they say don't count your chickens before they hatch...

...but you can definitely still get excited at the prospect of food on your table--or if your of the veggie persuasion, then friends in your chicken coop!

I am awaiting an official offer to arrive by post early next week from Macquarie, Australia's NUMBER ONE bank and a rising star here in the New York finance industry. I couldn't be more thrilled!

To start August Eighth.

faith renewed

While I definitely experienced a set back with my first job here in NY, my faith in my recruiters has been renewed. I went on eight (8) interviews last week. All incredible companies and great positions with great teams.  I voluntarily chose to not pursue one of the opportunities and a couple of the others I could go either way on. BUT there are three, that for me, are in the final running and I hope I am in their final running too. I had my first follow-up of the week today, a third-and-final-round tomorrow and a second-possibly-final-round on Wednesday. Today was psychometric testing and skills assessment. By the time I got off the metro, I had an email asking for me to come back to meet the executives. I am in a bit of shock, (1) to realize that we are actually living in NY, (2) that I may be receiving multiple offers from top international finance firms, (3) that I am being considered.

I read an article in the New Yorker the other day about Sheryl Sandberg--a VP at Facebook. Here's a clip:

Sandberg graduated first in the economics department. At her Phi Beta Kappa induction, there were separate ceremonies for men and women. At hers, a woman gave a speech called “Feeling Like a Fraud.” During the talk, Sandberg looked around the room and saw people nodding. “I thought it was the best speech I’d ever heard,” she recalls. “I felt like that my whole life.” At every stage of her time in school, Sandberg thought, I really fooled them.

I can identify with Ms. Sandberg. Not because I am unqualified or a bad candidate or fraudulent in any way. But, because there is something about walking into these high-powered office buildings among high-powered people that makes me look down at my $8 Ann Taylor suit from the Friends of St. Asaph's thrift store that I altered myself because I didn't want to pay the $16 to have it tailored and think to myself, "Who do you think you are?". 
Here's to thinking big and reaching for the stars. And if I can do it, anyone can do it. 

And if you ever move to New York and are looking for great recruiters, look up Glocap (Colette is my contact--though all of my interviews have come through her colleagues) and ExecuSearch (Jordana is fantastic).

I am so not Manhattan.

I am so behind. I have lists upon lists of things that I need to write about. Happy things. But not today.

Because today I'm bummed. Some people around here call it the Brooklyn Blues. I think there are as many causes as there are people who get sucked down by the Brooklyn Blues. Though maybe mine are more of the Manhattan sort.

I am realizing that I am so not New York. I am more Brooklyn than Manhattan, but really I am just a first generation immigrant from the wild, Wild West.

Our air conditioner isn't working right now. No one wants to come fix it for us. I'm exaggerating. Our landlady sent one guy who doesn't care to take the time to fix it for us. Now, this wouldn't be such an issue if I still had the job that I was offered on the 2nd of July and was sitting in an air conditioned office instead of our oven of a top-floor apartment. (which I still love, don't get me wrong.)

It was a "temp-to-perm" position. They seemed to love me and offered me the position on the spot. I have never done any temp work before so I really didn't know what to expect and since they seemed to want me so badly, even asked me to start the next business day, I thought it would be more similar to my direct hire experiences. But it wasn't and I guess I know now what it's like to be treated like a temp. To be the "them" sitting opposite the "us". Funny though, because the HR manager who interviewed me first kept saying over and over that in this particular firm and especially the team I would be working on, there is no "us and them". Well, they proved her wrong.

They gave me four days. FOUR days of nearly no training and no orientation. Not even so much as a tour around the office to introduce me to everyone or show me where I could find a pen or sticky notes. And at the end of the FOUR days, they told my recruiter that it just wasn't a good fit. And the only example she gave was that I sent the team and email asking for projects and if any of them had time to sit with me to go over some of the processes. I guess I was supposed to stand on my chair and address the whole group vocally at once. Please keep in mind that the executive that I was hired to support wasn't even in town the entire time I was there. So tell me this, who made the decision that I wasn't a good fit? grrr.

I am so not Manhattan.

When do we get to go out West again?