Hello readers,
How are you? Today's post is going to be a quick one, and it's not really even about me-
Four, five months ago, while New York was breezing cold, my friend Grace reached out to me, asking if Cornerstone Research was still hiring for analysts. She was helping out her friend, Marco, who have been job hunting as he wanted to stay in the States after he graduated. Unfortunately, at that point, CRNY has stopped recruiting for the season, since we've met our target of analysts for hire. But I decided that I could meet Marco anyways- I really enjoyed chatting with the friendly fellow when I met him at Brooklyn Cider House for Grace's birthday party.
With the intent to act as a resource for him, and to provide him with some encouragement (I've been through what he went through, too), I met him for dinner, just the two of us. We met in a sushi place that he recommended, which is apparently owned by an Indonesian. Anyways, we chatted, and we had a blast. I learned that he is very similar to me, very nice, smart, and driven- he has opportunities back home, but he wanted to stay. (I called it a "happy predicament", by the way). I shared my experience looking for internships and full-time jobs here, and told him about getting coffee chats and Scouted.io, which got me my first-ever internship that arguably led me to my job today (which I'm happily working for longer than two years now!!)
Needless to say, I picked the tab up (hey I was cheering him up, man), and simply told him to buy me a dinner later, when he eventually got a job offer. Wow it rhymes. I wasn't expecting anything- I know in my heart for sure that eventually he will land something, but I didn't actually expect him to remember what I said or this dinner at all.
A few months later, as we were savoring our Korean food at Take31, he said that the conversation he had was pivotal- he landed a job at Bridgewater, the world's largest hedge fund [really tempted to insert a footnote explaining as-of date, with AUM here hahaha], through Scouted.io. This was such great news, and thinking about it really warmed my heart, as he told me how his superday proceeded in such a Bridgewater-esque fashion. For one, he got scored on every single segment of his interviews, and it was transparently floated to him. Another curveball was that he received coding questions although he didn't apply for a technical role (yes, throughout the process his interviewers realized he might have an aptitude for coding, and shifted him to that role, asking him, among other things, how to construct an algorithm that prevents a linked-list from looping over itself). The biggest punchline (at least for me), however, was his interviewers asking for his feedback after the interview ended. Classic radical transparency.
He asked me for some advice- I told him what my old boss Alex Wang told me: Have a backbone. Your life is not your firm's, don't let them screw you over as they please. Otherwise, do a banger job and all will be fine.
Congrats Marco! I'm sure you'll do more than just fine there. And thank you, not only for picking up the tab, but for valuing my advice and sharing your journey with me. I pray for your success, and I can't wait to hear more about your career there!
