You gotta have some luck now and again

How's this for two stories....

In my first ever substantive interview for a broking position in London I was asked by the Managing Director if I knew anything about Australian stocks. I answered that it wasn't not a lot though I had done rather well in my Law unit on the regulation of the market and what constituted illegal transactions. That patently was not good enough and I was again challenged "Come on, you must know something about the companies, say CRA..." to which I replied "Let's be clear here, do you mean Con-zinc Rio Tinto Australia?" He did of course and generously told me that not many on his current team of experienced brokers would have known that and promptly offered me a position. It just so happens that in my last major Audit unit at University we were required to randomly pick a company and dissect its accounts and I had fortuitously chosen CRA!

On Monday I was queried about an old school pal whom both and and the questioner had lost touch with, not seen since 1975. I had no notion of where he was or what he was doing. That evening whilst scanning for a chap on Linkedin who had been in my year at University I found that he worked at a local engineering company of some note. I then scanned his company and lo and behold my old school mate used to work there too and was recorded as such on Linkedin. He now works in Zurich (but happens to be in Perth this week !) and works for UBS. Guess who I used to work for in London, yep, UBS.

Let anybody who does not rate online social networks or fails to think on the power of the universe consider these two stories. Chance, happenstance, fortuity or Providence? Take your pick or choose D, All of the above.

Best regards, Jonathan.