OP, check out this site and see if this helps at all
[quote]MiniMe23 wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
I remember talking to a HR person at a bar who was (maybe?) joking. She said:
“We get literally hundreds of qualified applications for each job we post. So the first thing I do is to stack them on my desk. I’ll grab the first half of the stack and throw them away. Those people are obviously unlucky and you don’t want to hire anyone who is unlucky.”
I knew a guy who claimed he was the dead last person who applied where he worked and he got the job (beating the application deadline by minutes, I guess). He said his boss later admitted that he never read past the first application that he saw, saying something like, “you were qualified, so I interviewed and hired you.”
[/quote]
haha, yea I’m hoping that I’m not that unlucky! However…I do watch a lot of job postings on websites and apply immediately, I hope that same HR person who throws away the top half of the stack isn’t working in the investment industry! Also, I will admit that I didn’t graduate from Harvard/Yale/Cornell but then again my college is accredited…etc.
I do tailor my applications to every job I apply to, and I don’t think that I’m a douche or an ass-hole. Right now at this stage of my life I cannot afford to be anything but nice, humble, and willing to give 111%. [/quote]
Your college is accredited…You know, the only people I’ve ever heard speak of their accreditation, are those schools like devry. Please tell me you didn’t go to devry…
On the dumb HR woman bit, it’s a sad thing but it wouldn’t even begin to surprise me. The best companies are the ones who look through the applicants for the most qualified and best fit candidates. GE and Google are shining examples of these types of companies and it obviously shows in their reputation and profit margins.
[quote]krg1604 wrote:
OP, check out this site and see if this helps at all
[/quote]
Thanks Krg… I read that site a lot actually… I have tried the whole networking approach too and continue to. The author of that site makes it sound like people who are 4+ connections out care as much as the first connection… but this has not been the case. I have found that once I get about 4 connections out no one really cares that a friend of a friend of a friend can’t get into the industry.
Also, I know its all about who you know, which just makes me question if people even use the online applications to fill positions. If not, then I guess that entire approach is a waste of time.
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
[quote]MiniMe23 wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
I remember talking to a HR person at a bar who was (maybe?) joking. She said:
“We get literally hundreds of qualified applications for each job we post. So the first thing I do is to stack them on my desk. I’ll grab the first half of the stack and throw them away. Those people are obviously unlucky and you don’t want to hire anyone who is unlucky.”
I knew a guy who claimed he was the dead last person who applied where he worked and he got the job (beating the application deadline by minutes, I guess). He said his boss later admitted that he never read past the first application that he saw, saying something like, “you were qualified, so I interviewed and hired you.”
[/quote]
haha, yea I’m hoping that I’m not that unlucky! However…I do watch a lot of job postings on websites and apply immediately, I hope that same HR person who throws away the top half of the stack isn’t working in the investment industry! Also, I will admit that I didn’t graduate from Harvard/Yale/Cornell but then again my college is accredited…etc.
I do tailor my applications to every job I apply to, and I don’t think that I’m a douche or an ass-hole. Right now at this stage of my life I cannot afford to be anything but nice, humble, and willing to give 111%. [/quote]
Your college is accredited…You know, the only people I’ve ever heard speak of their accreditation, are those schools like devry. Please tell me you didn’t go to devry…
On the dumb HR woman bit, it’s a sad thing but it wouldn’t even begin to surprise me. The best companies are the ones who look through the applicants for the most qualified and best fit candidates. GE and Google are shining examples of these types of companies and it obviously shows in their reputation and profit margins. [/quote]
haha no, it is not Devry. I attended Radford University in Virginia.
It’s super important to make contacts on the inside instead of relying on HR to pass your resume along. When my manager was looking for people he got ZERO applicants. Meanwhile I dropped off my resume and contacted HR afterward to confirm they received it and the asshat sighed and told me she’d check as soon as she had a moment and she’d contact me if she didn’t receive it.
At the same time I’m e-mailing a couple of friends who work there and they say that there hasn’t been any applicants according to the manager. So I get them to give my resume to him directly and he hired me right away.
What actually happens is underqualified morons in HR think they can filter out resumes based on their own criteria even if they have no background in the position being hired for. I have no idea what they didn’t like about mine but you need to be a psychic to know what some HR moron is looking for. They might turf it because it has too many pages or because it has only one page or because they don’t like the font or your use of acronyms or lack of acronyms…
You HAVE to get on the inside. Get on boards and comittees and volunteer and search and rescue or whatever and get to know people who are in the company you want to work for. It sounds like a lot of trouble but once you’re in the industry you won;t have to try so hard.
