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| Income and Jobs Discuss jobs, career options and of course salaries |
Topic Review (Newest First)
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| 29-11-2011 05:00 PM | ||
| poorman |
The above post is a hard knock out summary of what's exactly wrong with the current generation of fresh graduates seeking to land that 'dream' job Thread may be closed lol. |
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| 29-11-2011 01:26 AM | ||
| Unregistered |
And the funny thing is people are complaining that foreigners are "stealing" our jobs. LOL. Quote:
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| 28-11-2011 10:02 PM | ||
| Unregistered |
good advice i'm an undergrad and no expert, but this is really good wake-up advice for people who've not just graduated but are in the midst of undergraduate studies too. many in my school who study finance have the mindset that they are a shoo-in for investment banking/sales and trading roles. but the reality is, both do the same things when they graduate regardless what role they get - they do the ***t work of 3rd year analysts, Associates, VPs and maybe run errands for clients. it doesn't matter if you work in a boutique or a BB, or even FO or BO, your job is to smile and still get the dirty work done. You can try to look for roles that you're interested in, but an actuarial background is best suited eventually for a role in IB Risk or some other Risk management related role. Your background sounds impressive but you seem confused and too idealistic. Your options now given such a lousy hiring market probably are 1. stick it out and do an MBA related to risk mgmt, or even applied finance, then reapply 2. jump for a junior analyst role in a fund mgmt house/PE/VC - something similar to a fresh grad job (short term pain for long term gain in terms of pay vs career development, btw you have to network your ass off to get those jobs cos they only take in Ivy/Oxbridge) i believe if you want something you'll eventually get it, but dont chart your course towards it. gotta let things play out and see how they go. just don't quit again when you get your 'ideal' job due to some other reason. haha, good luck! |
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| 28-11-2011 02:52 PM | ||
| Unregistered |
Last time my director use to describe this kind of people as the ‘marker board’ guy and will straight away write off when he see one during interview. This kind only want to dazzle in front of high powered clients, draw on white boards or PowerPoint about concepts, principles, strategies etc. Ask them to do the grunt work like gathering data, crunching numbers, chase people for work, basic admin they complain everyday about how underutilized their talents are. All hot air and fantasy about being strategic, but neither know nor care about the nuts and bolts of the business. Quote:
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| 28-11-2011 11:25 AM | ||
| flatstopix |
End of the day nobody can advise passer-by’s problem, just take a look at the kind of job he wants to do: 1) Highly paid - seeing he went to insurance, IB, now want to go investment, fund manager etc., he won’t accept normal fresh grad pay in other functions in normal / smaller companies 2) Cannot be desk bound – Must got opportunity to go out meet big shots, get business exposure, don’t want to face PC whole day 3) Not technical / No Exam – Don’t want technical job, don’t want to go for additional exam. 4) No administration – Too boring for his action figure self 5) Not stressful frontline – Must have excitement, but cannot be too stressful and affect his mental & physical health, must come with work life balance. 6) Good boss – Management cannot be too ambitious, supervisor cannot be emo and pass the stress to him and environment must be “non-toxic” whatever that means 7) Cannot be routine – Because he super big shot, so routine job troubleshooting for others and helping to solve problems for others is beneath his stature 8) Cannot be always restructuring – Complain organization too big his team job scope too limited, then complain why his department keep changing due to restructuring 9) Must have business and investment exposure – Whatever that means… As if any company going to hire a freshie job hopper to make their investment decisions. LOL 10) Must have transferrable skills – Because he still want to move back to FO in some unspecified time in the future 11) Wants to be fund manager – Yep, but I suppose this fund manager job must meet all 10 conditions above also So what does he have to offer from his side? 1) Normal uni degree 2) CFA not complete yet 3) A hooch pooch of jobs in which he stayed for a year or less in each place And this guy wonders why nobody is hiring him? |
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| 28-11-2011 10:49 AM | ||
| Unregistered |
