Mine are not looking good.
So far: 13 applications / CVs sent.

Of which:
8 refusals
2 never replied
3 pending

The *only* positive feedback so far is that of the 3 pending, 2 Head Hunters have forwarded my file to very good jobs. But headhunters don't mean anything.
No interviews so far.

Could it be that I'm not being realistic about the jobs I can get ?
Or is this pretty normal given the sh!tty market (I'm applying for M&A/PE/CF from Big 4 TS) ?

Txs for your opinion.

Where and how are you applying for these jobs? Via the company's website?

Honors graduate in finance from a smallish midwest liberal arts college. One internship in PE.

Sent our hundreds of applications. Lost count long ago. Never heard back from 99% of them.

Got two interviews for low level commercial banking jobs that paid ~$10/hr (didn't bother, can't justify moving to a metro area for that income level).

Recently got a rejection letter from my own college after I applied to some b.s. admin job. Anyone see the irony in that?

Now I have 15-20 alumni contacts left that I'm going to contact and basically beg for an unpaid internship (I've given up actually trying to get paid for my work)

If that fails, I give up. Been unemployed for 5 months. McDonalds here I come! FML

According to the # of cover letters in my directory, I've applied to 250+ jobs.

Wow, wtf? Sorry to hear about the bad luck. You guys are heroes for all this effort. I'm sure something will turn up eventually. I know a lot of people who graduated in 2002 and could not find jobs for months. They found something good after a while. Good luck with the job search and don't give up.

If I can give any advice about searching for jobs (which given my present situation, I'm in no position to do), I'd say don't even waste your time with online applications or places like monster.com.

When applying for jobs it's all about quality over quantity. Focusing on 5-6 possibilities through contacts/networking will probably yield you better results than 500-600 applications randomly placed over the internet. Just my two cents.

I'm covering networking, employee directories, job sites, company sites, and even craigslist.

volante99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Honors graduate in finance from a smallish midwest
> liberal arts college. One internship in PE.
>
> Sent our hundreds of applications. Lost count long
> ago. Never heard back from 99% of them.
>
> Got two interviews for low level commercial
> banking jobs that paid ~$10/hr (didn't bother,
> can't justify moving to a metro area for that
> income level).
>
> Recently got a rejection letter from my own
> college after I applied to some b.s. admin job.
> Anyone see the irony in that?
>
> Now I have 15-20 alumni contacts left that I'm
> going to contact and basically beg for an unpaid
> internship (I've given up actually trying to get
> paid for my work)
>
> If that fails, I give up. Been unemployed for 5
> months. McDonalds here I come! FML

Sounds depressing, but you can always find spiritual comfort in Adavydov's Disciples Church.

Adavydov should target the unemployed with his church, I think he's got a huge market there. You don't even have to charge that much, especially if you broadcast online sermons!

student1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Where and how are you applying for these jobs? Via
> the company's website?


Most of them I found on job websites à la efinancialcareers.
I always call the person listed as a contact if there is such a thing.

Some of them just want to have your CV per mail, some of them invite you to apply on the company's website.

So all in all my CV ends either at a Head hunter's, or my whole application ends on some HR desk. Very low % of success.

The only proactive gesture I made was to cold-call the CEO of some pretty big fund to say who I am and that I wanted to work for him. He said he'd forward my CV to the HR (I was like "huh, great"). I then got a negative answer from the HR.

So I know my method is overall pretty bad. Thing is my alumni network is in another country (I'm an expat), so I'm cruelly lacking contacts here. I know I need to focus less on recruiting websites, but it's just so tempting to be a 1 in 1000 sheeps who apply online without too much efforts.

Hey at least your getting refusals/feedback. You must have a pretty decent CV for them to actually give you the time of day.

I can't even get anyone to return my emails or calls!

Nearly 50 applications in the past couple months.

Have had a total of two interviews.

Got rejected from a buy-side high-yield analyst position due to an internal hire, but I was apparently the top outside pick and neck-to-neck with that guy...

Interviewed for another position with the same firm and still waiting to here back if I am in R2 or not.

Trying to leverage my contact to get an IBanking internship, but no word yet on that one.