[quote]debraD wrote:
It’s super important to make contacts on the inside instead of relying on HR to pass your resume along. When my manager was looking for people he got ZERO applicants. Meanwhile I dropped off my resume and contacted HR afterward to confirm they received it and the asshat sighed and told me she’d check as soon as she had a moment and she’d contact me if she didn’t receive it.
At the same time I’m e-mailing a couple of friends who work there and they say that there hasn’t been any applicants according to the manager. So I get them to give my resume to him directly and he hired me right away.
What actually happens is underqualified morons in HR think they can filter out resumes based on their own criteria even if they have no background in the position being hired for. I have no idea what they didn’t like about mine but you need to be a psychic to know what some HR moron is looking for. They might turf it because it has too many pages or because it has only one page or because they don’t like the font or your use of acronyms or lack of acronyms…
You HAVE to get on the inside. Get on boards and comittees and volunteer and search and rescue or whatever and get to know people who are in the company you want to work for. It sounds like a lot of trouble but once you’re in the industry you won;t have to try so hard.[/quote]
yep, and don’t think you’re above social engineering. Feel free to find out whose in HR or a manager and if they go to bars and shit. Then you just have to meet them at the bar and a few drinks in it turns out you applied to where they work!? As hilarious as this is, it could easily work.
So OP… What college did you graduate from? Its been asked like 3 times and you haven’t said yet.
Fuck when you think about it these HR people could rake in some dough through bribes and shit…
It aint the class you take, its the hand you shake
So you don’t have any professional experience? Internships? You said you worked construction during the summers because it paid well. Now you pay the price. Your experience is not ‘the best as it could have been compared to any other recent college grad’. Most college kids will get internships every summer. That’s 3 more jobs in the sector than you’ve had. While those jobs themselves are pretty meaningless, they offer great opportunities to meet the right people.
What’s this mean? You’re going to have to make up that experience. You’ll have to start lower than you are applying for now, and work your way up.
Does your college have a career fair? Do neighboring colleges have career fairs (UVA?) You might want to check those out and let them know who you are. Sometimes you have to politely demand that you be noticed, even if you didn’t go to the Ivy Leagues. Tell them you deserve a shot, for XYZ reasons, and you want to be in the industry for XYZ reasons. Don’t just shake hands, say hello, drop off your resume and hope to get a call back. Make your self stand out. Be a dynamic person.
I’ve struggled with finding employment before in the finance industry, and really what it came down to was old fashioned persistence. You have to write very good cover letters and you have to come to play. If you go to enough interviews, you will become better at interviewing and somebody will hire you.
You seem like a hard working kid, so I think that will carry you through in the long-run, even though you are having some trouble in the short-run. Let us know how it goes. Keep busting your ass.
The FBI is hiring Financial Analyst GOGOGO
[quote]optheta wrote:
The FBI is hiring Financial Analyst GOGOGO[/quote]
Do you know where I can find the application page? I did check this out Friday afternoon and they have the same message now as they did then…
"AT THIS TIME, FEDERAL AGENCIES ARE OPERATING UNDER A CONTINUING RESOLUTION WITH LIMITED FUNDING. AS A RESULT, THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HAS ORDERED A TEMPORARY FREEZE ON AGENCY HIRING.
UNTIL THE BUDGETARY RESTRICTIONS ARE LIFTED AND THE FBI HAS FUNDING TO SUPPORT HIRING ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL, APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR ANY POSITIONS. PLEASE RETURN TO THIS WEBSITE FOR UPDATES TO OUR HIRING OPPORTUNITIES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED INTEREST IN FBI EMPLOYMENT."
Maybe tomorrow when all the “non-essential” employees return they will open the site up for applications.
I envy the U.S. college system. You have much more opportunity to make it big than over here.
I wanted to take Business Internship 1 & 2 (2 semesters of work placement) to go with my accounting + finance degree. I had 3 months to find a placement and got rejected for everything. Wasn’t paid internship either, so it leaves me scratching my head. University wouldn’t help either - in fact they only just this year began helping students with negotiating work placements.
[quote]MiniMe23 wrote:
[quote]optheta wrote:
The FBI is hiring Financial Analyst GOGOGO[/quote]
Do you know where I can find the application page? I did check this out Friday afternoon and they have the same message now as they did then…
"AT THIS TIME, FEDERAL AGENCIES ARE OPERATING UNDER A CONTINUING RESOLUTION WITH LIMITED FUNDING. AS A RESULT, THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HAS ORDERED A TEMPORARY FREEZE ON AGENCY HIRING.
