I just wanted to run a thought by you guys. My school is having a career fair in our arena. I haven’t gone before to one of these (I heard for the most part its pointless for finance students). Anyways, I would like to experience it and at least have a second option if I somehow end up with something. I have a connection at one firm but it never hurts to have a backup. The chance to speak to these recruiters is at most three minutes and then you drop off the resume into the pit. I was wondering if it were appropriate to ask them to lunch (plan to be there first thing in the morning). Good, bad, or plain stupid.
I have been to a couple of career fairs. In fact, my school is hosting one now and I went to one this morning. The accounting firms are doing all the hiring this year. They only care about the damn CPA. It’s totally frustrating. I couldn’t find anything valuable for a Finance major. To answer your question, I haven’t seen anyone ever do that… Asking someone out for lunch on the basis of an information interview is fine IMO. Someone who is a recruiter and visits your school…I would give it second thoughts.
Thanks ruhi. Well, after talking to the guy for a little and realizing we had in common that we were both college caliber athletes (I didn’t make it), I asked him to lunch. His boss said an emphatic NO. But anyways that little chat went well. I had a question about one of the companies. Raymond James out of St. Petersburg had both an analyst position in there IBD and a research associate position. I just wanted to know what some people thought of this company in general. Also, this is kind of funny I think. I was talking to some mutual fund company (I already forget) and he was talking about his job (they were hiring for the same position), and he got to the part of my resume saying I passed L1. He said his firm doesn’t put much weight at all on it, but that he is pursuing it as well. I asked why . . . he said he hated his job haha. Goodbye.
I work in a RJ-affilliated financial planning office so my opinion is from the retail side. The IBD is part of the equity capital markets division. This division does not play as big as role at RJ as it does at other brokerage firms. IB revenue is maybe 5-10% of firm revenue. I really can’t speak to the quality of the dept since I’m not involved with it at all. The research dept is going to be more well known. They cover a lot of small/mid cap companies more than they cover large and mega caps. From what I’ve seen, the research dept is much larger and much more well-developed. FWIW, if it were me, I would be more interested in the research associate position and dept.
Thank you very much StuckinMinn.
StuckinMinn - Can you provide any comparison between RJ’s equity research departments and the syndicate departments in the capital markets division? Are both equally regarded, or will you be able to learn more from the research areas?
Their website may help you out some: www.rjcapitalmarkets.com I’m sure you would learn from each. I don’t know much about their syndicate group. I’m sure their non-research jobs are good, they’re just most well-known for the research dept. Most the people I talk to say its a great company and its more important to get in (and switch depts later) than land exactly what you want right away. Good luck!
Heres the job: Employer: Raymond James Division: N/A Title: Equity Research Associate Description: Position Summary: Support Equity Analyst in preparing industry and company research by collecting, organizing and analyzing data, assisting in the preparation of investment-related research reports and maintaining financial models. Position Responsibilities: • Develop familiarity with industry and related companies in order to assess the relevance of news and other data; • Collect information on assigned industries and companies; • Perform qualitative analysis of macroeconomic variables that impact the industry; • Maintain computer databases covering industry and related companies; • Assist the Equity Analyst in preparing written industry and company-specific reports; • Assist in maintaining and developing financial models for revenue and income forecasts, cash flow analysis, balance sheet and quarterly projections; • Regular attendance required Im hoping to find out if I got pre-selected for it . . . I like the last bullet point
i love the last bullet point too. i guess they make it clear that showing up to work is not optional. on a more serious note, i agree with StuckinMinn that they have a presence on the research side. i seldom hear anything from their banking group but i have seen at least a handful of their research reports and you usually see their analysts at investor days or industry conferences.