[original post removed]
I think a huge problem with the length of this letter is that it suggests that you’re blind to social cues, have poor commnication skills , or that you haven’t done your research.
If I were you, I’d assume the person on the other end is busy and sucessful, and you only have 5-7 seconds to hook me on reading, and if I read it I’m ony giving it 20-30 seconds max.
Nobody has time to read this shit. One of you veterans stop me if I’m off-base.
You should probably cut the cover letter length to ~400, then report back.
“tear apart financial statements” … it’s a bit cringeworthy man.
Here’s the thing, mlw is right, you get about 5-10secs of reading before the letter is thrown out or continued with. Its a sunday afternoon and I am not at work and I would not read the entirety of that thing.
Brevity, with quality writing is a skill. Your cover letter is a sample of that. it is possible to get less words with more content.
This.
To compound the length issue, you’re applying for an equty research role, where brevity is an important skill. This cover letter is basically indicating to the reader that you are not a good candidate for the position.
Haha I’m surprised at the level of hostility this has been met with considering its my first draft and was in writing this only doing my best to convey all the skills that would make me a fit for this role, but nonetheless will take all comments on board re: the length. I’m guessing that a lack of comment on the content suggests that I’ve hit the right buttons - albeit in a very detailed way?
i read somewhere that as a gudieline there should be a 1000-word limit/ fit onto one page - guess that’s not the case. What aspects do people feel can be left out here and is there an agreement that a 400 word limit as suggested by ohai is best?
big four…great. they already knew that by looking at your resume. you don’t need to label yourself like that. just IMO.
you should also proof-read your cover-letter, and it should also be shorter. I already spotted an error in the first paragraph.
“My professional experience with and in-depth understanding of IFRS/US GAAP combined with acquired analytical skill through audit has…”
you meant to say “an” not “and”
That was actually intentional as in…
My professional experience with… and in-depth understanding of… IFRS/US GAAP, combined with
Could maybe be worded differently if it causes confusion
Anybody have anything else that has not already been said?
Oh, hmm…sounded a little funny. But I see it now. I think you should shorten it. Here’s an old one from mine from awhile back.
Dear Hiring Manager,
While completing my Masters in Finance in December 2012, I had the privilege of working with Raymond James Financial on several of their institutional projects initially as an investment analyst intern. I worked on several key components and provided technical analysis of industry funds, research reports on specific sectors, and standardized risk measurements through reporting performances. I realized that I wanted to pursue financial analysis as a long-term career goal, so I decided to pursue the CFA charter designation. I eagerly accepted this program because I wanted to differentiate myself and prove that I have the dedication, discipline, skill, and desire to continue as a professional in this field. I cleared Level 1 of the CFA exams shortly thereafter.
At Morgan Stanley, I had the opportunity to work with some of the best in the brokerage industry dealing with a multitude of financial classes and assets. I handled all national equity trades for Morgan Stanley on the east coast, resolved client commission rate discrepancies, facilitated the resolution of corporate action amendments, and reconciled prime brokerage trades.
Currently, I am a CFA level 2 candidate and will sit for the June 2015 examination. I believe it’s a critical part in my career as it’s a very intuitive way for me to stay abreast of the financial industry standard. I will also be completing my SQL and Java Visual Basic certification in 2015 in order to better manage databases and modeling valuations to further my career as a financial analyst.
This is my passion. I am constantly learning, developing, and evolving - similar to how the industry is. The challenges that this career field entails are undeniable; there is a clear need for better risk metrics, research, and ethical practices. I believe I stand out amongst my peers because I am constantly seeking to enhance my level of professional knowledge and understanding of the industry that I believe employers value. I look forward to talking to you about my qualifications, skills, knowledge and abilities that will add value to your organization. Please contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
XYZ
It’s probably not the best but it did land me in the current job right now, which isn’t bad. I dunno if it has anything to do with this specific cover-letter but it is what it is.
That’s not what it means - it means that nobody here wants to take the time to read your Charles Dickens novel. This goes back to my comment on social cues!