UNTIL THE BUDGETARY RESTRICTIONS ARE LIFTED AND THE FBI HAS FUNDING TO SUPPORT HIRING ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL, APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR ANY POSITIONS. PLEASE RETURN TO THIS WEBSITE FOR UPDATES TO OUR HIRING OPPORTUNITIES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED INTEREST IN FBI EMPLOYMENT."
Maybe tomorrow when all the “non-essential” employees return they will open the site up for applications. [/quote]
Okay nvm i twas the CIA
https://www.cia.gov/careers/opportunities/support-professional/view-jobs.html#Accounting
but you do have to move down to Washington DC
[quote]Teledin wrote:
I envy the U.S. college system. You have much more opportunity to make it big than over here.
I wanted to take Business Internship 1 & 2 (2 semesters of work placement) to go with my accounting + finance degree. I had 3 months to find a placement and got rejected for everything. Wasn’t paid internship either, so it leaves me scratching my head. University wouldn’t help either - in fact they only just this year began helping students with negotiating work placements.
:([/quote]
I know the feeling. What uni, if you don’t mind me asking?
The US college system sounds top-rate, but I’m glad I’m not a recent graduate looking for work in the US economy.
networking. you have to get around the HR people an in front of the actual hiring managers, or those above them.
a 3rd party recruiter can help with this.
Good job with the CFA. However it doesnt really seem like your internship experience stacks up in terms of offering value. Couple that with the fact that you have such and such experiences in managing funds.
People will not interview if they think youre overqualified and looking at their position as a stepping stone. And if they do interview and you come across too boldly it will be the same thing “whens this person going to leave us for someone else” as they have turnaround, hiring and firing costs.
Get a professional job, anything in the meantime. I speak as someone who went through the same thing for a year out of college but i worked shitty data entry in the meantime and applied for jobs every night, writing countless individualized cover letters and networking my ass off before something happened.
NETWORK, get on LinkedIN, talk to people in your community. It would have helped to have gone to a bigger school where people recruit, so you have to make up for it. word of mouth is the absolute best way to get hired. Read a book (Dale Carnegie is excellent) about interviewing skills or sit down with someone who has interviewed people in the past, I cannot stress how important this is. You MUST PRACTICE interviews with people that hire. Write invididualized resumes and cover letters to every single position, and really emphasize the value you can add to the company and why you want to work there. I dont think it should take you long to get something, but it may not be investment banking.
Plus youre in Virginia. If you want to do IB, you have to move where there are more IB jobs available. New York, Chicago, LA. I am getting ready to do the same thing.
I’m in a similar situation OP–3.9 GPA with published research and all the academic bells and whistles, graduated last May, and have worked nothing but low level and min-wage dead end jobs since. I wish I could get back all of the hours I’ve spent applying to jobs for which I’m overqualified that I’ll somehow never even hear back from.
Its rough. Hang in there and you’ll find something eventually as long as you work hard enough at it. Get to know someone important with their fingers close to the levers of power within an institution, that goes a lot further than grades or work experience. I decided fuck it, I’m going to grad school and seeing if the market isn’t any better in a year or two when I’m more qualified. If not then there’s always bank robbery.
[quote]smh23 wrote:
I’m in a similar situation OP–3.9 GPA with published research and all the academic bells and whistles, graduated last May, and have worked nothing but low level and min-wage dead end jobs since. I wish I could get back all of the hours I’ve spent applying to jobs for which I’m overqualified that I’ll somehow never even hear back from.
Its rough. Hang in there and you’ll find something eventually as long as you work hard enough at it. Get to know someone important with their fingers close to the levers of power within an institution, that goes a lot further than grades or work experience. I decided fuck it, I’m going to grad school and seeing if the market isn’t any better in a year or two when I’m more qualified. If not then there’s always bank robbery.[/quote]
Thats terrible to hear, but I’m glad we can unfortunately relate to some degree. A few of my friends decided to go to grad school and ride out the bad job market…one friend is attending a school that is costing him roughly 65K for the 13 month program and while he is at least getting interviews it is for jobs only paying 55K a year… plus the wall street bonuses aren’t what they used to be considering you still work just as many hours. I don’t know that the return on investment for grad school is what it was a couple years ago.
I would have done the same however, I was hoping to have a position by now…study the GMAT and get into a top 10 MBA in a couple of years down the road. At this point, if I study for the GMAT then I am another good year out until they start in August of 2012.
If I could have done it all over again, knowing what I know now, I probably would have traveled for a year (Europe, Australia…etc) instead of staying up late at night freaking out over getting a job… hindsight… its a terrible thing.