Thursday, September 10, 2009

Leaving Citi - Part 2

I have been overwhelmed by the amount of good wishes and calls that I have received since I announced my resignation.

I am in a period right now that is affectionately known as "Gardening Leave". In most companies, you give a two-week notice when you resign, and it is up to the management as to whether or not you serve out that full two weeks. In most companies on Wall Street (and especially in The City), the gardening leave time is more extensive. I have 50 calendar days in which I must sit in a kind of limbo before I join my new company. People at higher levels have longer periods to sit out. We all get paid, and theoretically, we have to be "on call". But, in reality, the old management would prefer if we don't speak to anyone from the old firm for the obvious reasons. And, I will certainly expect that from my firm.

So, tomorrow, I go to HR, hand in my Blackberry, my corporate credit card, and my ID card, and then I go out for leaving-drinks. And then I bid adieu to Citigroup.

I have been happy to give people a glimpse into what it is like working in Capital Markets IT. As Jeff Wooten from Coraleri says, my feedback on this blog has (hopefully) resulted in some better products out there. I hope that someone else will be able to create a "bully pulpit" on the blogosphere that will keep some of the vendors honest. Even the vendors that I ended up not using have become important allies for me, and who knows what may happen in the future ....

The blog has been going since the fall of 2005. I will try to find something innocuous to blog about from time to time. But, as I said in my previous posting, my professional blogging will undergo a temporary hiatus. When I joined Citigroup in 2006, the hiring manager was a reader of my blog, so I was sort of grandfathered in as far as the blogging goes. However, I enjoy no such luck in my new company, and I have to take my new role very seriously.


©2009 Marc Adler - All Rights Reserved.
All opinions here are personal, and have no relation to my employer.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

From the description of all work, no play and certainly no blogging, it sounds like that well known Hedge Fund, sometimes mistakenly thought of as the worlds leading investment bank, but wherever you end up, best of luck, it's been fun reading your views from afar!

Regards
Paul

Anonymous said...

From the description of all work, no play and certainly no blogging, it sounds like that well known Hedge Fund, sometimes mistakenly thought of as the worlds leading investment bank, but wherever you end up, best of luck, it's been fun reading your views from afar!

Regards
Paul

NRG said...

Good luck to you, I've always enjoyed reading your blog. You will definitely be an asset to your new employer.

Regards

Tito

Tom Steinthal said...

Marc - congrats and good luck in your new role. I'd love to stay in touch, but all I have is your Citi e-mail. Drop me a note when you have a chance.

Take care,
Tom

Unknown said...

Wow. Good luck to you Marc.