I just got asked what my long/short picks are from a firm and sent them over earlier this week. Haven't heard back yet. I will follow up next week.

Honestly though, I haven't heard much from anyone. Its a difficult market and very frustrating. I've taken the advice of others on this board and have taken any new work I can get my hands on at my current job. That has paid off b/c now going to start doing some more quantitative analysis using regression and deeper valuation analysis. Additionally I'm going to help design programs and move into some heavy real problem solving rather than just the client relationship/analyst role. Thats the plus side, but I am so underpaid for how much @#$%& I am doing its not even funny.

volante99,

I believe it's just national practice in the country I live in as opposed to the USA to give feedback to applicants.

I also do have plausible experience for the roles I apply for, maybe that's why they're willing to listen. But a rejection means no job, no matter how well you giftwrap it.

volante99--

There’s a guy who stops once in a while over here on AF who is too shy to say but he offers a very good resume editing service. His track of success is impressive and has a number of very satisfied customers who have landed sweet jobs or at least final-round interviews as a result. His handle is numi and you can reach him privately at porcupines@gmail.com

volante99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey at least your getting refusals/feedback. You
> must have a pretty decent CV for them to actually
> give you the time of day.
>
> I can't even get anyone to return my emails or
> calls!


Landing your first job is always hard. If nothing works, consider going back to grad school to get a degree that will actually help you get a job. Think Computer Science, Math, Chemistry... bla bla.

Once you get your first job, it's all easy going from there.

mo34 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Landing your first job is always hard. If nothing
> works, consider going back to grad school to get a
> degree that will actually help you get a job.
> Think Computer Science, Math, Chemistry... bla
> bla.
>
> Once you get your first job, it's all easy going
> from there.


Yeah, I appreciate the advice, but everyone always tells me to just go to "grad school". There are some major problemos with this idea.

First, getting a graduate degree in Econ and finance is astoundingly tough. Even mediocre programs have acceptance rates in the single digits. And on top of that, I'd have to go back to undergrad and take classes like "linearally algebraec stochiastically differential equations" to even qualify, which would effectively destroy my GPA. Even with a grad degree I'd still have little experience, more debt, and no guarantee of employment.

That said, I am considering going back and taking 3-4 more accounting classes. thus allowing me to sit for the CPA exam, and possibly going the accounting route. Many of my classmates got relatively sweet deals majoring in accounting and while it isn't my first love, neither is unemployment...

volante99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mo34 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Landing your first job is always hard. If
> nothing
> > works, consider going back to grad school to get
> a
> > degree that will actually help you get a job.
> > Think Computer Science, Math, Chemistry... bla
> > bla.
> >
> > Once you get your first job, it's all easy
> going
> > from there.
>
>
> Yeah, I appreciate the advice, but everyone always
> tells me to just go to "grad school". There are
> some major problemos with this idea.
>
> First, getting a graduate degree in Econ and
> finance is astoundingly tough. Even mediocre
> programs have acceptance rates in the single
> digits. And on top of that, I'd have to go back to
> undergrad and take classes like "linearally
> algebraec stochiastically differential equations"
> to even qualify, which would effectively destroy
> my GPA. Even with a grad degree I'd still have
> little experience, more debt, and no guarantee of
> employment.
>
> That said, I am considering going back and taking
> 3-4 more accounting classes. thus allowing me to
> sit for the CPA exam, and possibly going the
> accounting route. Many of my classmates got
> relatively sweet deals majoring in accounting and
> while it isn't my first love, neither is
> unemployment...

The accounting route is good too. At least it will keep you off the streets.

I probably started sending out Resumes late August of 2008. I had my first interview in March 2009 (after sending out around 100 online apps, through monster and company websites). The position was with Pershing (the definition of back office).

I got my job at ATT through a contact.

I got my job in Miami through connections from my summer internship.


Moral of the story? You can try the online route, however, the best results come from who you know.

__________

"good personality ... or he was known as Lt. Mandingo during his army days."

volante99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>

Sounds like the issue here is that you have no skills.

Volante--what areas of the country are you looking at? That has a lot to do with it right now. If you're willing to start in the back office I know for a fact that NYC and Boston are starting to pick up their hiring.