In this fifth instalment of the stories of my professional past, I want to discuss my experience in changing jobs. The why and then whether those moves tended to have been a good decision or not.
“The grass isn’t greener on the other side”. This a very common sentence when people consider switching jobs. I have switched jobs quite often. The reasons for the change were usually quite straightforward, especially in my earlier career days.
Lack of opportunity or a flat hierarchy where only limited promotion prospects were in sight was one of my first reason for moving to a larger corporation. Other reasons involved having a below-par manager who made it impossible to work with. Then there is obviously the allure of more pay which is, of course, an important factor to consider. I have never moved jobs where my all-in package wasn’t at least a 30% uplift. I negotiated hard not to get less than that. Of course, you will also get higher pay offers to stay once you have resigned. I have never reconsidered, but I know of a few who have and regretted doing so. Once you decide to leave, just leave.
What are the important things I have considered when switching jobs aside from the obvious more superficialities of job titles and money? It’s obviously about the people you are going to work with and for. Your boss is your most important person when making that decision. What is a good boss? That’s a tough one. I wrote a piece a few months back that some of you might find interesting to read again. In it, I reflected on a first conversation with a potential boss:
“When finishing my studies I did not want to join a bank or traditional financial institution. I saw my purpose within a corporate, and I interviewed with a large pharmaceutical company to join their treasury and corporate finance team. I was interviewing with the head of the treasury, a cool dude. He asked me what the most important thing is for my career. I, of course, gave him all my well-prepared ready-to-deliver answers about integrity, motivation and drive. He shook his head, took a pen and wrote something on an A4 paper. He turned it around, and it read:
“Your Boss”
Try to find out as much as you can about your potential boss. How well respected is he or her within the organisation? Where else has he/she worked where I could get some intel on him/her? It is not easy. Also, what is your gutfeel telling you? Are there good vibes when you speak? Your senses are important.
The other aspect, of course, is also your peers, colleagues and people you will probably interact with most. The culture of a place is somewhat illusory, in my experience. Larger organisations have a spirit and obviously a drumbeat on how they like to function. Culture, however, is firmly inherent in a team’s culture. That’s why again, your boss and possibly his boss are important elements in determining culture, if there is such a thing.
When I used to interview people, I would ask them what they think the most important ingredients are to run a money management firm. I am sure you have a few ideas. The most common answers were to have smart and hard-working people. But that’s true for a large part of the industry. A winning mentality, however, is ironically not always present. Knowing how to win isn’t something teachable, and, as such, only a fraction of people possess such skills in larger organisations. Transcending this in a team culture is, as far as I am concerned, the holy grail in setting up successful investing teams.
Having moved jobs a few times, I am also astounded by how I found similar characters in every organisation I have worked for. It’s like you are playing the same film with a different cast. It’s as if larger organisations draw on people of similar characteristics. You will have the loud and ever-talking person that needs to opine on their views, regardless of how silly they are, in every meeting. You’ll have charismatic leaders on top who all talk a good game but then falter at the first sign of a crisis. You will inevitably have politicians that will try to befriend you from day one so that they can suss out whether you pose a threat to them or not. Then you will have the quite genius who just work on their things and are enormously more important to the organisation than they realise. Sound familiar? I am not surprised, they all reappear, and there are many more characters that I haven’t mentioned here.
I have never regretted moving jobs. Even at my last institution before I ventured into my own business, where I was hired to build out and manage a faltering team. The money was good, yet the people on top of the organisation were no risk-takers. I compared it to being hired to run a lacklustre F1 team, but the management wouldn’t give me even fuel to start off the engines. It was frustrating, to say the least. I couldn’t make a move on many things. Rather, I spent hours in meetings, politicizing other people. It was gross and very unrewarding. If you ever sense that people on top are not really risk-takers, it’s a red flag, I should have noticed it earlier. But still, I look at the bright side and the gained experience in this episode too.
I mean, it could have been worse. I remember a time in 2010 when my boss hired a new person to run the credit desk. Poor chap showed up on his first day. “That’s not the guy I hired”, shouted my boss to the gentleman, who was accompanied by an HR representative. Turns out HR screwed up and sent the offer letter to the wrong person. Imagine how he must have felt. It turned out well for him, however, and he stayed on for quite a few years and did well. Funny, though, still.
All the best on your journey, and I hope some of my thoughts will be valuable.
Your,