I’ve been a long time lurker in these forums but never really felt the need to submit a post. Until today.
So a bit of background first on myself: I screwed up by Economics degree and ended up with a 2:2 at university which doesn’t offer a lot of job opportunities in the asset management world. However, I found a wealth management company with an asset management division and worked my way upwards. I’ve held an analyst role for 2 full years and achieved by charter in August 2017 after passing all three levels on my first attempt in the shortest time possible.
I’m quite happy with my current role and company but will be moving to a different city soon. I’ve been applying to anything that sounds interesting on efinancialcareers but have literally had zero responses and I don’t understand why.
So, it would be good to hear from people who have had successful applications to get them an interview and find out how you format your CVS??
I’ve probably gotten call backs from 60% or more of jobs I’ve applied to online. This means blind applications, not references from people in the company. Having the right content and presentation really matter. If I had to guess, I’d say these factors matter the most (in this order):
Relevant work experience, career progression, and demonstrated record of success: People like to see that you have been promoted in your current role, and that you can prove that you made positive change in your company. The more specific you can be about your contributions, the better.
Outstanding academic achievement: Top school, high GPA, multiple degrees within a short time. For you, maybe this is too late, but it is still important to be aware, so that you can try to compensate for it in other areas.
Additional skills, specifically, technical skills. Probably 30% of the unsolicited recruiter calls I receive are related to quantitative positions. Usually, I have no interest in those positions, but it is clear that there is demand for people who can do math and program (or appear to be able to).
Perfectly polished resume, and very direct and specific details: A bad resume is more of a dealbreaker than a good resume can secure an interview. I don’t think people get called for interviews just because their resumes are well written. However, people definitely get rejected because their resumes look amateurish. It takes years to develop this sense of quality, like dining at 3 Michelin star restaurants eventually makes you indifferent to and critical of regular food. You are unlikely to have good judgment about this at this point in your career, so you should get a qualified person to review your resume.
That is all quite vague though. You should definitely get comments on your actual applications, since it’s different for everyone.
Oh my god, no. Don’t hang a lantern on that fact. This is part of the issue. It takes a bit of time to get some intuition as to what you should put on a resume, and what you should leave off, but GPA is one of those things I see on someone’s resume that is a strong indicator that they are very green. Even when I see people with rock star GPAs, I still think, “this is a person who is trying too hard.” So you certainly don’t wan’t to advertise a substandard number on top of that.
Started at HF straight outta undergrad so I was an excel monkey- update models, keep up with company news, investment memo, update some more models - for first 6 months. Very long hours which I thought of this 6 months as my fast track IB training.
Placed myself solidly as equity research analyst after the first 6 months…8 years of that…then last year, moved over to PE fund. It is a very large fund in NYC. We do VC PE, Real Estate PE, and debt/arb trading fund all in one shop.
I got this role through my network - my alum is pretty high up in this company…nuff said. Played few rounds together couple drinks done.
If you are applying to a job in a different city from where you live, you need to either list a local address where you will be living on your resume or include a brief cover letter explaining that you are moving. For analyst/associate type roles I would generally ding anyone applying from far away because it is not worth it to have them come out for the interview relative to the amount of local opportunities. If you are receiving zero response and you are applying for positions for which you are qualified, that is likely the reason.