End of an Era (Part 1)

A really grainy picture of Cambridge's Arlington office 

After over five and a half years, Friday marked my final day working at Cambridge Associates.  If you told me back in January 2005, how long I would end up working there, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.  But then again, there are plenty of other Cambridge stories that would have sound even less believable. 

Although it’d be tough to find someone who would say our day-to-day job activities were always stimulating and personally rewarding, from a professional standpoint I certainly can’t be upset about the way everything turned out.  Starting out in the Control Department when I did enabled me to move up through promotions very quickly, gaining leadership responsibilities and client access very early on, giving the resume a nice boost.  I spent over 2.5 years in the Analyst position which is longer than most, but the flexibility and lax time-demands of the position allowed me extra time to study, which was instrumental in helping me pass the first two levels of the CFA program.  Whereas some other colleagues left the company earlier, and then struggled with job security when the recession hit in 2008, I never had a fear of losing my job.  I eventually transferred into the Capital Markets Group because the old position had gotten stale and I wanted to wait out the recession while I decided what to do about business school.  Although the work wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped, and I didn’t move up the ranks any further, I spun it nicely on my grad school apps and ended up getting into some good schools, while also passing the third and final CFA exam.  I’m hoping that when I start looking for jobs again next year that the well-known (in the investment industry) Cambridge name, along with the CFA and an MBA from UCLA will make me a pretty marketable candidate. 

I’m still thankful that I turned down that American Express Financial Advisor position (basically a sales position) when I was looking for jobs as a senior in college.  The Cambridge job offer came a month or two later, right before graduation.  It was my only other offer, so I kinda backed into that at the last minute, but I can’t deny that my time here turned out way better than I would have expected professionally and prepared me well for the next step (whatever that might be).

I already wrote a lot, so I’ll add the rest of my Cambridge review in a post later.