I have often lamented that my official blog for VSB, meant to vividly describe my exploits as a cunning young businessman fresh on the international financial scene, often delineates into non-corporate adventures, usually involving travel to neighboring countries or cultural events occurring here in Hong Kong. Now, for a change, comes a bona fide ‘business’ installment that is actually about life in the office.
My company is based out of New York. There are about fifty employees who work in the three offices spread between Lower Manhattan and Central and Northern Jersey. After the success of the original desk in the Financial District, our founders ventured into the international market by setting up a desk in London, which over the years has grown into about fifteen brokers and supporting staff. Of course, the obvious next step was to get involved in the blossoming emerging markets of Asia. But regardless of the location of the branch offices, the company’s soul is in New York. We all report to the New York heads, and, ultimately, it is New York that keeps us running.
Since it's still only Kevin and me here in Hong Kong, we rely on New York and London to help us out with all our trade support, as we are not yet big enough to hire our own staff. This includes booking tickets, facilitating settlement and—most important of all—managing technology.
London and Hong Kong’s business days overlap (our afternoon is their morning), so the back office staff in London handles the booking of Hong Kong’s trading activity. However, even London is not a big enough office to have its own tech division. The company’s entire tech department is based in Manhattan, and they never cease to amaze me.
I can pick up my company phone here in Hong Kong, dial the three-digit extension of any colleague in one of our worldwide offices, and immediately speak to them (so long as they are at their desk, of course). I can contact Dimitri (or just 'D' for short), the head of the tech department, with a problem at midnight US-time, and he is manipulating the mouse on my computer, solving the problem from literally halfway around the world, in the comfort of his own home.
It seems there is no issue that can’t be fixed in a matter of minutes. The crew, especially D, has to be among the most underpaid staff in the world—literally on call constantly for a company that has an office doing business somewhere in the world every hour of the day.
This morning, the Hong Kong office was again saved by a man in his pajamas in Brooklyn, and I was again impressed by how flat the world has become in the modern age.
For the past couple of days, our Bloomberg terminals have been sporadically disconnecting several times a day, usually about every hour or two. In addition to the annoyance, it can really screw things up during the heat of the moment, with trades coming together and vital information flashing upon our screens. It's kind of like a cab driver's taxi breaking down while he's searching for a fare. This morning, the “every hour or two” turned into “every five minutes” and eventually Kevin and I realized that we had to call D.
He talked me through some technical issues I had to correct here in the office, and then he told me to just sit back for a minute while he did his thing. A few moments later, the cursor on my screen was moving by itself, a computer turned on in another part of the room, our Bloomberg shut down and then restarted, and our phones rebooted. Here I am several hours later and everything has been operating perfectly since!
My company is based out of New York. There are about fifty employees who work in the three offices spread between Lower Manhattan and Central and Northern Jersey. After the success of the original desk in the Financial District, our founders ventured into the international market by setting up a desk in London, which over the years has grown into about fifteen brokers and supporting staff. Of course, the obvious next step was to get involved in the blossoming emerging markets of Asia. But regardless of the location of the branch offices, the company’s soul is in New York. We all report to the New York heads, and, ultimately, it is New York that keeps us running.
Since it's still only Kevin and me here in Hong Kong, we rely on New York and London to help us out with all our trade support, as we are not yet big enough to hire our own staff. This includes booking tickets, facilitating settlement and—most important of all—managing technology.
London and Hong Kong’s business days overlap (our afternoon is their morning), so the back office staff in London handles the booking of Hong Kong’s trading activity. However, even London is not a big enough office to have its own tech division. The company’s entire tech department is based in Manhattan, and they never cease to amaze me.
I can pick up my company phone here in Hong Kong, dial the three-digit extension of any colleague in one of our worldwide offices, and immediately speak to them (so long as they are at their desk, of course). I can contact Dimitri (or just 'D' for short), the head of the tech department, with a problem at midnight US-time, and he is manipulating the mouse on my computer, solving the problem from literally halfway around the world, in the comfort of his own home.
It seems there is no issue that can’t be fixed in a matter of minutes. The crew, especially D, has to be among the most underpaid staff in the world—literally on call constantly for a company that has an office doing business somewhere in the world every hour of the day.
This morning, the Hong Kong office was again saved by a man in his pajamas in Brooklyn, and I was again impressed by how flat the world has become in the modern age.
For the past couple of days, our Bloomberg terminals have been sporadically disconnecting several times a day, usually about every hour or two. In addition to the annoyance, it can really screw things up during the heat of the moment, with trades coming together and vital information flashing upon our screens. It's kind of like a cab driver's taxi breaking down while he's searching for a fare. This morning, the “every hour or two” turned into “every five minutes” and eventually Kevin and I realized that we had to call D.
He talked me through some technical issues I had to correct here in the office, and then he told me to just sit back for a minute while he did his thing. A few moments later, the cursor on my screen was moving by itself, a computer turned on in another part of the room, our Bloomberg shut down and then restarted, and our phones rebooted. Here I am several hours later and everything has been operating perfectly since!
It makes you wonder how much easier things will continue to get as technology improves over the years. But for me, this is good enough!
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