Guess Who’s Back?
Gawker and Dealbreaker are reporting on the re-emergence of the greatest thing to ever happen to this website -- the man, the myth, the video-resume-superstar -- Mr. Aleksey Vayner.
He's been shopping his new resume (take a look) around to various NYC-funds, and has even gone to a couple interviews. According to Dealbreaker, he came off as "personable, chatty, and laid back." Of course he also claimed to have been about to go pro in tennis...at the US Open...until his doubles-partner broke his wrist two hours before his first match. Drat! Those preternatural coincidences can be a real bitch. (You know, it's not even funny any more; it's just sad.)
Looking at his resume, we can see what Aleksey has been doing with his time off from Yale. He completed some certs -- RIA, CFA (help! what are these?) -- from online shop Boston Institute of Finance, and is living currently in Kips Bay, an area of Manhattan about which we know literally nothing.
He also claims to have authored a book, Millionaires' Blueprint to Success, whose anticipated publication date is Summer '08, which means some yet unknown guest-editor will be reviewing it probably
Know something about this?
34 Comments | 
Digg This | 
Share on Facebook | 
Print This Post | 
Email This Post
Read more: aleksey vayner, Yale
Email – 
Search
About
Report a bug
Archives
RSS Feed
November 1st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
The CFA stands for “Chartered Financial Analyst” and is a relatively involved professional certification for equity research and securities analysis (http://www.cfainstitute.org). It is a series of three testes (Levels I, II and III) that typically takes several years to complete. What his resume indicates is that he’s planning to take Level I in June 2008. What it also indicates is that he hasn’t read the ethics section of the test material yet (or has ignored it), as it explicitly states that one shouldn’t claim any kind of certification at an anticipated date. One is allowed to say, “Level I Candidate” but anyone can be a “Level I Candidiate” just by registering for the exam and paying the money. Short answer–he hasn’t passed any tests yet, and he’s already violated one of the ethical guidelines of the program.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:04 pm
That should say “three tests” not “three testes,” though that would be more entertaining….
November 1st, 2007 at 7:06 pm
RIA is “registered investment adviser” and is an SEC filing done by a company. It’s a registration, not a cert or license, and is not granted to individuals. He’s still smoking the pot.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Yeah, this is ridiculous! You can’t just claim this stuff like that, it’s not like a bachelor’s degree that you KNOW you’re getting. The CFA’s a bitch. But 40% of Dartmouth needs will get it at some point. Or something like that
November 1st, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Wow, the comments are coming rather quickly today. Vayner, you can’t put a book you haven’t written yet on your resume!! IvyGate, how did those other blogs get a hold of this?! Man, I feel kinda bad for the dude.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Come on guys, let’s give him some credit. At least he kept this resume down to just over a page. I’m surprised he doesn’t have internationally renowned youtube video superstar somewhere on there. I think that his worldwide fame is about the most impressive thing he’s ever accomplished.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Also, he dates his “athletics” achievements from 1988–when he was about 2 or 3 years old.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Uhhh, his phone number and address are on the resume.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:28 am
what an unimpressive and poorly executed resume.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:30 am
what an unimpressive and poorly executed resume.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:04 am
Well, I hear Boston University Institute of Finance is a leader in this area, so I would certainly hire him to be my, as he writes on his resume, “Certified Financial PLANER.” PLANE me baby. PLANE me all night long.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:04 am
Why do people still list their proficiency with outlook and powerpoint as a selling point? Any 13 year old girl is proficient in those particular skills. Also, who lists audited courses? I downloaded psych courses from UC Berkeley to my Ipod…by his standard, should they go on my resume too?
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:31 am
You might laugh at the idea that he has “professional competence” in power-lifting, until you consider that the following exchange plays out in gyms across America:
Weight Trainer: “Lift that weight.”
Guy: “I don’t understand.”
What’s more, he has built and is the leader of a team. Presumably it is a team of power-lifting, ski ninjas who play tennis in their leisure.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:48 am
IT’S STILL FUNNY!!!
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:34 am
WT: “Here, lift this.”
G: “You mean like this?”
WT: “No. I meant with power. Power lift it. You clearly have no competence. At least no professional competence.”
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:15 pm
“a series of three testes”
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Right across the street from Aleksey — BELLEVUE. Coincience?
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:08 pm
OK. Let’s just take this apart:
- Auditing *five* courses? Why not take them if you’re spending the time in class? Anyone unwilling to risk a real grade should be barred from finance.
- The series 65? Who cares? It doesn’t even have the 7 and 63 as prerequisites. Why not just apply to be a bank teller?
- A financial planning *certificate*? Not an accredited program; not a degree; not worth mentioning to a bank/fund. Hell, not worth doing.
