Working in a city that never sleeps

I cried hot tears of joy! I immediately emailed H.R of my prospect employer. They were happy. I was happy and I finally signed my then revised letter.

What followed was a whirlwind experience. After the rigorous background checks, including calls with three people from each company I’ve ever worked for (this is why you must never lie on your resume), I underwent five weeks of extensive training. I also had to take FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) exams in order to be licensed as a securities professional in the U.S. Most Wall Street* jobs require you to already be licensed in order to be considered for the role, I was lucky to have found a bank willing to offer me a job with no license, on condition that I would pass both the exams I needed to take within a month of joining my team. Did I not study like I was mad? The recommendation is that in order for one to pass (min 73%) you have to do at least 700 practice questions – I did 1200. There’s also a 30 day cooling-off period before you can rewrite, should you fail. Even though we were told that failing the exams wouldn’t result in dismissal, Nelson Mandela did not spend 27 years in jail just for me to go to America and fail. The funny part is that before my first exam, instead of saying “good luck” some of my colleagues sent me congratulatory messages. The pressure! Their messages were not in vain though, I passed both exams on first attempt.

 

Ain’t no day like pay day…

I had a job, which was great, but I also needed to get paid! Moola, zaka, chankura (I never use these terms in real life and I don’t know why I’m using them now but I think it makes me sound cool). But wait, a salary means you have to pay your taxes right? This meant that the other admin was to get my social security number (SSN). The good thing is you can actually start working while waiting for one. But because in the U.S payday in generally twice a month (mid-month and end of the month), my first pay cheque was due before my SSN was issued. H.R. told me not to worry and that my cheque would be posted via mail. Haibo! I saw the dollars slip through my fingers! So close yet so far! But to my fellow South Africans, the U.S. mail service is actually a trusted and well-functioning institution. Everything is posted. My bank card, work permit, SSN card and many other important documents were sent to me via mail. As in P.O. Box! I’ve never had anything get lost in the mail.

Fast-forward to when I was officially an admin-free human. I had a job, a bank account, a SSN (also required to apply for a credit card and state I.D.), securities license and a New York state I.D. (not required but very necessary so you don’t walk around with your passport). Go-time!

 

Time to get down to business…

Having had spent last year working in London, which is thought of to be fast-paced, I feel like there is no place in the world that has an intense corporate culture remotely close to New York. The days are long, every request is urgent, emails are responded to and phone calls are taken AT ALL TIMES (I have very much been on call with someone (not from my company) in their hospital bed before an op) and if you’re in banking, leave is not quite like how the rest of the world views it, here its more, leaving place A for place B but I will no doubt respond to ALL emails. I once spoke to an MD who said they’ve never had an “out of office” in their 20years+ working on Wall Street. I don’t know what war New Yorkers are preparing for, but I can see they are determined to win it!  It obviously varies from industry to industry but everyone I’ve spoken to who’s worked in other countries agrees that things are way more intense here compared to other parts of the world. New Yorkers on the other hand, don’t seem to fully understand what I mean – because this is all they know! For me it was definitely baptism by fire!

I had (and continue to have) a lot of adjusting to do. New country, new culture, new job, in a completely different (and more technically inclined) product area to what I have experience in. In my interviews I kept stating with great enthusiasm that I was looking for a challenge. Which to be fair I was, but never in a pandemic years did I think I’d get the most challengey challenge I’d ever experienced. I knew that with no recognizable school on my resume, no connections and no U.S. experience, moving at the level I was at at the time in my previous role would be a bit of a battle. But I long accepted that the story of my life is a series of three steps back to move one step forward. So I thought, if I have to regress in my career path, let me at least go into something that was going to give me a daily mental work out, and the world was listening, so I ended up in Securitization. Outside of high level info on the housing crisis and watching The Big Short, I knew nothing about Securitization. But sometimes, when you say that you’re a “fast learner” in your cover letter, you might just be required to prove it. Who would’ve thought! Has it been daunting? Absolutely! I’ve learnt either a new term or new skill every day since I started. I'm completely outside my comfort zone. It’s unsettling and exciting all at the same time. I’ve had some really tough days but all in all, all of my good days, outweigh my bad days. I’m also grateful to have been blessed with the most amazing and supportive team who have really been great in helping me get up the curve.

