topher Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The kid has $15 in his savings/checking. He has > 100k in debt. He can’t go travel the world, join a > charity, or anything that doesn’t get him money in > his pocket. Go ahead and get this teller job and > keep looking. While you’re working as a teller, you can take some accounting classes at a community college or something ( I think it’s almost free). This will probably help you get an accounting type job which will be a step up from the teller. Definitely more useful ( and affordable) than the CFA at this time in your life.
Why don’t you look elsewhere?
Yeah, I’m probably going to enroll in my local college and finish out my accounting credits and if I do well, study and sit for the CPA exams. I mainly focus on my home state because that’s really the only place where my college has any kind of reputation or status, and also where 99.9% of my alumni network contacts are. The way I figure (and maybe I’m way off on this) but why would a fund manager or HR guy in NYC want to talk to a complete newb from MN, from a college he has never heard of, when he already has 50 unemployed kids from Columbia, NYU, hell even CUNY competing for his time? Also, I exaggerated on my school debt; while tuition is indeed ~$100,000k, I’m only around $25k in the hole.
volante99 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The way I figure (and maybe I’m way off on this) > but why would a fund manager or HR guy in NYC want > to talk to a complete newb from MN, from a college > he has never heard of, when he already has 50 > unemployed kids from Columbia, NYU, hell even CUNY > competing for his time? While what you’re saying is partially true, that is a terrible mindset to possess.
volante99 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Also, I exaggerated on my school debt; while > tuition is indeed ~$100,000k, I’m only around $25k > in the hole. If it is a worthless no name school, why is an undergrad degree ~$100,000K? Are we talking $100 million US dollars?
How are you applying for jobs? Are you firing off resumes online? Have you been sitting down with alumni who live in the area and doing informational interviews? This is the time, you have a free schedule, you’re fresh out of school so many alum will be more accommodating. If you meet with enough people you will end up with a job 100x better than a walmart bank teller.
dignity in any job, shows that you are pulling your own weight and that is awesome. better than getting money from mommy and daddy or a welfare check.
One word… NETWORKING!!! You will make zero connections working at a bank in Walmart… A BBA in finance from a no-name school is not going to open up any doors on its own (I know this from first-hand experience). You need to pound the pavement and get your name out there with people who might be willing to hire you. You need to show some F-_ing persistence and ambition. Feeling sorry for yourself and settling for what you can get will get you nowhere… Call some people up at money managers or ‘real’ banks in your area. Schedule some informational interviews and impress people with your knowledge (assuming you know something about finance) and ambition. Learn everything you can about whatever area you want to specialize in… Just do something. This is an EXTREMELY competitive industry and those who don’t fight for the few opportunities that are out there will be left out. And for MN, there are TONS of money managers and banks located in the Twin Cities… You can’t honestly tell me that there’s not some back office ops job at US Bank that you can apply for.
What is your backup plan in case you don’t get a decent finance job?
Backup plan is accounting. I’m just a few classes short of qualifying to sit for the CPA test. Accounting isn’t my first love but at this point I’d give my left nut to work Big4. As far as the networking thing, yes I’ve had a lot of info interviews with as you call ‘real’ banks. Simply, no one wants to hire someone with no experience even if they are motivated and cool people. I’ve applied to back office roles as well, I even talked to one hiring manager who was an alum at my school to see if he could pull for me on a specific entry level position. The second they find out I have no finance exp on my rez they say “Ehhh, sorry, but we do have some teller positions open!” Ugh I know, now it just seems like I’m bitchin. I don’t want this job at all, I’m not doing it for the contacts, but really I need some money and if this gap on my resume gets any bigger it’s going to be a HUGE red flag (yes even more so than being a teller out of ugrad IMO). I’ll do six months at this place tops just to build back my bank account that way I can move out of here, and maybe afford to do an unpaid internship. Meanwhile I can take a few classes, and continue networking. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
Why not just do the unpaid internship now and get a job as a bartender or waiter at night to pay the bills? In my last semester of undergrad I worked 30 hrs / week as an unpaid intern with a PWM group at MS, and worked at Subway (as in fast food) at night to pay the rent… The internship + networking got me my first paid job in finance.
