Creating your own personal application-Good or bad idea?

Hi everyone,

I graduated in May 2015 from a non-target state school with a degree in finance. Since then, I have worked part time for a small valuation consulting firm and passed the Level 1 exam on my first attempt. I am looking to start a career as a fixed income analyst, but opportunities have been hard to come by. I came up with the idea of creating my own personal applicaiton consisting of information about my values, why I want to work in the field, my qualifications (resume, grades, CFA Level 1, reccomendations) and the value that I believe I would add. I plan to take this packet, put it into a nice binder and physically walk into fixed income asset managers and fixed income funds in my area, regardless if they have any job postings or not.

I would like to hear some feedback on this idea from some expereinced professionals. Do you think this idea is worth my time? Do you think my application would be taken seriously or just tossed in the trash? What type of things in the application would impress you and what things would just annoy you?

Please leave any other feedback you deem neccessary. Thanks.

I think someone like itera could give you very optimistic advice regarding this endeavor of yours.Make sure to mention your L1 pass and the semi target to him.These stuff gets the man super excited.

Well, it had better be a REALLY good binder. Because any minor flaw will put you in “impossible is nothing” basket in the person’s eye.

In addition, the fact of the matter is that people cannot just spontaneously hire you. There needs to be a job opening first. So, you to do some research, find out when there is turnover, and present yourself at the opportunistic time.

It’s not a bad idea, but try to get some professionals to look at your packet and give feedback on whether it’s on target or not. It doesn’t have to be a perfect folder, but if it’s not in the right part of the ball park, you may just get laughed at and it will go no where.

The part of the story that sounds difficult to me is the “just walk in and hand it to people”. At least where I am, most asset managers are behind a security desk where you’re not getting in unless you have an appointment. Even if you walk into an office, there’s still a receptionist who is likely to field your request, and that person’s job is to ensure that no one wastes people’s time. So from that perspective, I think you’re not going to get anywhere just walking in off the street.

On the other hand, telling fixed income managers that you are preparing a packet and/or your resume and could use some feedback on your qualifications (i.e. an informational interview) is a sensible strategy that can work. That’s just classic networking. People may remember you next time a position comes up, and you get some exposure while working on your binder.

So I’d recommend looking at the asset managers in your area, look up the specific names of people you want to talk to, and write them an email or even a letter to do the informational interview to help you put together strong materials and offer the experience of their wisdom in the field.

Not a good idea. Not to take away from my point, I’d like to mention that I’ve once seen someone get an apprenticeship with a CEO of a boutique shop with a slide deck.

But don’t do it. You’re much better off trying to just network and building relationships with professionals locally. Coming in with a shiny folder, you risk presenting as a door-to-door salesman.

Definitely recommend against it, could become the next laughing stock material if you do it wrong.

Looking more carefully at what you were going to put in the packet, I realize that I (erroneously) assumed that the packet would include a sample of work you can produce in the relevant space, a resume, and perhaps a few supplemental items.

After that, it’s really not so different from traditional applications, except that you are trying to get them to people who haven’t solicited for a job, so instead what you are doing is networking with a packet of stuff to serve as a basis for discussion.

The thing that I think people are laughing at is the page about your values and why you want to get into the field and what you think you can contribute. Put recommendations on a LinkedIn site rather than in a packet.

I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing to have, but I would either hide the “values” part or suggest what your values are through behaviors and past accomplishments, rather than say things like “I value honesty and profits.” On the other hand, Trump has gotten pretty far just by saying “I value being the best,” so wierder things have happened.

The other thing is that accomplishments and qualities you bring to the job should not be essays. They should be punchy bullet points that all fit on a single piece of paper that takes maybe 15 seconds to scan. I have gotten calls from places where they lost or never hand my resume but did have a one pager with a few bullet points on what kind of stuff I do.

Finally, a little thing that can help: ask anyone you network with what kind of work or research they wish they could get done if they had more time. When people think about hiring somone, they think about the cost and bureaucracy that goes into creating a position and they don’t want to do it. But everyone has work that needs to get done. If you can find out what that work is and can do some of it for them, that’s your key to demonstrating value.

I got an interview a while ago with someone at Goldmand Sachs in IB — I wanted the job so much I made a packet. I had a theme to this packet and presented it when we met. I worked really hard on it and it was a disaster. I have never submitted anything more than a resume after that.

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Thank you for the feedback. This is all really useful information. I do plan on including a sample of my work, my resume and a letter of recommendation. Now, you stated I should keep recommendations to LinkedIn, does this include formal letters of recommendation? Because ive been under the impression a formal letter of rec would be good to include with any resume.

Remember that pretty much anyone you contact will be crunched for time and doesn’t want to read a bunch of stuff if they can possibly avoid it. That’s why bullet points are good, though they can be overdone if they run on too long.

References are asked late in the job application process, so to bring them up early on just looks like more reading to them. That’s why you should skip them. LinkedIn references are seen only if someone looks for them, which is why they are a good location to place them.

If the people you are contacting actually know the person who is recommending you, that’s a different story, but in that case you should ask the person making the recommendation if they can facilitate your meeting or at least if they will mind if you say that they suggested you get in touch with whoever you are contacting.

Incidentally, a more operational definition of networking is “using someone’s *name* as a reference to get an informational or other interview.” A lot of people think that networking is just collecting business cards and cold calling. That’s more “marketing/sales” than “networking”. At some level you have to do marketing too, but it’s not nearly as effective as networking as it’s defined in this paragraph.

In consulting work, there is something called a press kit, which is perhaps what you are thinking of when you say “Prepare a binder”. These sometimes have references, but they are more like 3 or 4 sentence praises from former clients saying how great you were at solving problem X efficiently.

A lot of finance people are not great at thinking outside the box (or - more accurately - are afraid to act outside the box), so there’s lots of chuckling about things here and the need to follow the cookie cutter approach most firms want to force you into. A good press kit isn’t a bad thing in general, and the process of preparing one produces useful ideas and print material, but remember that people who don’t know you and don’t think they need you aren’t going to want to read a big packet of stuff you shove in their hands. It is something that you can leave them with after you have an informational interview so that they can see what your writing and analytical abilities are like and if anyone else had benefitted from your work.