us C students run the world baby
Nitz25 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Good add, CFAcountry. Very important to not just > hit and run, which won’t develop the “network” > you’re looking for. > > iteracom, I know the idea of unsolicited interview > requests sounds pretty dumb on the surface but so > do all sales practices that have proven real-world > success. You won’t get callbacks form every > alumnus you reach out to, but the ones you do hear > from will be people who are firm believers in alma > mater “nepostism”. These are the people you want > to build relationships with. > Sales cold calling works because you have something to offer the client. A student calling for details of an industry has nothing to offer. And unless the student went to some elite school, it wont work. I can see a Harvard or Yale student working the cold calling, because those schools get you in on brand name, but any lower tier school, and forget it. Those succesful from lower tier schools got there on hard work. You can ask me about the industry and everything, and I will just be thinking, you can find all this through research yourself. > Most people do see through informationals as an > obvious fishing technique for jobs, but it’s kind > of an unspoken courtesy to grant people these > types of interviews if you have some type of > common connection (alma mater, work or used to > work for same company but in operations/sales > dept, mutual acquaintance, etc). If you come off > as genuinely information-seeking, not too pushy > about your obvious interest in a job, and show > general intelligence and likeability; they will > keep you in mind down the road. The pro-active > personality it takes to manage this process as you > try and get your foot in the door is a quality > that online job applicants and recruiting-firm > finds never get to showcase, and oftentimes > becomes the difference maker.
The obvious way is to have a network. No need to tell why once more, and it is not easy to get a network without one. But there are no universal formulas to get one if you don’t already have one. Good jobs can be found on websites and for many people it would feel ridiculous to be called for an informational interview. Just saying. One thing you can try is the MO/Risk/Controlling > FO thing. But be careful getting into a role in which you have minimal exposure to the FO. Try to get into some risk role where you control what the FO does AND interact daily with them. If you have a FO personality, and proper background you may get noticed. Then just find the right moment to ask to switch. Given an interest from FO, if your current manager is ok with letting you go (which can get very tricky), then doors open to you. Also, is there anything special about you ? Do you have real skills which you could lever up ? Not like you do the cee-eff-yay. More like you have first-hand experience in an industry, or you are fluent in a foreign language, etc. etc.
iteracom, this process has worked well for me and multiple people I know both personally and professionally. Niether myself nor any of the aforementioned people went to Harvard or Yale. To your comment about alumni of lower tier schools getting there through hard work: Networking is hard work.
Im sure you can find some example of every single approach that has worked. Video resume, powerpoint presentation, special favors, etc I just want people to know this method of cold calling, the chances of success are not high as some of you people are making it out to be. Theres a huge difference between already knowing people who know people against pulling a phonebook of alumni and start cold calling away.
Nitz25 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Good add, CFAcountry. Very important to not just > hit and run, which won’t develop the “network” > you’re looking for. > > iteracom, I know the idea of unsolicited interview > requests sounds pretty dumb on the surface but so > do all sales practices that have proven real-world > success. You won’t get callbacks form every > alumnus you reach out to, but the ones you do hear > from will be people who are firm believers in alma > mater “nepostism”. These are the people you want > to build relationships with. > > Most people do see through informationals as an > obvious fishing technique for jobs, but it’s kind > of an unspoken courtesy to grant people these > types of interviews if you have some type of > common connection (alma mater, work or used to > work for same company but in operations/sales > dept, mutual acquaintance, etc). If you come off > as genuinely information-seeking, not too pushy > about your obvious interest in a job, and show > general intelligence and likeability; they will > keep you in mind down the road. The pro-active > personality it takes to manage this process as you > try and get your foot in the door is a quality > that online job applicants and recruiting-firm > finds never get to showcase, and oftentimes > becomes the difference maker. I agree 100%. You’ll get out of networking what you put into it. I never ask for an informational interview. It just sounds lame in my opinion. If someone has a job that I wish to do someday, I politely ask if I can meet them for coffee/lunch at some point to learn more. I make it a cool conversation and I have fun with it.
Have you ever considered that the talent pool is great? Employers have the upper hand. Experience experience experience.
The talent pool right now is really good. I just got a new job a couple weeks ago. I ended up meeting one of the candidates because they brought several of us in back to back. He graduated with honors from Stanford with a double major and investment banking experience. The competition is tough out there. I ended up getting the job because they had us take various math/logic tests and I performed better than anyone else. I also graduated from a top 20 undergrad, passed CFA L2, and have several years of experience in financial services. It’s possible I conveyed my personality traits and sold myself better as well. By the way, this job wasn’t even that great. I’m already planning my exit. It is a corporate finance role that pays decently. Anyway, I’m giving all this info to just give a snapshot of how competitive it was for even this role. We had to go through 3 rounds of interviews and these tests. Also, for those who just graduated, you guys need to try harder. Blast out your resume if you are going the internet route. Over the past 3 years, I have been on over 30 interviews through the resume barrage through email. Albeit I only got this last job, but I just kept trying. Obviously networking is going to be the most effective use of your time though. I would rather think of networking as a long-term activity where you’re trying to make friends with people who happen to be in the industry you want to be a part of. If you need a job right away, you will have to approach your networking opportunities with getting a job in mind (rather than the “making friends” mentality). But in general, if you are employed, I would try to make friends rather than specifically trying to get a job from those people.