- These are ANTICIPATED. He doesn’t have any of them yet.
- Quantitative skills include “risk measurement”? How about forecasting and managing it? Except that’d require a real graduate degree.
- “Trading system development” as a quantitative skill? Since when is programming a quant skill?
- Quantitative skills include “cashflow”. Cashflow what? Analysis? Prediction? Ability to read a cashflow statement? Ability to get cashflow from an ATM (when not overdrawn)?
- LexisNexis? Great, if you want to be a lawyer. I guess. USELESS on a trading floor.
- Fluent Russian, but you only pulled a 3.17 when your concentration was Russian and Eastern European History?
- About that GPA: What does the trailing word “term” mean? As in you got as high as a 3.17 one term, so you listed it?
- He’s writing the _Millionaire’s Blueprint to Success_? Again, ANTICIPATED to be published in 2008.
- That’s a busy next 12 months he’s got coming up. Why look for a job which will distract him from all the work he’s “going to do”?
- References explicitly listed since he assumes people will need them — and with phone numbers? Athletics? Listing Office *and* PowerPoint (heh!), Outlook, and similar software? The registered trademark and “RIA” and “CFA”? Tacky tacky tacky.
- Financial “Planer”; some months abbreviated (”Sep”) versus others spelled out (”October”); “non-for-profit”; “Summer, 2008″ when no other dates have a comma preceding the year; using “ant.” in one place and “anticipated” in another. All sloppy.
I would hire shit-flinging monkeys before I’d hire Vayner. But if it were a good year, I’d hire Vayner AND the monkeys for the holiday party — and then lock them in a cage together with some monkey ExLax. Now that would be a party!
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Now the irrelevant part: I fucking HATE his resume format. The layout, headers, typefaces, font sizes, run-on bullet points… all of it.
And the kicker is his email: Mr.Vayner@gmail.com. It’s a tacit insistence on being called “Mister So-and-so” when applying for a job. Kinda off-putting, no?
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:23 am
Who the hell calls it “Manhattan, NY”?
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
Now he calls himself Alex?
November 3rd, 2007 at 6:31 pm
oohhh ouch. now i am feeling sorry for this guy.
November 4th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
TTT GPA. Wonder if that’s propped up as well (not that it isn’t by default, a little bit).
November 4th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
hey Ivygate, how about giving the guy a break, and letting him have some privacy?
the guy JUST GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE. I assume everyone on this forum bitching about his resume format, email address, street address, GPA, and anticipated certifications are themselves flawless human beings with unblemished pasts
November 5th, 2007 at 12:19 am
I always thought that his video resume (complete with those ridiculous accomplishments) was sarcastic. It wasn’t?!?!?!?
November 5th, 2007 at 1:02 am
Show us her face!
November 5th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Quoting ex cap:
“Why do people still list their proficiency with outlook and powerpoint as a selling point?”
1. It demonstrates that you are aware that these tools are used in the workplace. It should probably go without saying, but it at least demonstrates that you know what basic knowledge is required.
2. Some people actually don’t know how to use powerpoint or outlook. Smaller companies without training programs may be wary of hiring people who don’t know how to use these things.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
JRH: Inconsistencies, incorrect spelling, and falsehoods have no business on a resume, even in high school. Absurd data (Outlook: I can use email!) also do not belong.
As the Greek god of fortune… I am not flawless, but pretty damn close. If you clean up your resume and work hard, perhaps someday you can be rich like me!
November 7th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Left off the resume (because when one is a candidate of his calibre, such things are assumed), is his proficiency in Lotus 1-2-3, COBOL, and MS-DOS.
And shuriken throwing.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Is it his fault that your value systems are skewed?
What’s your IQ? 160? Aleksey can bench that.
What’s your GPA? 4.0? He’s used his head to break more bricks than that.
Do you have a job? Well he doesn’t.
Do you know how to define success? Because unless you said it is inadvertently working out your mind while pumping iron then you are wrong. Don’t let the losers get in your way. Just like Aleksey, people once said I would never be able to play tennis because I couldn’t run, but I showed them. One day I started running and couldn’t stop. I ran clear across America. I just felt like running.
November 8th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Oh AP that was awesome.
December 26th, 2007 at 12:02 am
Someone should contact the references that he lists, see what those people have to say about him, if they even exist.
December 30th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Harassing the references? Really?
January 4th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Why do you need to call me a tool? All I was doing was agreeing with the comment by saxonkane (which is outstanding by the way!!!!). Of course, maybe I was a little bit too forceful in my comments :) I’ll tone it down it this post so it won’t be deleted. Please, I am not the tool; reserve that judgement for Alex Veyner.