job front, my hottest lead at the time was for Duff & Phelps, possibly the firm with the largest business and investment valuations practice in the world. I had met with the Managing Director of the Valuations division, Warren Hirschhorn, a year earlier, and I had enjoyed learning about his approach to valuations.
Once I had informed the Duff & Phelps Human Resources Department that I had officially left Houlihan Lokey at the end of December, they set up a round of interviews for late January. I met with Warren and two of his Directors and spoke with a third Director over the telephone.
When I left Duff & Phelps, I sensed that two of my meetings had gone well. But, as luck would have it, the third seemed to flop with a simple case of imperfect chemistry. Still, I was fairly confident Duff & Phelps would offer me a job. After all, I had met Warren before and Human Resources had been calling me every few months for the past year.
But a few days turned into a few weeks—and still no update. Despite my cajoling, my contact at Duff & Phelps would not let me know my status. I was left hanging. I began to think that even a quick “No,” would be less nerve-wracking than hearing nothing.
In the meantime, I kept busy by watching the stock market, day-trading and sending out resumes. I used online job sites, such as the MIT Sloan Alumni Job Board, CareerBuilder.com, Glocap Search, JobsintheMoney.com, nytimes.com, Monster.com, and others.
Furthermore, I was in telephone and email contact with dozens of recruiters, most of whom specialize in financial positions and some of whom sent out encouraging job alerts and newsletters with new job listings, such as Brokerage Consultants and Dynamics Associates. I was also a regular visitor on LinkedIn.
To round off my job-hunting efforts, I went to networking events sponsored by the MIT Sloan Alumni Club of New York, International Association of Financial Engineers (IAEF) and Professional Risk Manager's International Association (PRMIA). I also continued to network aggressively via friends and family as that is how I had found several jobs in the past.
In any case, I was confident that Duff & Phelps would give me an offer, and I was looking forward to getting a real job with health care, a savings plan and all the other benefits. I had enjoyed a hefty paycheck as a consultant at Houlihan Lokey, but I did not enjoy the insecurity of not knowing day-to-day when my contract would end, and it was disappointing not to have benefits. Worst of all, I was treated like an outsider, while all I ever wanted was to be part of the gang. I wanted to feel as though I belonged in the company where I worked and where I spent most of my days and some of my nights.
After a month a half had passed since my meetings at Duff & Phelps, when I still could not get a reply from Human Resources or Warren Hirschhorn, I started having severe doubts about things working out. Not always, but often when you don’t get a timely reply, it simply means “No.” Some employers just like to let things fizzle out. It’s easier than saying, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
I was disappointed but not yet overly concerned. Something would work out soon, I surmised, whether it was a job or one of my entrepreneurial endeavors.
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