So I got a lot of questions on my “I stumbled into the sell-side” statement earlier, and I promised to tell the story sometime.

It’s Friday. What the hell, here goes.

A little of my background. I was once a (halfway decent) chemical engineer. I did a PhD at MIT in the field, doing research in semiconductor processing (I looked at how plasma etch transfers line edge toughness down feature sidewalls if you are interested).

(The project developed out of work I did at IBM Research up in Yorktown and Fishkill, those were the days) :-)

Anyway my project had significant application to semi manufacturing (line edge roughness is a problem today as well) and I had many offers from the usual suspects (Intel, Applied, Novellus etc). In some alternate timeline I’m working at one of them today.

But I went to McKinsey instead :-)

(How I got there is another tale in itself, again for another day).

At McKinsey I specialized early, and did almost 100% of my work in semiconductors, serving clients across the value chain (foundry, memory, equipment, IDMs etc). More time in Taiwan than in US. No kids at that point so I could go wherever. My wife used to come with me sometimes.

Fun and interesting days. Until my first kid was born.

Then it was torture. Not to knock McKinsey - I know the form gets a bad wrap in the press, but I was largely happy with the majority of my projects and I LOVED the people I worked with. But the job is hard on family life, and I traveled more than most.

I lasted a year after my first was born.

BTW my thesis on anything I’m doing is that I’ll do it as long as I’m having a good time, and if that stops I’ll go find something else to do.

I still remember the moment I decided I’d had enough of consulting.

I was taking a shower in the morning, and a thought crossed my brain - “Maybe I’ll slip innhwre and break my leg, then I won’t have to go into the client today.”

That was it.

After that project I decided to leave. BTW this is not an abnormal occurrence in consulting - the business model is built on that. And McKinsey was great - they paid me on “search time” for 17 weeks(!) and everyone passed along opportunities.

So at this point I knew I wanted to do something else but didn’t know what. And as it turned out my early specialization in semis at McK started turning into a liability.

Namely, my exit opportunities were limited. Strategy/biz dev at semi company? Sure. But that was about it...

And frankly that just seemed like more of what I was doing before, with maybe less travel but also much less potential upside.

(BTW this is one reason I recommend to new consultants against specializing in an industry so early. It eventually worked out extremely well for me but I think I’m an outlier).

So one day during this whole process I got a call from a recruiter for this job. She had originally called a buddy of mine at McK, but he was in the window to make partner so wasn’t interested, and passed my contact info over to her (thanks Nick!)

My first reaction was “WTF? I’ve read those reports from those Wall Street bozos. They’re worthless, why TF would I want to do something like that?”

“And move to NY? You’re out of your mind.”

(More politely of course)

But at least it was different. And I figured what the hell, so I agreed to meet the recruiter. Just after New Years, 2008.

Lucky me got food poisoning along with my infant son that year. Spent New Year’s Eve in the pediatric emergency room. On New Year’s Day i felt like death.

Recruiter meeting was Jan 2. I came within a hairs breadth of canceling as I was unsure about the oppy anyway, and I felt awful.

But I have a quirk about commitments, and feel that when you should follow through if at all possible. So I threw in my suit and dragged myself out.

The meeting actually went well. To be clear AI was extremely green, had never even heard the terms “buy side” or “sell side” but the description seemed at least potentially interesting.

A few days later she said “they want to meet you, let’s get you to NY.”

I flew out maybe 2 weeks later. I used the intervening time to try to figure out what the heck this thing was.

I had a recruiter contact of mine who was a former i-banker, he set me up with some informational interviews with some semi sell-siders he knew to help with that.

(For those interested it was Danely, Gerra, and Mosesmann, I wonder if they remember!)

I also started reading up on stocks etc (I’d never looked at a stock in my life before this)

I flew out, and had a LONG day of interviews. 8 of them, back to back. But it was not bad because I wasn’t sure I wanted the job anyway, so I was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing me.

And I left with a much more positive impression at least of my (future) employer, if not necessarily about the sell-side industry as a whole.

I guess they had a good impression too, because a few days later I was asked to come out again for a second round.

And I did. Same schtick - another 8 interviews back to back, I basically interviewed with the entire leadership team and a good portion of the analyst population.

And a week or two later they made me the offer.

At this point I had a choice. I’ll be honest - a move to NY at the time was less than palatable. But during the process I came to realize that this was a unique opportunity...

You see, the way one typically gets a senior analyst position is to start as an associate and wait for your senior to retire or die as you scratch and claw your way up over a period of years.

In this case I (who had never heard the specific term “sell-side research” until weeks before, was being given the opportunity to stumble ass-backwards into this right at the top.

NO ONE else would haveever hired me for a senior analyst position with my experience, namely 3 years of consulting. Even for my employer I was on the green side of things.

But this is where my specialization turned from a liability to an asset. Even as a green McK engagement manager (which I was) I had more sectoral experience in those 3 years than some partners. And I was in the right place, at the right time, with the perfect background...

...to fit the kind of profile that my employer embraces.

So I had to ask 2 questions.

1) If I pass this up, will I ever get a chance to try it again? (No).

2) If I pass this up, will I always ask “What if?” (Yes).

So I took the job.

And I started in April 2008, weeks after Bear Stearns failed, with a front row seat to the global financial crisis, with no idea what I was doing :-)

I’ll tell that story sometime as well...

And that’s how I started my Wall Street career.