Forget about “I read somewhere that cover letters can be up to 1000 words”. Use your own experience and constraints as an acid test. If you received 100 resumes for 1 job posting, and 15 of them had cover letters, and each was 1000 words, how many of them would you read in full? Assuming you’re successful enough to be in a position where you’re hiring, you should be busy as shit working with shareholders, clients, subordinates, and other managers. I can’t imagine you having time to read a 1,000 statement.
So we’re clear, I wasn’t trying to be hostile in any way. 100% of my focus was on being helpful.
mlwl8521 - you’re annoying. I’m not socially unaware and I understand that hiring managers are busy, but to be honest if I was going to recruit someone onto my team and their resume didn’t immediately scream out equity analyst then I would I would appreciate the time and effort this person will have taken to write my so-called ‘charles dickens novel’ as it shows huge enthusiasm and if I was THAT successful - I may even give it my time, especially if I was particular about my kind of candidate. Talking about social cues… there are more subtle and eloquent ways of saying you can condense something rather than ‘nobody has time to read this shit’.
VWJETTY - That’s a nice letter and you’ve had some good experience. Mind me asking what you are doing now?
he is right though. most ppl dont even read the cover letter and skim the resume if you are applying to a big company.
if you are applying to a small company and are emailing the hiring manager directly they might actually read the cover letter. but no way they are reading a lengthy cover letter when they have other resumes to review and applicants to interview on top of their regular work
DannyBoy,
Toughen up mate. The above advice is going to help you get interviews. If you’re getting all bristly from this feedback, how are you going to react when your client throws your research back in your face and tells you you’re a waste of space and the research isnt’ worth the paper it’s printed on? That happens man. The way this thing is written, you won’t pass the human resources grunt’s 5 second gaze.
I don’t think you hit ‘all the right buttons’. You just hit the word limit. Condense it once, then condense it again, and then maybe it will be brief and succint enough. Brevity is key! I’d go through the thing line by line and give you feedback but I don’t have time for that.
I would also consult people who work in your local market and have made the same moves - sometimes there are slight cultural differences in job searching in different countries. I would say that the one page cover (brief) and one page resume is normal in North America. This may differ in the UK.
Cover letter writing is tough - and it doesn’t get read often, but it’s just something you have to do as part of the process. Try to get a good one down and then shift focus to networking.
If I was recruiting an equity analyst I would have immediatelly tossed out that novel. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
For constructive feedback, after skimming most of it, I would recommend putting together some original research to showcase your potential. Instead of saying all of the things you can do, put it to work and demonstrate what you’re capable of. Don’t provide all of your models or any of that, just create a 1-pager on some company. And don’t choose AAPL or some crap like that. Can’t guarantee the job, but I’d be much more likely to read it.
Buddy, you’ve got to cut that shit down. Ideally, everyone has time to marinate in the details, but the demands of the real world call for an unfortunate bullet-pointing of things. It’s a unique skill set possessed by leaders and it’s worth learning. The world is filled with technical types criticizing leaders but lacking the ability to do what leaders do.
I am procrastinating doing my own work on a Monday morning. Hope this helps as a first path through of cutting this down.
I am interested in applying for the role of Analyst 3 within the Equity research department as part of the Global Markets division.
In terms of my background and what I can bring to the role, I am a qualified Chartered Accountant coming from Big 4 Audit with a focus on auditing banking and fund clients. I have a first class degree in Accounting and Finance from The University of Sheffield and have also completed levels 1 (Dec 14) and 2 (June 15) of the CFA qualification – both passed on first attempt and with over 70% scored at both levels in the areas of Equities, Financial Reporting and Corporate Finance. My professional experience with and in-depth understanding of IFRS/US GAAP combined with acquired analytical skill through audit has given me the tools to be able to naturally tear apart the financial statements and confidently be able to perform fundamental analysis techniques such as ratio analysis and adjusting for e.g. LIFO reserve, the capitalization of operating leases, earnings to be normalized for special items, etc in order to provide for fair comparison between firms. My experience in practice has taught me the importance of building strong internal and external relationships, putting the client first, standing by my personal views but also being diplomatic in my approach and constantly sharing knowledge within the team. I was also given the opportunity to be involved in a vast amount of public speaking and presenting, usually in the form of putting forward my views and conclusions to senior management at audit planning and closing meetings and always supported by my contributions to an audit or controls report.