 

In the famous words of the great philosopher, Robyn Fenty – work, work, work, work, work, work…

Monday to Thursday I eat all my meals (supper included) at my desk while working. I would say I currently work, on average, 16 hours a day and some days I don’t even have downtime. You are literally pushing from the moment you sit down. Lunches are usually a massive bowl of salad I can never finish.  New Yorker’s live on salad. There are so many salad places around my office and they are always all usually packed around lunch time. And if you walk around the floor during lunch time, all you’ll see is biodegradable (hi Greta!) salad bowls sprinkled everywhere. On Friday evenings I at least get to eat dinner at a dinner table…or the couch with my work phone close by. Working on weekends is not taboo, naturally. 

So when Mr. Sinatra sang about New York, New York, he was talking about the intensity of it all. The culture of “stay ready so you never have to get ready”, the life of survival of the fittest, the strong belief in hurry up and GO! The deep sense of urgency. The constant rush. It is after all, the city that never sleeps…

 

*Wall Street is not merely in reference to a location but used as a synonym for the U.S. financial industry and the firms within it.

Coming to America Too

The past 12+ months have been one hectic ride! I celebrated and mourned. Lived and laughed. Lived and worked in three different continents. During a pandemic! My final destination? New York…

New York, often called New York City (NYC) to distinguish it from New York State, is the most populous city in the United States. New York, New York, refers specifically to Manhattan - or as introduced in the opening creds of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah – “the most important place on earth”! Yup! That’s NYC, always putting itself above everyone and everything else - absolutely on brand! Ranked as number one in the Global Cities Index (GCI)*, New York takes its world dominance stance very seriously! It also happens to attract many individuals who do too, making it a highly competitive environment. And as initially sung by Frank Sinatra and more recently reiterated by Jay Z with a touch of swag; “…if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere…”

 

Ok, the intention of this blog is not to wax lyrical about NYC but rather to share some of my experiences (with a side of major culture shock) since officially moving to Manhattan from Johannesburg seven months ago, so let me stick to the script!

 

Before New York there’s the United States of America – and it really is America vs. the rest of the world. Honestly, the U.S. is just a whole different world on its own! For instance, you’d think as a mainly English-speaking country, communication would be a breeze. Wrong! A large majority of my colleagues are American so I’ve had to learn to speak American, and no, I’m not referring to the accent (which I don’t plan to adapt to…unless I’m offered cash). I’ve had to adapt to miles, Fahrenheit, inches, ounces and my pet peeve – writing the date as month-day-year vs. day-month-year (which totally makes sense because days make up a month and months, a year, but hey, when in Rome…). But that’s not even half of it. The highest mountain to summit as a foreigner in this country is that of obtaining a work permit! As an immigrant looking to work in America, there is a lot you need to consider. There is a lot that I had to consider! Most of it was learning on the go so I hope by sharing my story, I can help someone considering immigrating by equipping them with info I wish I knew beforehand. Disclaimer: what I’m sharing here is specifically my experiences as a South African woman in banking although I will try be broad where I can!

 

First thing’s first...

So the universal consideration is employment authorization to work in the country. When you apply for a U.S. job online there is one, just one question that will determine whether your application progresses to the next stage or goes to the place where failed applications go to die: “Are you authorized to work in the U.S?” i.e. do you have legal documentation that allows us to hire you?! If you’ve never worked in the U.S. / don’t live in the U.S. / don’t have a work permit, only pure luck and the holy spirit will get you through here. I will dive deeper into this topic momentarily.

