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Industry Background of People on This Forum


BG2008

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Career advice and advice on matters of the heart.

 

I hadn’t answered till now, because I think most of you already know what I do and what my background is. :)

Though, I really envy your day job (besides investing, of course!)... ;D ;D ;D

 

I don't envy that day job at all.  It sounds insanely stressful.  Maybe I just don't have the personality for it.  I always hate giving people advice on anything of importance.  If I do something and I'm wrong I can live with that.  But if I give someone else advice that turns out bad, I'd have a really hard time with that. It takes a certain confidence in oneself to do that type of thing that I certainly don't have.  I'll stick to designing circuits.

 

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Career advice and advice on matters of the heart.

 

I hadn’t answered till now, because I think most of you already know what I do and what my background is. :)

Though, I really envy your day job (besides investing, of course!)... ;D ;D ;D

 

I don't envy that day job at all.  It sounds insanely stressful.  Maybe I just don't have the personality for it.  I always hate giving people advice on anything of importance.  If I do something and I'm wrong I can live with that.  But if I give someone else advice that turns out bad, I'd have a really hard time with that. It takes a certain confidence in oneself to do that type of thing that I certainly don't have.  I'll stick to designing circuits.

 

Yes! But you know Kraven very well by now… He is full of self-confidence… Especially when matters of the heart are concerned!! ;D ;D ;D

 

Gio

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Otsog and warrior... I have some accounting questions.

 

I'm shorting Avid, which is currently deliquent in its financial filings.  The company stated yesterday that it is likely that the stock will be delisted from NASDAQ (and move to OTC/Pink).  Here's what I don't understand about the accounting:

1- They fired their auditor (Ernst and Young) and are replacing them with Deloitte.  Will this impact the length of time that it takes for the audit to get done?  I assume yes.  So it seems to me that this move will delay Avid's ability to file audited financial statements.

2- Avid paid $4,069k in audit fees for YE2011.  Audit fees represent 1.6% of Avid's current $322M market cap.  Autodesk and Adobe paid similar audit fees, but their market caps are >34X Avid's.

 

I never audited companies this large so take this with a grain of salt. 

1. It will certainly be more work for a new firm, but it won't necessarily take more time.  Usually you can increase resources (staff) on an audit to get through it quicker.

2. It probably would be a similar picture, but I'd use something else to compare audit fees in an industry (% or revenue, net income or assets).  More work = more fees, more audit work could be from changes in the nature in the business, high M&A activity, restatements, overly complex corporate structuring or increased scrutiny required because of poor internal controls. 

 

Taking 1+2 together makes it really stink though.  I bet there was some major disagreement over accounting treatment between management and E&Y.  I don't think there is really any significant difference between any of the Big 4 firms.  If E&Y disagrees with you, so will PWC, D&T and KPMG.

 

1) Most likely, but not always, will depend on agreement between the firm and Deloitee, and all due diligence process from the new Auditor that translates into more time and cost,  I also feel that there was some disagreement between E&Y ,as it  is difficult for the  firm in financial distress to  fire auditor, perhaps E&Y put them on “notice”.  I glanced at the firm’s financial and I did not notice any “Mickey mouse accounting”, however with all the cost, it is not a good sign.

2) all valid points from  Ostog

 

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I'm an Economics major about 4 years out of college working for an investment office, which I recently joined. Prior, I was at an RIA.

 

I'm also surprised to see so many people with engineering backgrounds. I had assumed that most on this board would be more towards the IB/ER crowd (maybe that's WSO). Perhaps, I think it is because finance attracts quantitatively minded people, much like engineering does, and they took up finance later in life after learning about value investing.

 

 

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CPA with my own small firm.  A generalist (jack of all trades,master of none). Have been in practice since 1965.  All  small business, wouldn't know where to start on a big company.  Have had many that grew and moved on to the national firms. 

Prefer the smaller entities as they are so much easier to understand.

 

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Software Engineer worked for Business IT consulting for few years then started working for the same company large bank we all love here in this board from past 11years, Also working on parttime realestate business from 6 years along with investing. Both coding and investing gives great kick for me and will probably do all my life even if i quit my day job.

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As far as this board having a lot of engineers on it, I think part of that might come from the population it's selected from: The Internet.

 

I'm not sure simply being an Internet forum explains the over abundance of engineers.  It might have 10 years ago, and certainly would have 21 years ago (when I first had Internet access). But Now?  Hell everyone I know from age 8 to 80 has internet access, this is everyone from any background and any profession.  Look at Facebook, most people are not engineers.  If non-engineers wanted to be here, they would be.

 

rkbabang, I should have been more specific.  I meant the Internet beyond Facebook/social media/news websites.  My completely-based-on-just-my-gut-feeling opinion is that engineering/tech types are less afraid of exploring and engaging in the outskirts of the Internet, which I'd consider CoB&F to be.

 

Given, I do think there's a natural overlap between the people who like engineering and the people who like investing.  However, I still think we have some additional skew here due to the population we're getting our data points from.

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rkbabang, I should have been more specific.  I meant the Internet beyond Facebook/social media/news websites.  My completely-based-on-just-my-gut-feeling opinion is that engineering/tech types are less afraid of exploring and engaging in the outskirts of the Internet, which I'd consider CoB&F to be.

 

Maybe CoB&F needs an iOS and an Android app to attract the less tech savvy investors.

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Software engineer here as well.

 

What's interesting is that it seems there are more tech guys here than finance guys. Could it be possible that finance guys don't "grok" value investing as intuitively as tech guys? Another possibility is that if you're working 12 hour days at an IB, you probably don't want to spend your free time reading more finance stuff.

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Sales Engineer on the custom web development team at a company that makes websites and software for the auto industry. The company just got acquired in a $1 billion deal (I unfortunately hadn't been with the company to have any equity/options).

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Software engineer here as well.

 

What's interesting is that it seems there are more tech guys here than finance guys. Could it be possible that finance guys don't "grok" value investing as intuitively as tech guys? Another possibility is that if you're working 12 hour days at an IB, you probably don't want to spend your free time reading more finance stuff.

 

Most IB analysts work more than 12 hours/day.  Not everyone could be a Michael Burry who was posting on investment forums during his medical residency

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Seven years as an ERP systems analyst for one of the Big 4 firms.  Now working in public sector for a school district doing same.  I work between the customer and the software engineers.  Remember the guy from the movie Office Space that says "...I have people skills..." in his interview with the consultants?  That's totally me.

 

Started investing in real estate 12 years ago.  This was a great decision but I'm now tired of fixing toilets on weekends.

 

I really enjoy pouring through mountains of data to find something very few others will see or understand.  I'll spend weeks, even months, working for one "ah ha" moment.  I think that regardless of your background (engineer or otherwise) this is an important trait to have.

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- electrical/computer engineering major

- participate/co-founder various internet startups (finance, real estate, advertising industry)

- did a little bit of export to china (scrap metal, recycle material)

- now a private investor (equity, startups, real estate)

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I'm shocked by the lack of people in capital markets.

 

I've spent 4 years as an investment banker.

 

The lack of finance backgrounds is likely a driving reason for the board's outperformance.

 

Bachelors in Mathematics & Neurobiology. Former corporate lawyer.

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