Say goodbye to the dream

[IHateCats]

For all those doubting the reality of working sustained 80+ hour weeks in corporate America, I envy you your naiveté. Admittedly I worked in the tech sector not finance but at 3 different points in my career I spent multiple years in a row pulling non-stop 80+ hour weeks + weekends and I wasn't the only one by a long shot. On the worst project in terms of hours there were 35 of us at the start; 2 years later I was the only 1 left standing because the VP had his stock bonuses tied to our deadlines and he didn't give a crap whether we burned out, left the company, transferred to another group (which he'd try to block) or committed suicide (unfortunately not kidding) , only whether we shipped on time so it was an absurd death march & I spent countless nights sleeping in my office. Consider that the people leaving were forgoing hundreds of thousands of $ in stock options and you get the idea how bad the schedule/work environment was. My gf at the time was a medical intern and my schedule was worse than hers by a considerable margin. Again, this isn't that rare of an occurrence in my experience.

Be prepared to spend a lot of your off hours work socializing/networking/sucking up, you are entering a very introverted world and since you aren't Ivy League MBA, you aren't a member yet. If this pecking order runs counter to your personality, I suspect it will be a problem. Eventually if you can be a top performer that's all that will matter but until then your initial opportunities & perceptions will be heavily affected by your networking.

Lastly, 100k-150k in New York or San Francisco isn't what it is in the rest of the country, take that into consideration.

All in all, I think it’s a solid decision to do what you are doing but a lot will depend on your personality, many people are drawn to poker because the freedom it offers, that’s something that will completely absent in this kind of job. You’ve certainly proven that you can succeed in the poker world and even without online poker; you’ve demonstrated you could easily make a very nice living playing poker and have the freedom that comes with it. It’s all about your own priorities and what matters to you.

Best of luck regardless and respectfully hope not to see you at the table cuz it's -EV.

IHateCats

[igetbadbeat]

On Wall St, the going rate last year was 60k. People who have gotten jobs this year report 65-70k base to me, they're all getting 10-18K signing bonuses and end of year bonuses where that applies (Trading/Ibanking/Corporate Banking/Fixed Income in descending bonus size order). These numbers are standard for wherever you are working; the difference is the job experience you get to put on your resume.

[fish2plus2]

isnt 60k in NY minimum wage? you could probably make $100K selling fake sunglasses to tourists.

[lapoker17]

read the last two - kite runner/high fidelity - they were both very good. i just have a really hard time with fiction in general - i feel as if i'm being cheated somehow. probably why i don't like many movies.

also - the bible was a joke you simpletons.

[mak15]

my cousin graduated MIT last year and is an i-banker. she often get's work handed to her at 10 pm (to complete that day) and says she is often the first person to leave the office, which she does at midnight. she generally works 6 days a week.

[IronUnkind]

[ QUOTE ]
also - the bible was a joke you simpletons.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good joke! KKF is funnier even when he's doing your material.

[faded]

i want to grow up and be jason strasser.

[Your Mom]

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[ QUOTE ]



Yeah, go work for the AMEX. Their traders must make hundreds of thousands of dollars the way they screw retail clients.

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I don't know where you are coming from with this off the
wall comment. When I was on the floor prior to 9/11 there
were 4 active options exchanges with the AMEX number 2 in
volume behind the CBOE. All the floor traders I knew at that
time would bend over backwards to give great prices to
retail clients. After 9/11 with the introduction of the
ICE and multiple listing, the environment changed and the
retail option business declined dramatically. Its a
different environment today. But to say the AMEX went
out of its way to screw retail clients is nonsense. Just
the opposite was true (at least, prior to 9/11).

You have no clue what you are talking about.

Jonathan

[/ QUOTE ]

9/11 was a long time ago bud. I know exactly what I am talking about. It's what I do all day long.

[G-Diddy20]

jason, your post title seems to suggest your walking away from a "dream" you had and eventually acheived. if playing poker and making lots of monies was your dream, not sure why your walking away from it while your right in the midst of it. if your goals have changed or you just need a little something different in your life socially and/or mentally then i suppose you are making a good decision. wish you the best and thanks for all the [censored] you contributed on here.

G

[gomberg]

Read some interesting stuff in this thread...

I just left (read - laid off) my job in the trading industry in chi-town. I've been in there for 4 years programming and running, doing research on automated trading systems. This is where the future is for trading IMHO. The money is sick for some really low risk stuff. This may disappear in the future as people are getting more sophisticated, but it's happening slowly.

Some books I could recommend that I've read in the field...
When Genius Failed
Fooled by Randomness
The Poker Face of Wall Street
The Predictors
Moneyball
Fortune's Formula

That should give you a good basic perspective on trading...

edit: oh also, the hours in this industry in chicago at least are nothing compared to what i've seen in this thread. It was usually 7:30am to like 4:00 on average... Never worked a weekend in my life...