First Impressions

I had a busy weekend, so I didn't have a chance to update my story. I am currently sitting in a meeting for a new project my manager put me on. The project is code scanning for an Open Source project my department will be participating in. I have no experience with this at all. So, iI am in my last week of work and am being put on a brand new project .... nice thinking! And if you think this line of thinking is ridiculous, just wait till you hear the rest of my story.

So, I left off last time having submitted my resume and questionnaire to the trading company. The next morning I went into the remote work location and frequently checked my personal email account for a response. Shortly before noon, I received an email from the company, saying they were interested in meeting with me for an interview! Wow! I mean I felt pretty good with my resume and my responses to their questions, but I had no idea they would respond to me that quickly. I ended up calling the company after lunch and set up an interview that next week after I had returned. I felt so proud of myself for submitting my resume, spending the time on the questions, and putting myself out there. I was beaming ... glowing .. and feeling pretty good about myself the whole trip home!

On Thursday, November 10, I attended the interview, and my first impression of the trading company was less than spectacular. I walked into one large, open office area of darkness with just the glow of hundreds of monitors illuminating the room. I saw traders hunched over in front of 3 or more monitors a piece intently focused on what was their life blood. The sound of a live news feed from the exchange floor was being piped in over speakers. CNBC was being shown on numerous televisions mounted on the walls. I was immediately overwhelmed and intimidated. My first thought was, "Could I really work in this environment every day for a living?" My initial response was "No", but I figured I was there and I might as well carry out with the interview. First, I had a meeting with the HR director and that went very well. There were the normal, personal questions and questions about trading, but mainly, I think they were trying to find out what type of person I was. The first interview went well. The second interview was with the director of finance, and it didn't go as well. He presented his concern that my analytical background of math and computer science was going to be a hindrance in this position rather than a benefit. Apparently, there have been others like me who have tried to be successful with the firm, but have found it very difficult to make a quick decision. They overanalyze the situation and as a result miss numerous opportunities. All I could tell him is that although I find myself doing those same things, I will have to realize that I cannot be successful doing them and force myself to make a change. I believe he was satisfied with the response and the rest of the interview was relatively average - not necessarily good, but not bad either.

The last part of the interview was the most interesting part. It was a test of multi-tasking skills and pattern recognition. I will probably go into further detail with these tests in another post, but let me just say it was about an hour and a half of some intense skill testing. It was all computer based and was extremely unique. The HR director said there was no way to study for it and she was correct - you either had it or you didn't. It was actually one of the most original tests I have ever taken and left me wondering how I scored. Like I said I will probably go into further details about these tests later, but I must continue my story.

So, I left the company after a half day of interviewing and testing with mixed emotions. The environment scared me, but the test I had taken was just awesome. Plus, if the skills I had demonstrated during the test were actually relevant to the work I would be doing everyday, then maybe this would work out for me. However, the job wasn't the "holy grail" I had thought it would be. Would I be better off just day trading with my own money and going through the learning curve on my own? Truly, what benefits would I have going with a company like this? Unfortunately, I started second guessing myself and that frustrated me even more. Regardless, it was not up to me to make the decision anymore and based on my second interview, I didn't want to get my hopes up too high.

The next week came and I didn't hear anything for a couple of days. As a result, the negative thoughts started haunting me. I started focusing a lot more on the negatives on the job than the positives, and actually talked myself into not accepting a position if one was offered to me. Late that week, however, I finally got the call I was looking for:
"David, this is ???? from ????. We would just like to say that we were very impressed with your interview and your test results and would like to officially extend an offer for you to join our firm."
"Wow, that is great. I am very appreciative, but before we go any further I have a few more questions."
"OK? Sure .. go ahead."
"Well ... I have been thinking and talking to some people and they question why I shouldn't just do this on my own with the money I had saved up to support myself during your "learning curve". I mean, why should I join the firm and have to split profits if I can do it on my own and keep everything?"
"Well ... David .. we thought you were interested in joining with us and that is not necessarily a question I can answer."
"Yeah ... I mean .. I guess I don't really know what is like to be a trader. Maybe I can make a better decision if I could shadow someone for a half or whole day. Then I could make up my mind."
"OK? Well .. I think I can arrange that. Let me get back with you when I can find someone you can shadow. In the meantime, I am going to hold off on the sending the offer to you until your mind is more made up."
"OK ... that sounds good I will look forward to hearing from you soon."

So ... that didn't go as I had planned at all. My comments were stupid and scared them, and now I risked them calling me back and saying:
"Hello David ... our first impression of your quick decision making ability was confirmed and we are not interested in having you join after all. Thank you for your time and best of luck in the future."

What had I done? Stupid, stupid!

So now ... another waiting game. Would they call back? What would they say?

.... you know the routine ... answers in the next blog entry.