How did YOU get your first finance job?

So OK, CFA won’t let you get your foot in the door in the finance industry. So how did you get your first finance job?

(For selfish reasons, I am especially interested if you had worked in a non-finance field before and had a non-finance educational background, but I am interested in general.)

i applied for a job. got interviewed. got hired

The day I passed L1, investment bankers from Goldman showed up at my door with champagne in hand to congratulate me and offer me a job to join them.

But you turned them down because frankly, they smelled of desperation. BTDT.

My university’s online job board. This was back in 2003. I don’t think online applications have the same success rates.

I’m hunkered down in Big 4, getting my credentials and desperately trying to avoid being labeled “that accounting guy” until I can get an actual finance job, since I wasn’t able to right out of school.

I work for a Big 4 on the consulting side, it seems really tough to break out of that mold.

I had no finance experience or education and managed to land a job on the sell side because the firm needed someone who could write. They taught me the finance in exchange and I passed the CFA 3/3 then moved to a hedge fund where I have steadily moved up the ranks.

People ask this question expecting some magical answer they’ve never heard before. There isn’t one. You just do it. If you want to be in the industry badly enough, you will make it happen. Unfortunately, right now the timing is very bad. I was lucky that I got started in 2006 before shit hit the fan.

^ I’m curious. How long did you do SS before moving to HF? And you moved into a HF in 2006?

I started on the SS in early 2006 (off cycle, which really helped) and did that for 2.5 years before moving to a hedge fund, where I’ve been for the last 4 years. Two years into this job I was asked to build and run an Asia desk for the firm. These days I’m more focused on the US once agian. I work for one of the best hedge funds in the country performancewise as the right hand man of the founder. I am not really sure how this happened or why he chose me.

I don’t have any secret advice to give. I am a smart guy, but so is everyone else in the business, and there is no chance that I am smarter than other young financiers. I enjoy what I do, work 6-7 days a week most weeks, and have been fortunate. I think it also helps to be likeable (perhaps unlike online, I think I’m pretty likeable in person), and that has helped me gain some good mentors over time.

I also have an ability to focus and accomplish goals that I think is uncommon, however, that cuts both ways – it is a huge asset, but also very costly. I think a lot of people in finance assume that if they can just get to that certain level, the money will flow and everything will take care of itself and it will be rainbows and puppy dogs forever and ever. That’s not true. In finance, the money does ramp, but basically you end up working all the time to get there, and then once there, you end up working all the time some more. The people I know who do this well in their 40s still work all the time. Even if you enjoy the work, it consumes the rest of your life if you want to be competitive. They don’t call it the professional sports of business for nothing.

I am not sure I would do it again. Realistically, finance offers me the highest income opportunity of anything on the planet that I could actually do (I can’t sing and don’t have sick jump shot), but it might be more worthwhile to have a “normal” life even if that seems boring to some people. Just something to think about for anyone considering making a career in finance – the sacrifices will be larger and more painful than you expect at the outset. I would go so far as to say that you probably need some kind of personality defect to be highly successful in this field. Everyone I know who is really good at this is at least a little bit defective as a human being.

^ The grass always looks greener on the other side. For those who dream of the big leagues and never get in, they wish they worked harder. For those who made it and look back, a normal life seems appealing…

They way I see it: work hard first and get into the big leagues. You can always quit anytime when you decided you want to slow down or it’s not for you. This way you have the choice to live both worlds.

If someone slacks off and enjoys life and THEN wants to get into the big leagues later… there’s very little chance of success.

Tell me about it. Even the whole “internal mobility” that they preach is such BS. I’m just waiting until I get my green card and then I’m going to GTFO of here.

I seriously dream about just chucking it all and opening a restaurant/bar. Or being able to take a vacation in February. I’m on a project I like right now, but it’s only temporary and I know I’m going back to normal before year end…

I’ve been told working in industry to “build knowledge” you can leverage into an ER job has a stigma to it, in that we can’t handle the long 11+ hr days, so that’s another thing to keep in mind. My job simply can’t keep me busy for 70 hrs a week, so I’ve been making a point of coming in for 6a, studying until people show up, work all day, then stay and study until later. At least I can say I’ve been putting non-recreational time in for those hours that way.

Internship in PWM during UG then received full-time offer. This was in 2005 though. Now working in as a client portfolio manager at mutual fund.

I think probably 60-70% of people get their first “finance” jobs through their connections, be it University, Family, Special Network, etc.

Their are stories like Bromion but I think it’s not the norm.

Stories like Bromion is what you see at the movies. Definitely not the norm.

Graduate program at IB. They were the only jobs I could get interviews for post 9/11. And contrary to what I would have believed they don’t just interview grads. There were a number of people who were late twenties in my grad program who had come from other industries.

I think what you say towards the end there has some merit. It’s something I personally worry about. I definetly have the ‘defect’, it’s just a matter of if I want to enable it or not.

Impressive story, though. I think that’s the kind of story everyone wants to hear, but that we rarely see it occur.

I think you need a personality defect to be really good at any field. If you look at people who are at the very top, regardless of field, whether it be Jordan, Steve Jobs, or Einstein. They’re all mentally a little screwed up.

I don’t think you should label all finance jobs with a broad stroke and scare people off. If you get into investment banking, yes, your life will be hell but you’ll make a ton of money. A couple of my friends are IBs in New York and work like crazy. They regularly work 20 hours a day, seven days a week (no exaggeration here) but they’re both millionaires. I’m a buy side analyst and regularly work 50-55 hour work weeks but I don’t think I’m sacrificing anymore than the next bloke, especially for the amount of money I’m making. My cousin is an electrical engineer and works at Apple. He regularly puts in 80 plus hours and occasionally gets phone calls at three in the morning. The sad thing is that we make about the same amount. I think in any high level profession, whether you’re a doctor/lawyer/engineer, you’ll end up working a lot. The happy ones just know how to balance it all.

Interesting argument about being defective. I have crazy ADD but my brain kicks into overdrive when there’s a fire drill. It actually served me well especially during the credit crisis. Much more difficult during quieter times but thank goodness for meds.

For the original theme of this thread, networking, networking, and more networking. Plus some luck.