Hello friends. I’ve applied for many jobs, and haven’t really heard anything. I tried getting into one of the big CAD banks during September recruitment but was not successful. I think I may be either applying for the wrong jobs, or have something on my resume that the finance industry does not like. It would be nice if you could review my resume and tell where I should concentrate my efforts. http://www.stopthebottles.com/resume.pdf Hmm, assuming I have no shot at getting into a training program atm. What roles do you recommend? I’d be happy with something that would give me qualifying exp for the CFA. p.s. I’m trying to avoid grad school until I know exactly what I want to do. Thanks all,
Hi I just quickly glanced at your resume and it seems like you are from Western Canada, so I have one big question for you; are you only looking in BC or are you open to moving back East? I am going to be fully honest with you, the finance market in BC specially in Vancouver is extremely competitive, specially in corporate finance. I would say the Corp. Finance industry in Vancouver and Victoria is Limited to only a few firms and if you are to get in there, you have to have a. lots of experience and designations behind you (i.e. MBA, CFA, etc…) or b. know someone high up. Now the personal finance world is a different story and you could start as and IA assistant on the brokerage side (given you have your CSC and you get your CPH). Or another route is starting at the bank as a personal banker in the retail market and work your way up. If you told us what area you are interested in and what you want to do I could give you a better opinion. If you like you can drop me an email at n.vancandidate@gmail.com. Cheers NVC
I glanced too. As for what you should apply for, I think you need to think about what types of things you are really interested in doing / motivated by and then try to tune your resume to what that is. I assume you are interested in some kind of financial role, so you should make that the very first thing that people see when they look at your experience. So put your title and department first, then the name of your company. It’s a little unusual, but it should make your finance role pop out much more. No one sees B.C. Hydro and thinks “oh, look, finance experience”. Targeting a role in equity research in the energy sector looks like a sensible type of job to do. You can do a writeup of an energy company (or BC Hydro) and send it in with your resume as a sample of work you can do. Other possibilities are project finance (basically a subset of corporate finance) or possibly public finance (evaluating public debt or something like that). I have family on Vancouver Island… wonderful place. I suppose working in retirement planning might be the easiest shot, and if you are thinking through asset allocations, that might even qualify for CFA stuff. However, it will tend to pigeonhole you in a way that can be hard to break out of… although I think FrankArabia here managed to get somewhere he wanted through a route like that.
Just for future reference you might want to block out your name in the future.
Thanks. Some very thoughtful responses. I’m open to moving anywhere. But I assumed, my efforts would yield the highest returns in BC. I did try applying East and didn’t hearing much so I assumed they only wanted locals. I considered moving either to Calgary or Toronto, but was afraid to make the jump since my savings would only last me at most 4 months over there. I have never been interested in advising people about their finances. I’m more interested in analyst type roles, but with little success – I’m starting to think maybe I’m aiming too high. BTW, I only apply for jobs that do not specifically list exp requirements, or very little. Thanks BCEagle, I thought about it, but thought it didn’t matter too much since someone could easily figure out my name with a bit of googling.
Under relevant coursework you wrote “investments” twice
Maybe he aced it twice? Impressive.
Your resume is fine. Have reasonable expectations and don’t limit your options too much. Keep trying. In this hiring climate submitting your resume online is not the ideal method. Try to network a bit more.
GPA: 7.6/9.0 (about 3.87 out of 4.33) • Honours: CFA Victoria Scholarship, President’s Scholarship, BCom Entrance Scholarship • Relevant Coursework: Investments, Finance, Accounting, Tax, Economics I think it should be approximately, rather than ‘about’ for your GPA BComm Entrance Scholarship That’s only what I think
Redox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Under relevant coursework you wrote “investments” > twice +1. If you’ve sent your resume with this error, chances are many recruiters just threw it away after seeing this. Most employers want their prospective entry-level applicants to be at least very careful with their own resume. numi offers a reasonably priced resume reviewing service. Although since you live outside the U.S. and numi is looking for volunteering abroad, maybe he could do it for free. Come on, numi, he doesn’t have a job yet, you don’t have the heart to charge cpham, do you?
Hi, Your resume is fine, nobody really reads into resumes anyway, people just glance at them, just make sure you don’t have silly mistakes. Applying online will not get you anywhere, I learned that the hard way. Network will get you in, instead of sending the resume, call the company, try to get someone to offer to accept your resume directly, HR are barrier builders. People will get you in, online application will not, unless you are coming from top school straight into internship program, however same rules apply there too as unfair as it may seem.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > I have family on Vancouver Island… wonderful > place. I suppose working in retirement planning > might be the easiest shot, and if you are thinking > through asset allocations, that might even qualify > for CFA stuff. However, it will tend to > pigeonhole you in a way that can be hard to break > out of… although I think FrankArabia here > managed to get somewhere he wanted through a route > like that. I was in a role much worst than what Bchad described(discount brokerage) but was able to break out into a role in corp finance based on luck and motivation. I wouldn’t recommend getting into something and hoping for luck to save you. I very could still be answering calls. But I know the feeling of sending out your resume and seeing nothing come back. You have a strong resume and I think its just a matter of time. the unemployment rate for the youth is extremely high and you have a lot of experienced people competing against you. A role in equity research in Canada is problably difficult to get considering they normally go through the MBAs, not the undergrads. As someone from the bank, i advise strictly focusing on banks for the simple reason that there is limited demand but infinite supply. Everybody wants to get into the bank, so don’t be like everybody else cause you would problably get shortchanged in any case. I currently work at the bank. I think a lot of Canadians (including myself) are finding it extremely difficult to get call backs for jobs we’re interested in. So keep your head up and keep having fun.
btw, its “CFA level 2 Candidate” if I remember correctly…
//Acted as a buddy to an international student// Maybe the Canadian lingo is different than the lingo here in southern TX, but I would suggest a different word than ‘buddy’? Just nitpicking on my part -
Maybe you could move down the “education” section further down, after “experiences”. Then you could shorten the “student activities” into a three line section. The space left you use to write a short initial introduction about your particular strengths and career goals. That section might change a bit depending on what job you are applying for.
hotdawg Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi, > > Your resume is fine, nobody really reads into > resumes anyway, people just glance at them, just > make sure you don’t have silly mistakes. > > Applying online will not get you anywhere, I > learned that the hard way. > > Network will get you in, instead of sending the > resume, call the company, try to get someone to > offer to accept your resume directly, HR are > barrier builders. > > People will get you in, online application will > not, unless you are coming from top school > straight into internship program, however same > rules apply there too as unfair as it may seem. Well said!
With your experience, albeit limited, the alternative energy sector would be a great place for you to look. Also at a quick glance it looks as though you have limited transmission experience as well. Have you looked into any Utilities…in BC or the states? As per many people in finance, I initially wanted to get into the banking world, but same old story on that front. I transitioned my modeling skills to project finance for a development shop and it has been great thus far. A lot of transmission, alternative energy, substation etc. developers that would look favorably upon your resume due to the experience and the fact they could teach you the way they want it done. With just your experience if you tried to stay in that realm (no necesarily the same job) you could land yourself something in finance that uses the same skill sets as banking (in terms of modeling, analyzing cash flows, etc.) Don’t envy you, good luck