Hi guys,
I’m on a terribly confusing job search, and trying to figure out the best path forward. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated.
A bit of background first (this will be a bit lengthy).
I went to a top-20 liberal arts college in the US, majored in Economics (minor in History!).
While I was at college, some research in an Econometrics project led me to believe pricing in sports prediction markets was biased. This quite accidentally turned into a pretty successful subscription led, sports analysis business. There was a bunch of ex-ante prognostication, as well as ex-post analysis on offer and it became very popular, very fast. I ran this business for a little over 5 years. Ex-ante prognostication was independently verified and the results were quite extraordinary (returns as high as 745% with a maximum drawdown of 39%).
However, the career I envisioned for myself was always in Equities. By this point, I’d accumulated reasonable capital - and I’d been trading equity markets with some success. In the last year of running the aforementioned sports analysis business, I completed all three levels of the CMT program (technical analysis). While there were useful elements there, I realized I needed more advanced qualifications to move further in the field of finance. I spent the next 2 and a half years completing the CFA Program - I traded and invested alongside - again. pretty good results. The investment portfolio generated returns of nearly 30% in a year, TR of 13% on the index - a little due to tracking error of various forms, but still considerable alpha there.
At the end of this journey, I’m looking for the rigor and discipline that an equity research role would provide me. Frankly, I’m willing to do whatever it takes. But, in my job search to date (it’s been about 6 weeks, I had a few things i had to deal with late last year) - I feel like a square peg in a round hole. I’m not exactly this or that. My career path has been very obvious to me in my head, but recruiters just don’t seem to get it :))
I’m currently located in India. I’m happy to move to Dhaka if it means a job I’d enjoy. But, moving countries with an Indian passport can be challenging. This is a genuine passion - the only job in the world that I want. So, any thoughts on hpw to get from where I am to where I want to be?
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Should I be applying for entry level jobs or more senior roles?
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What’s your experience of job websites. Are they effective, or is it all about networking, networking and then networking some more?
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Is this hopeless without an MBA? I’m pretty confident about the skill set and fairly convinced that the value add in terms of ability for an equity research role would be quite limited. This is certainly not my preferred option.
I’d really appreciate any input! Thanks!