Career Implications of fund blowing up

i spent 3 years at a 1 B+ fund and our returns were +20%, +3%, and -7%

one of our features was 30 day liquidity to our investors --this was great selling point that enabled us to raise funds quickly in good times, but unfort this level of flexibility allowed our investors an all-too-easy way out in our only down year. they redeemed 75% of the fund's aum in the last 4 months of 2012 and all of our top traders left for bigger jobs at funds that were growing.

when i approached the job market after the fund closure i just had to make sure i spun the experience as a learning and leadership opportunity, not a failure.

but i still had a tough time finding a job for a few reasons. the fund I was working for was not in a traditional financial center, so i was an "out of town" applicant at every place i applied. prior to this role as a trading assistant, i had 2.5 years background in treasury and operations, (at the fund, i had worked my way to a trading assistant by 2012). the jobs i were applying for were all trading ass't jobs because i wanted to continue my career in trading, and unfort had to deal with a lot of pretentiousness and the "back office stigma' against my resume (despite having prestigious firms and a semi-target finance degree on there). out of stubbornness i refused to apply for middle/back office roles for a period of over 12 months. i finally gave up and took a treasury job to pay the bills and i'm now trying to figure out the next steps.

i feel like i should mention, none of my former coworkers had any trouble finding work. they were all up & running at a new company within 3-5 months. and they all offered me operational positions at their new firms in the same time period, but i turned those offers down because i wanted to hold out.

/r/FinancialCareers Thread