what is wrong with my job search?

can anyone estimate how many “investment management - financial analyst” job openings are listed in any city… I went on the following sites. (Monster/ Indeed/ Craigslist/ Doostang) and aside from a few double posts i really can’t count more than 25-50 relevant positions in San Francisco… am I way off? i live in another country but was just curious to take a look.

financial analyst might not be the right title, just search for keywords like valuations, cfa, investment, etc. from what I’ve heard financial analysts are more of an accounting job.

^^ “equity/credit analyst” narrows the search but it is still very thin… like you said, most postings are related to accounting and non-finance industry corporate finance.

I have a decent resume/background but not at the career level where companies are going to be sending a black car to pick me up. it just appears there are less than 20 jobs in the entire SF area that im a at least interested in but probably not qualified for.

http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=equity+analyst&l=San+Francisco%2C+CA

You should try eFinancialCareers or some finance-specific job website. This will just show you everything, and not just keyword-dependent results.

eFinancialCareers - search all San Francisco, CA… found 38 jobs… (most are software dev./ operations) :frowning:

I guess SF is just a small/ niche market compared to NYC/Chicago…

Probably more wealth management type jobs in SF than asset manager jobs.

There’s also the venture capital stuff out there.

Yeah, SF is not too big to begin with, and job market is particularly bad right now. Might be better around the beginning of the year. There are some jobs that never get posted to public websites, but you have to know someone to get these.

West Coast is big on tech. East Coast big on finance.

I’m not surprised.

Search for just ‘analyst’ and see what comes up

Search “investment, analyst”, don’t use sentences, just use keywords and put commas between. LinkedIn is good for this I think.

You could also sign up for CFA Jobline.

Most jobs in CFA jobline are in other jobsites too.

a fresh graduate here - and I am looking to break in into investment firms. What should I do to make myself standout from other candidates?

And since all of you are mostly CFA level 3 passed - any tips for Level 2 exam?

My best tip for passing level 2 is to overstudy. Try to aim for 500 hours. It’s better to overstudy than to risk failing and wasting another spring.