sublimity Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > dignity in any job, shows that you are pulling > your own weight and that is awesome. > > better than getting money from mommy and daddy or > a welfare check.
volante99 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Oh I’d love to move. I’m from MN, which is just > deader than dead as far as finance jobs goes. We > maybe had 3 good investment management/hedge fund > shops, and one of them closed a couple months ago. > Piper, Houlihan, and Lazard are our only ibanks > worth mentioning, and they take maybe 3 or 4 entry > hires a year (srsly, you need an uncle at one of > those shops). The rest are a bunch of venture > capital boutiques which maybe have a staff of 5 or > 6 people. I can appreciate your frustration, but there are a lot more firms than that in MN. They aren’t household names (even in the Twin Cities), but they are out there. Assuming you went to a MIAC school, most alums look out for students from their schools. If your school has no alumni in investment firms, that’s a whole other issue. My experience has been that the majority MN firms are looking for undergrads over MBA’s because they can pay them less.
Volante, go to WSO.com and ask one of the gurus over there to pull you a list of iBanks/Research shops in MN. At least you can start cold calling and praying.
worked as a Teller for 3 years ,true that it is unsophisticated job ,but also one of the riskiest jobs in the banking sector also the pressure of dealing with customers is hard to bear . For a teller interview, you have to demonstrate high sense of accuracy and being as a calm man how has good control over his anger.
volante99 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The aren’t a part of Wal Mart…they just have an > office…inside of a Wal-Mart. I didn’t even find > out until I checked the address. > > Seems like a high robbery risk… > > I intend to take CFA 1 next December. Why not in June? You still have time… I skimmed 25% of the material in 3 weeks (while also looking for work and studying for other stuff) and I’m coming from a non-finance background too 
this is a very confusing thread. you have a job offer in a very difficult job market for a commercial bank. is this a publicly listed commercial bank or a tiny small town bank? if its big enough to be in cahoots with walmart, im guessing its reasonably large. if its reasonably large, than it probably performs a whole host of functions for its clients, some of which may that may well be closer to where your interests lie. from my perspective you take this job, work diligently, and progress. in my experience, bank branches seem to be largely staffed with people looking for steady and ‘comfortable’ working environment, differentiate yourself by being the best bank teller and taking a large interest in the overall operations of the branch. banks offer loans, get involved in that process as its credit analysis in its most basic form. the scale may be smaller than what you had originally hoped, but this strikes me as an opportunity to learn an awful lot about banking and your own desire to work in finance.
CPA will typecast you as an accountant… It won’t help like you think
I think i’ve only seen SunTrust in Wal-Mart. Maybe a BAC thrown in there too.
I have more of an issue with the fact thats its a satellite branch. INHO the only upside in teller job is hoping that your personality is good enough to relay to the ppl in more interesting areas of the bank recognize your potential and open some doord- but these little outposts typically don’t have loan/ securities/ business services so no face time. Thats tough. Look you have no money right? This is what I did: worked 4 cr@p jobs for 8 months and lived in a garage with an aunt of one of the busboys that worked in the restaurant I was waitressing in (rent was 100 all in/month in socal). I spent nothing but didn’t really miss it since I kinda got addicted to the lifestyle and had no time to spend; in the end I had 50k+ in savings. with this I went abroad and worked for an NGO and started a venture (that failed- but whatever- more interesting than walmart teller) I framed this well and scored a job most here would do for free. Money is not the issue- its fear and hubris. Move into a cr@phole, forget girls for a while, take a lucrative night job (restaurant, bar tending, even security) and pound pavement until you get a gig that had some faint hope. Temp agencies might be good too- lots of firm hire here and then offer full time to temps as its less risky for them. I hope you don’t think you will find a job off monster, I did that for a month before realizing its a dead end. You really have to get out there.