I decided to go into real estate after I lost my job on Wall Street in October of 2002. I was working for Goldman Sachs as a Vice President for the Technology Division when I was cut after the dot-com bust. The attrition was bloody from the technology companies that were affected and from the investment firms on Wall Street. It was a shock to be let go knowing that I was still needed by the department that I ran. But the market tanked severely, that my firm had to cut even essential employees to survive. I was at Goldman Sachs for 9 years. But to be honest, I would have left on my own after 10 years of grind working on Wall Street. Wall Street is a high stress, frenetic, insanely busy environment to work in, and 10 years was my target after which I would quit. After being laid-off from Wall Street, I decided to leave New York City and come home to the Metro DC area.
I consider Northern Virginia as my home because I settled here first after emigrating from the Philippines in 1989. I left family and friends in the Philippines with only a suitcase and a couple of hundred dollars intent on living the rest of my life in the US. I immediately enrolled at George Mason University and graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science in 1992. My college education was funded by working full time at different firms while taking a full load. It was a difficult struggle, but I graduated with minimal financial burden and with a resume packed with relevant work experience.
After graduation, I first worked for a government contractor where I was recruited to work for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. At NASA I was deluged with calls from headhunters. I did not pay much attention to any of them, except to one who had a job opportunity in New York City, on Wall Street. It was my dream then to live in Manhattan and to work on Wall Street. So I pursued this opportunity. Little did I know that I would be working for one of the most prestigious firms on Wall Street. Coming from a technology background, I had no knowledge of the stature and reputation of Goldman Sachs in financial circles. All I cared about was that I was moving to New York City. I started at the lowest rung at Goldman Sachs as a new member of the operations team in technology, eventually working my way up to become a Vice President. I started in February 1994 and I left in October 2002. In those 9 years, I worked on Wall Street, and I got to live on Central Park West on a 16th floor condo overlooking the park and having the Manhattan skyline as a view. I achieved what I set out for, and in retrospect, it was a good time for a lifestyle change.
Upon moving back to the DC Area, I decided to pursue my other passion – Real Estate. Coming from Manhattan, I found that the properties here were a bargain. So I started buying properties. This was in 2003 right at the cusp of a real estate boom.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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