I am in a silly position where I am overqualified for many entry level jobs but not qualified enough for more senior roles.
What jobs are open to me? Where should I apply to just be employed in anything close to finance? It’s a desperate situation lol
Eventually I want to be in investment research, hopefully for alternative investments but have no idea where to inject myself to get a job at this stage.
Some good advice I read was from Mergers &Inquisitions but it said that in my position the best bet is business school. What if it’s not affordable. What the hell do I do that isn’t minimum wage labour?
This is the issue, and I will admit it - on my resume it looks like I am jumping from job type to job type. I did a bit of accounting, a bit of day trading, some fx sales (my first job), and my latest was a research/customer support mix. I couldn’t identify what I wanted to do, and now that I know, my resume is in shambles lol.
MBA is better. Those three letters should open up doors for you. That’s why I’m considering it. It’s a big deal to have on a resume.
The issue is that are no middle jobs. Just the high up MBA jobs that pay like 60k, lol, and the really shitty sales jobs that pay 25k. I don’t even know where or how to find the 45k jobs. I had one. It was mostly customer support and I think I got lucky with it. It won’t come around again. But it’s not what I wanted to do. Now MBA is the next logical step, but that sh!t costs lots of $ that I don’t have and can’t borrow.
Seems like you are all over the place. What is your background? Degree? And experience? What do you want to do? And would you consider state level MBA?
I think the reason that you can’t find a job is partly the attitude of the recruiters. If your resumee doesn’t fit into the straight forward “school w/top grades here, internship there, then climbing up the assistan-associate-manager-etc”-ladder, they cannot make sense of your career. That is, they cannot judge your experience and your qualification if you are not having a straight forward resume. (At least so I was told by HR professionals and rectuiters).
Where are you planning on doing your MBA? Note that “the letters” won’t necessarily give you respect from everyone and w/o work experience it’s a major waste of time and $$$.
Also note that Canadian employers actively discriminate against CFA-Candidates/the program, at least in big firms. For whatever reason they prefer this whole CSC/etc thing.
Yeah. I am unfortunate enough to be one of those people that don’t know what they want to do. I graduated from university in 2012 with a bachelor of arts in Economics. The background is mostly financial, but nothing linear. Honestly, I was naive enough to think that job type hopping was fine because then I’d gather a whole bunch of skills and that would be useful for the industry. WRONG. Only now I’m learning that I had to have chosen a path back when I was 21 and followed it to a T. Now it’s 4.5 years later and I got a jumble of experience because I was looking for something I like.
I’m also just learning that I want to get into investment research/analysis, hopefully in alternative assets like VC. I am considering an MBA for sure, I just know I need a few years to stabilize my previous school debt and then borrow again for this MBA, which is an arm and a leg. I’m in Ontario so the government funding goes up to $7500 but the MBA in a reputable school is about $80 000, so the rest have to be lines of credit and private debts. I know in the meanwhile I will have to find a job but I want it to be relevant so I don’t waste more time jumping from experience to experience.
The CFA thing in Toronto is a hit and a miss because Toronto has the highest concentration of CFA candidates in the world I believe. And employers know this. So when someone comes in an says “oh ya I’m studying CFA l2” or even l3, no one gives a f* because “so what, you don’t have the certificate and there is no use to us”, and it only shows that you are putting some effort toward learning about the financial industry. That is as far as it goes until you actually get the certificate. Mostly, for financial jobs, it’s the CSC that’s needed but that thing is bull, it’s just to show your office admin that you cleared it, and I think it’s like a license. You need it for mutual fund sales and what not.
the CFA discrimination stuff coming out of EconomistAnalyst’s mouth is a crock of sh!t. If you want to work sales or trading, CSC is required as a regulatory requirement. Bank’s don’t want to pay for the cert anymore so they’d rather you have it already. That’s the bottom line. There’s no active scheme to discriminate against CFA candidates. Most jobs I see in investment research actually have it as a requirement.
Why should they respect Level 1 or Level 2 candidates? You’ve achieved nothing special in the Toronto league, what does that knowledge set really set you up for? It’s one thing to say you passed an exam on the materials, it’s another to say you’re proficient at real world analysis at a professional money-managing level. Even when you get Level 3 you won’t get a flood of interviews without the right experience.
OP, don’t do an MBA yet. There’s no point and you won’t get a job coming out of it, making those debts even harder to pay off. Previous employment is a big factor in finance grad-recruiting. It may seem like a vicious cycle, and it is, but try to get one good job before going up for the MBA. Get your shit together (network, samples, etc) and go get that next job. And for godssake don’t go to a shitty school. I would argue there are only two schools worth going to in Canada these days for Finance. It matters.
Why people miss opportunities for average jobs in order to work in high finance jobs when actually they aren’t fit candidate. I have seen some alumni rejecting job offers from accounting firms or banks because they wanted to be ER or some other sort of analyst. As far as I know, they are teaching in colleges or doing sh!t jobs in Toronto because of this sh!t attitude.
Have to agree with this. If you are in a sales/associate type role the CSC (and often CPH) is a requirement.
As for L1/2/3 candidates it doesn’t really matter a lot. Companies mainly hire based on experience. Even four-eight months as an intern plus passing L1 is better than no experience and having passed L3. Trust me, that’s the exact position I’m in right now and I can’t find a job anywhere. I applied for a research associate job at a small firm but didn’t get it. Two of their associates graduated in 2015 with non-finance degrees and only completed one/two co-op terms. Go figure.
I think doing an MBA is a very poor decision. Your best bet is to get some samples to send to employers (i.e. if you want to be in research, then research a company and make a report on them) and above all, network. Proposing an employer to let you work/intern for free is also an option and one that I’m contemplating.
Since its top 10 MBA or hacksaw and with your current background it would be damn hard to get into top 10, it’s time to buckle down and start making calls and sending your resume out like it’s going out of style (it is, quickly). Find the job you’re passionate about and step down in pay if needed initially but be clear at the start with future pay, promotion opptys, and seek the best fit for a manager/mentor who can take you to the next level.
If you have good grades and a strong math background you could look into masters in economics. In Canada you can literally get off with minimal to zero tuition with funding. Queens, U of T all place graduates into the workforce well, if you are interested in finace more, carelton has a financial eocnomics specialization. The US has a lot more finacial econ program that look very intersting.
Ok, what are you guys thinking about doing an MBA + internship so that I can leverage that into a job later on?
Also, what do you guys mean by cold calling? I spoke to someone in the industry today and they said “stalk” recruiters on linked in and ‘spam’ them asking if there are jobs available.
What is your version of cold calling, actually finding the number of the hiring manager and calling him/her asking for a job?
lol