One more question before I start cold-calling firms. What would be the best times to cold-call a firm? Any specific days that I should avoid? I obviously dont want to call any time during lunch.
You know what we had a guy do this week? Just showed up. Somehow tracked down our office location and just stopped in. Apparently (I didn’t go out to see him, just had our admin show him the door) he was wearing jeans, and didn’t bring a copy of his resume. Here’s a tip: There’s never a good time to cold-show up. It shows a tremendous lack of respect for the prospective employers time.
I wouldnt have the balls to do that 
But what im planning on doing is emailing my resume+coverletter to a list of companies (around 10-15) that i have compiled over the last few days, and then calling the next day to see who received it…then following up with the actual person who got my resume. or would that be wrong? could there be another way of going about this? help would be appreciated 
I’ve cold-emailed a few firms in my area where I thought looked interesting to work. I wrote really intelligent, well thought out, well researched emails with my resume attached. Oh for 2. But that’s only out of 2, so maybe you’ll have more luck with 10-15. Oh, and I called an organization that had an expired job posting on their website. Again, well researched, well thought out responses on my end (and I name dropped 2 names). They responded very positively, and said the job would be re-posted in a few weeks and that they’d look forward to receiving my information. So, good luck.
This is a pretty good approach. Perhaps wait a day or two to make sure whoever will get the resume has had a chance to look it over - often they collect resumes for a week or so and review them all together. This is probably going to work better at smaller firms that have less structured HR departments. Persistence pays off. Be ready for a lot of “No’s”, and have thick skin.
Small firms are who im targeting, pretty much only on the island of montreal…and more specifically, ones with no apparent HR functions (atleast not on there website). Resume. Check. Cover letters. Check. Thick skin. Check 
thanks for the advice
I’ve been told that an email followed two days later by a phone call works fairly well. I would think that means monday or tuesday are best email days so that wed and thurs are follow ups. In Washington, the rule was to send out anything you did not want to be noticed on a friday afternoon, so avoid that. Also you can assume that no one wants to have additional things to think about just before the weekend, so no cold calls after friday morning or on friday at all. I have had a surprisingly positive response rate to ordinary written letters sent by US mail, although it is a little unpredictable how long it will take to respond. These are letters sent to managers; avoid talking to HR if at all possible.
Avoiding fridays. check one more question. on this firm’s website (no HR function apparent), there are a bunch of emails: 1 for general inquiries, and the rest belong to the partners/PMs/associates. which one should i email, the general one? or should i be more ballsy and email an associate?
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > I have had a surprisingly positive response rate > to ordinary written letters sent by US mail, > although it is a little unpredictable how long it > will take to respond. These are letters sent to > managers; avoid talking to HR if at all possible. Funny you should mention this. A year or so ago when I was getting going in the recruiting process, I sent a snail mail letter to an alumnus of my school who headed up a local investment bank. I know how we are–alumni from my school would darn near sell out the firm to help a fellow alumnus. Much to my dismay, I never got a response. So you’re right–very unpredictable.
Email associate.
I think your approach is fine. I would encourage you to read as much as possible about the firms and take the time to construct cover letters very specific to the firm and the job you are seeking. If you have a generic cover letter you are merely “tweaking” it will be obvious and that puts a lot of people off. Obviously there are some thing you cannot alter letter-to-letter such as your education, etc. but you get the drift. Also, I would avoid blasting out your resume to all 10-15 firms at once because not only will it become difficult to remember all the details, but firms do speak with one another and you mentioned these were all in the Montreal area so I would be careful. At least that’s the case where I live and work in that if we actively look for people who show signs of resume spamming and they usually go to the bottom of the pile, or worse.
Cool. One of the PMs has written a book (which Im reading) about investing. Im thinking about sending him the email as I have mentioned one of his strategies in my cover letter. But im afraid that if i email anyone about the associate level they might be annoyed by me :(. BOMC, yea that just hit my yesterday…DO NOT send them all at once; i wouldnt want to be made an inter-office joke. so ill send 3 today. thanks for the advice everyone
I’d email out early in the week (Monday) and follow-up on Thursday.
Depending on who you’re calling, you want to make sure you don’t call right before an important news release. So don’t call a fixed income portfolio manager at 8:29am on employment report day, and don’t call a telcom analyst at the same moment that Verizon’s earnings are coming out. In general, I would say call people after 4pm, but if you use common sense and you understand who it is you’re calling, picking the least bad time shouldn’t be hard. I say “least bad” because there really isn’t ever a time when an investment professional is excited about talking to a cold-calling job candidate - that’s just the way it is.
Mez, I think targeting 10-15 firms may be too small a net. Why not cast a much wider net - say about 50-80 firms across the U.S? FedExMail and email HR and potential employees within your firms of interest. Aggresively use your alumni network to directly call alums and get to know them first before offering a resume. With all this you may get 3-10 interviews, maybe 1-2 final rounds, and some offers if they like you. Dude, its brutal out there, especially in this market, and I’ll also follow up with a resume/cover letter printed on fine quality paper mailed via Fedex, then give them a call if you can to follow up after delivery. Even when you make a final rd. you still have to beat out your competition, so start preparing in anticipation of this. Looking for a job is a full time job. Have faith, never give up, and Goodluck.
Thanks guys! Im in canada btw. 15 firms is a small net, but ive selected only small firms with no specific HR function. once i get through these, ill compile another list. And it begins, sending my first cold-email right now…gonna follow up Wednesday
Well, got my first rejection :(. I was SOOO excited when I actually got a reply from the PM. However, it was followed by a nice invite to call the PM and discuss what other options are out there for me! Meh
That’s actually fantastic this early in the game for you… Definitely take the opportunity to talk to the PM, and if possible, meet him/her in person.
How could I meet him? Should I invite him to lunch or something?
Coffee break or after work drink used to work for me… Most people in the industry like to drink and since you’re in Montreal, it’s pretty much a given.