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arbitrage business.” Oliver thought for a moment. “And he’s hungry. An HBS grad is likely to have a trust fund we don’t know about, Badger. When the going gets tough and the days get long, that person might bail out on us. Jay won’t. He’ll do whatever it takes to make money for McCarthy and Lloyd.” Oliver glanced at Jay. “Won’t you?”
    “Yes,” Jay answered forcefully. “Whatever it takes.” He sensed that this was the deciding moment. “Whatever it takes,” he repeated.
    “I worked with Jay on a transaction and I liked what I saw. I’ve been talking to him about this position for three months while I’ve been doing my background checks. I have confidence he would do very well here at McCarthy and Lloyd.”
    Bullock shrugged, unimpressed by his superior’s argument. “You asked me to meet this guy and give you my honest opinion, Oliver.” Bullock eyed Jay skeptically. “I don’t think you should hire him.” He hesitated. “But you’re the boss.”
    “Good, then it’s settled.” Oliver shook Jay’s hand. “You’ve got the job.”
    Jay’s body relaxed, as if he’d finally been able to let go of a great weight. “Really?”
    “Yup.”
    “That fast?”
    “I’m the boss.” Oliver waved a hand in Bullock’s direction. “I wanted to give Badger a chance to rage. Things have been pretty calm around here the past few days, and he gets out of sorts if he doesn’t have an opportunity to get angry once in a while.”
    “What can I say except thanks?” Jay shook Oliver’s hand again. “I accept.” He gave Bullock a subtle victory smile.
    Bullock stood up, shook his head, snorted, and exited the room without saying good-bye.
    “Not a very friendly guy,” Jay observed, watching the strawberry-blond crew cut disappear into the hallway.
    “Does that bother you?”
    Jay exhaled heavily. “No. I want to work at McCarthy and Lloyd to make money, not friends.”
    Oliver nodded approvingly. “That’s what I wanted to hear you say.” His expression turned serious. “I had to put you through all that because I needed to see how you reacted under pressure. I asked Badger to make things rough on you before I came in. It can get crazy around this place when deals unfold. You did great, like I knew you would.” Oliver rubbed his hands together. “Now let’s talk about McCarthy and Lloyd.”
    Jay closed his eyes and allowed himself a moment of immense elation. He had made the jump to the major leagues of the financial world. “Okay,” he said calmly.
    “As we’ve discussed, I run the equity arbitrage desk. My mandate is simple: to make money by speculating on publicly traded stocks.” Oliver flipped Jay’s resume over and scribbled something on the back. “Sometimes we buy stocks of companies that are ‘in play,’” he continued. “Those are situations in which a company has already received a takeover offer, and we bet that it will receive another, higher offer from a second bidder or from the original bidder. Perhaps several more offers surface from several more bidders. Ultimately, I sell our shares to the highest bidder. The risk for me in those situations is that no other bidders surface or that the target’s management can’t goose up the original bidder. Then I probably lose a couple of bucks a share when the stock price settles back down, because it usually pops above the initial offer price when the deal is first announced.”
    “That makes sense.” Jay watched Oliver scribble again on the paper. He was constantly making notes to himself, carrying on the conversation with Jay and thinking about several other things simultaneously.
    Oliver finished writing, then carefully replaced his Mont Blanc pen in his shirt pocket. “We’ll also buy shares of companies that my people and I think would make particularly attractive takeover candidates—situations in which a takeover hasn’t yet been announced, but we think it will be in the near future. If a takeover is