A little something about work

Another Monday morning, which means one week closer to retirement:-) And I have like half an hour before we get a response from someone and I will have to work like a maniac for the rest of the day, so I will take that time to chime in here.

I think I will talk about my job, which I promised to do but didn’t. I work for a firm that would be considered pretty small by most standards but is big in this industry. In the interest of not giving too much away, I will describe it as a sub-industry of “Investment Banking.” It isn’t really that, but that gives you enough of an idea.

I really have no business being here, and have no illusions about having this job for any reason other than being the boss’s (kind-of) daughter. Which, to be honest, I think helps me more than it hurts. In other cases, people might be jealous (I am, after all, the only employee who’s picture hangs on the wall in the boss’s office), but the nature of things here is that no one really is, and they genuinely appreciate having someone who can communicate with him in a different way than they rest of them.

How out of place am I? Well…generally, there is a clear career path on the Investment Staff. At the top are partners (of which there are five, and Papa Bear is the Managing Partner). Then there are Vice Presidents, then Principals and then Associates. At the bottom are Analysts. Within some of those, there are levels…Junior, regular and Senior. So, technically, it goes Junior Analyst, Analyst, Senior Analyst, Associate, Senior Associate, Principal, Vice President, Senior Vice President, Junior Partner, Partner.

The only thing is, the firm doesn’t hire analysts. It is not really a place where anyone will get “trained”, so rather than hire and train junior people, they normally just hire people who have a couple of years of I-Banking experience and an MBA and bring them in at the Senior Associate level.

Except me:-) I was the first Junior Analyst they ever had, meaning they kind of dusted off the position. I got promoted to Analyst right away because they mis-printed my business cards…Lol. True story, they left the “Junior” off, so they just announced to me, Congrats, you got promoted… No, I didn’t get a raise for that.

Beyond me, though, the next most junior people are the three Senior Associates. All of them have a couple years at the major banking houses, two have MBA’s from Harvard and one from Wharton. And they also all make like three times what I do…small detail.

Which puts me in a really unique spot, and I think helps in curbing what could naturally be some jealousy. Also, most of the staff are men, and they love that they can take me out and I pick up girls for them…so I have that going for me, too…hee hee!

Anyway, I really like my job. I love the people I work with and they are all very good to me. As you can guess, there is no really “training program” but people really go out of their way to explain things to me and teach me stuff. I know that if something comes up that I have never heard of, I can ask someone to explain it to and they will almost certainly take time over lunch to do it.

It is also an industry with no ceiling. The people are incredibly smart and work unbelievably hard, and for the people that are good at it, there is no limit to what you can do…and how much money you can make;-)

Within the industry, this is one of the more desirable places to work. It has been around longer than most, we raise some of the biggest funds and do some of the biggest deals. People go to great lengths to work here, which means that I am again incredibly lucky to have kind of landed here and had them create a spot for me. Everyone here qualifies as a super-achiever…except me:-P

So that is kind of it…like most things, I ended up here completely as an accident but it has worked out great. I make much better money than I deserve to but I genuinely enjoy coming to work every day. It’s hard to beat that. Even better…I work about a five minute walk from home and Munchkin’s school, which means I never have to drive and can get back and forth easily. One more reason I love living in the city!

Also, special note…Boss Foxy gets her own post later on…she is worth it;-)