My Accidental Career on Wall Street

...Or how I was hired and layed off without really trying.

Before moving to Eugene, I was a computer science researcher at the National Lab in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. When we moved here, I landed a research position working of a couple of professors at the University. That was, well, different. I was there about 2 years, and when funding for my position was about to run out, I landed a government job with Lane County. That was deadly.

As luck would have it, though, my friend Steve was working for for a Wall Street company called SunGuard, in a group that supported an ECN called Brut. (think stock trading system that interfaces to the Nasdaq and NYSE). The office was located in Eugene for historical reasons. Prince that he is, Steve recommended me for a job, which I got. The company also recognized Steve's princeliness and gave him a finder's bonus.

As the years clicked by, my knowledge of Wall Street trading grew. SunGard bought Brut, made our group part of Brut, then turned around and sold Brut to Nasdaq a couple years ago. About a year after Nasdaq bought Brut, they bought a bigger, better ECN called Inet. Shortly after that, they decided to migrate their trading systems to Inet's technology and phase Brut out.

After much hemming and hawing, they decided that January 16, 2007 was the last day they needed people in our office. I had been threatening myself with quitting to pursue writing and potting as a career (you know, going for the big bucks) for years. In fact I had made up my mind to do so at the end of 2006 no matter what.

A job search soap opera ensued, with the majority of the rest of the office finding jobs. I, of course, didn't bother looking as I had my plans. There was a hook, though. Since most of the rest of the office would be gainfully employed, and the Brut system was not shut down, Nasdaq might need someone to provide support.

Hmm, I wondered if I might be able to negotiate a bonus to extend my stay with Nasdaq until the Brut system was shut down. I had visions of private jets and weekends in San Tropez, or at least paying down the mortgage on my house. I estimated that Brut would be completely gone as early as March, but June at the latest.

Our office space was on a month to month lease and someone had rented the space beginning January 1. We would have to work our last two weeks from home. My boss put in for laptops for myself and the other person who did not have a new job lined up. Coincidence that we would get the laptops? I think not.

Ah, the dreams we dream that don't come to pass. The above mentioned soap opera had another twist and another turn to go through. At the very last, Nasdaq decided they couldn't live without several of the people in the office (myself not included) and decided not to let them go. My laptop went to one of them as did the laptop earmarked for my coworker facing unemployment. And talk about surprises, two of those with jobs lined up ended up without jobs as a result of the soap opera (sorry, I can't give more details than that).

So, since I was without an office and without a computer suitable to login to Nasdaq, my effective last day was about December 27. I was paid as an employee through January 16, and I'm now under severence pay for awhile.

I met some fun people working for Wall Street firms. Most of them only over the phone. I learned a lot about software development and support, and I learned what pressure feels like, as we often fiddled with systems while they were live online. I liken it to working on a live patient. And a couple of times I killed the patient by making a simple (i.e. boneheaded) mistake.