If you spend sometime to consider the perspective from an employer point of view: 1. There are a ton of academic high-flyers. Many from the Ivy league grad and post grad schools are seeking for the same kind of jobs you seek. In such a climate, it is definitely job seekers > jobs (you have to first realise that you are not special, there are tons of qualified people out there looking for the same jobs that you seek) 2. In the recruiter's mind, there is the burning question yet unanswered: "why should we hire you?". You are an actuarial graduate, academically it suggests that you are inclined towards more quantitative roles. You should play according to your strenghts. Market Risk Mgmt makes sense for your background. In such a role, you seem to have an advantage. If you feel that you are more inclines towards investment management roles, you have to work hard to build up your competitive advantages in that area. Such jobs favor candidates with accountancy and finance backgrounds. If you want FO, perhaps a trader / structurer role may play out for you, but again you have already pointed out you hated the FO environment. (you have to realise that the world doesn't owe you a living, why should they hire you in those roles?) 3. Your job history does indeed suggest someone who is unclear of what he/she wants. Someone that lacks determination/perserverance. These are traits that are commonly frowned upon. I worry for you. I worry that you end up landing another role which you don't like and "realise" that you are better suited for something else. Imagine what it will do to your already "haphazard" type of resume history? You made a decision that ended with you in Risk Mgmt. We make many decisions in our lives, some big some small. Each of these decisions, right or wrong, have led us to our current situation in life. We don't make the right decisions all the time. You seem to be making decisions too hastily. You made a decision that the environment in FO is not right for you. I tell you now that in the highly stressed world of IB, the environment that you had experienced is more the norm rather than the exception. Ever thought that perhaps the problem lies within yourself? Perhaps your expectations of the job is not realistic/ too idealistic? My advice: Spend sometime to sort yourself out internally first. First few years out of school, most of us don't know what we want (in our career). Most of us probably will never know. Often, it is about making a choice/decision and sticking with it. Forget the fairytales. Quote:
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| 28-11-2011 10:07 AM | ||
| poorman |
agree with the above poster. From what i've read, you're obviously a very bright person and very qualified. however, employers will not want to hire someone who is volatile when it comes to job stability no matter how qualified you are. Try and stay for at least a year before you look at your options again.. Anyway TS, Risk Management is a very respected role in Financial Institutions. If you stay there, you'll be very valued. income wise is also one of the highest paying areas to work in the Bank apart from the sales side. |
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| 28-11-2011 09:44 AM | ||
| WiredJustice |
I agree with above poster, your past few post sounds like you are trying to look for some ideal job, doesn’t work this way in the real world. You seem to be yearning for some abstract notion of “action” in your job and feel that desk bound jobs are not for you. The natural “action” job is of course sales oriented ones, but then you seem to express no interest at all. Your stints at back and mid end desk bound you don’t like, but suddenly say you are interested in investment research. Excuse me, junior investment researcher is about as desk bound as one can get. It is basically the sai gang guy that goes around Bloomberg / Reuters terminal to extract information and compile them for your senior, sometimes they also help in running some analytics on certain funds, but otherwise you won’t be out of your desk in at least the first 3 years. Nobody’s gona put an inexperienced freshie like you in charge of some fund, interact with corporate senior managers, solicit funds from institutions or participate in industry seminars etc. First few years is confirm get **** no matter where you go, you need to wake up your idea. |
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| 28-11-2011 12:14 AM | ||
| passer-by |
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I had too ambitious management coupled with incompetent supervisor who can't take pressure from top, hence dumped emotional stress on analysts every single day and made the environment toxic. I have 1 more level to go in CFA. Comparing to CF, I prefer investment research or fund manager route better. Advisory is what I am thinking of too. However, vacancies are not that many if compared to CF. To me, those are from the same group in term of career path a (ie they are part of FO and give business exposure) whereas RM/operations/actuarial are from different groups. A lot of interviewers I have met questioned my job history. I feel it's hard to convince them that I really know what I want to do and I'll be committed in my next job. |
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| 27-11-2011 11:05 PM | ||
| Insider |
When u say the IB environment really sucks, what do u mean? Can elaborate what u dun like? U said u passed your CFA, meaning u passed all 3 levels? I supposed since u are actuary trained, u should have some financial modelling skills.. plus u are CFA qualified and also good enough to be accepted into IB front office, then i don't see why u are unable to get a research/advisory job. 2 possible reasons - the current job market is tough, so dun be too hard on yourself. Or, it's something to do with your interviewing skills. If u said the IB environment sucks, then maybe u r not a good fit with corp finance jobs. So why r u still looking for such jobs? Investment research/advisory hours are much better than corp finance..so if u go for these roles, may be more suited for u. 1 more thing. U are right, if u are not doing something u want to stick to in the long term, u better dun wait too long in the current job. Quote:
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