Second consideration is edumacation! A Bachelor’s degree in the U.S. is typically four years. That might get you to the door. But to get in, you’ll probably need a Master’s degree or a globally-recognizedprofessional designation (e.g. CFA) at a minimum. This is particularly true for non-entry level investment banking jobs or consulting jobs because the competition is increased by freshly graduated MBA students looking to break into these industries, which leads me to my next point…

Another layer is where you went to school. The pecking order places Ivy League schools at the top, followed by other American schools, followed by other first world schools and then everything else (Ouch!). Do you now understand one of the drivers behind the “The College Admissions Scandal”?

 

First comes the work permit…

The country is not accommodating when it comes to immigrants looking to work in the U.S. The barriers for getting a work permit are many. The whole process will give you a whole lot of unsolicited character building. But there are obviously certain ways to crack it, otherwise there wouldn’t be any non-Americans working in corporate America. The easiest way to make it in is an internal transfer via an L-1 visa, meaning moving to the U.S. office of your current employer, this of course means you need to be working for one with presence in the U.S. in the first place. The second cousin-twice removed of this is getting an H-1B visa, which means that a U.S. company needs to sponsor your visa. The problem is most U.S. companies do not provide visa sponsorship (it’s an extremely long process so the company must feel like they really need you and your skills, not forgetting that you are competing with many other Americans!). The other route (the category I fall under) is obtaining an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), through a spouse legally permitted to work in the U.S. And then, if you are really extraordinary, you can qualify for an O-1 visa which is reserved for "Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement". 

The funny part about work permits is that every job requires one but in order to apply for one, you need to have a job offer. It’s really a case of a dog chasing its tail, just more exhausting than fun! I think that’s why in most cases people end up hiring immigration lawyers to help them find creative legal ways to get over the line. This route is not cheap by the way! Anyway, knowing this I did these things concurrently (i.e. work permit and job applications), with the hopes that by the time I got a job offer, I would have a permit. I was applying to a minimum of three jobs a day, every day, for over a month. I got too many rejection emails to recall! And then I finally started seeing progress here and there. In the end I made the final rounds from two banks and then in the same week, I got the worst news ever. I received an email saying that my work permit would be ready in 12 to 16 weeks, meaning at the time, the earliest I’d get it would be end of August (oh, I had already resigned from my job at the time by the way). I felt hot immediately and I said a short prayer asking God for a miracle. I concluded by saying “actually, thank you for making sure that my permit arrives in time for me to accept a job offer” (what you know about faith of a mustard seed?) then I proceeded with the final round of interviews with the heaviest heart! 

In the one interview I was interviewed by two people and at the end I just told them about my work permit story. They offered some words of encouragement, with one interviewer telling me they were in a similar situation when they first moved to the U.S. and ended up waiting for over a year for their permit. At the end of every interview I had, I would ask for advice on navigating corporate America and I got different answers every time - all highly valuable, open and honest (maybe I need to write another blog just on this). In this particular instance, the one interviewer said, “While you wait for your work permit, take time out, relax and find a hobby because once you start on Wall Street, you’ll have no idea what hit you”. Oh boy…

 

I got the job!

In the end, my last round of interviews from both banks were amazing! Then the job offer came from the company I’d been praying to work for! But the work permit was nowhere in sight! I had five days to accept or reject with a start date two weeks after that. This was miles away from the earliest I could get the work permit. So I couldn’t accept the offer and I accepted that God was teaching me the art of patience. So I finished serving my notice and after logging off my old work laptop for the last time, I was officially unemployed. My husband, ever the enthusiast, trying to cheer me up said; “What if your work permit arrived today? You should go check the post when they deliver today’s mail”. So I dragged myself to our mailbox, opened it, “Just a bunch of spam as usual” I thought to myself as I sifted through the promotional envelopes. Then, at the bottom of the pile was the envelope that changed my life! My work authorization card had arrived in record time!

 To be continued...

*The Global Cities Index (GCI) measures how globally engaged cities are across five dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.