I feel that such skills would be invaluable in my new role as an equity analyst in performing top-down/bottom-up analysis, financial modeling and market research that would form the basis of a fundamental firm value that I would then use to convey and present to the equity sales/trading team and external buy-side managers to support my investment recommendations in a convincing manner. My prior experience at CS in having to draft a piece of work quickly and diligently in response to changing demands also puts me in an excellent position to assist when, for example, the team is spontaneously given a stock that a client portfolio manager wants some immediate coverage on or if there is activity in the markets and a potential post valuation price needs to be modeled following the emerging news of a new buyout deal.
Subsequent to my Big 4 experience, I have worked for two global investment banks within functions that support the Front Office and require a strong awareness of the wider macroeconomic environment and how market moves translate into P&L generated. In my most recent role at Credit Suisse, my responsibility is to own the attributed market risk p&l for the emerging markets structured lending division and provide daily/weekly/monthly commentary to various stakeholders with explanation as to why the P&L has shifted in response to new deals and market activity. I enjoy this role because it involves performing a significant amount of independent research using a variety of sources (e.g. Bloomberg, CS Fixed Income research, MSCI Index) in order to provide coverage on the various emerging market countries we have exposures in and this is communicated to the team via a weekly presentation. In addition to presenting, I also produce a weekly report containing a summarized commentary on how the various currencies have performed week-on-week and this is distributed and discussed by senior management within the department. From time to time, I may also have to deal with enquiries from parties that are interested in finding out some more detail about particular market events and request my opinion.
Since university, I had always been interested in markets and after gaining a solid grounding in Accountancy I now feel that it is time to perhaps move away from the more traditional accounting work towards an area that I feel is far more suited to my personality, skill-set and interests. Investment analysis very much excites me and apart from being personally invested and following firms within the Consumer Electronics sector, I am quite keen to apply to a practical corporate setting the vast amount of knowledge I have gained from studying valuation models based on dividend growth, free cash flows to the firm/equity-holders, residual income post equity charge on net income and price multiples vs a set benchmark. In terms of financial modeling, I am confident with Excel and have in the past for the purposes of serving my own private client base built my own models that have the built-in ability to link financial statements together with the various UK taxes payable for a client for a specific fiscal year. The models were designed in so that parameters can be altered to deal with specifically tailored client enquiries (such as what-if scenarios) and circumstances (e.g. tax status) and my ambitions are to build upon these skills whilst working with more complex company-specific valuation/merger models.
As an individual, I would describe myself as having a hard work ethic, positive attitude and sincerely believing in getting the job done for the purposes of meeting team objectives, even if this involves working extended hours. My experience In Bermuda auditing funds required me to work 70-80 hour weeks in order to cover a multiple number of clients - all with pressing deadlines and all falling around the same time, so I am not new to the concept of pressure and pushing myself in order to meet expectations. My intentions are to come into this role utilizing all my skills and to prove myself as a credible, dependable member of the team that can be trusted to provide diligent research and add value to the overall output. I hope that through doing so I can eventually move on from assisting senior lead researchers to eventually being able to take on full responsibility and ownership of coverage of specific stocks and have my own stock ideas. In the long-term, I hope to become a recognized name within the sector with views that are known to be respected and trusted.
For all the above reasons mentioned, please kindly accept my application to this role and find enclosed my CV. I very much look forward to hearing from you shortly.
- Bullet points are your friend.
- They really are.
Died laughing at “shows huge enthusiasm”. Anyone who is currently pissed off in their job can take 15 minutes to write up a bunch of stuff they may or may not be able to do. Congrats, you’re a member of an elite crowd of people who want a new job.
Agree with the people who are advising to A) cut that way down B) provide original work actually showing what you’re capable of. That would be more in the ballpark of “huge enthusiasm” than a long letter.
No body read it. that’s why you didnt get comments on the content. Take the word count down dude…