would you guys agree with this comment??? <> thanks.
agree. to be honest, i don’t even know how bad the job market is out there – all i know is that it’s really rough. i have a number of friends who came from top schools and are bankers or research analysts at some of the big firms, and some of them are expecting not to have a job once the new year rolls around. the only problem is, the market is sufficiently stiff that there may be nowhere for them to go. as an example, one of my friends who’s a third year analyst at ML’s principal investing group tells me that in last couple years, some of the fund of funds were having a hard time finding quality sell-side guys to fill their junior ranks (because, let’s face it, if you put yourself through banking, what’s the likelihood that you really want to go to a fund of funds?). however, this year, apparently they are getting swamped with resumes that have M&A or LBO backgrounds from places like ML, CS, LEH, etc…pretty wild stuff. anyway, if you have a job now, don’t lose it!
question - are only the finance job impacted or will this trickle into other areas? my friends works at seaworld and she is worried that entertainment industry is about to get kicked in the balls.
needhelp Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > my friends works at seaworld and she is worried > that entertainment industry is about to get kicked > in the balls. serious or are you pulling our leg again. I dont know, but entertianment is major consumer cyclical, I would imagine that is why none of those stocks are holding up.
i am serious. i havent heeard any news of layoffs at disney or seaworld so i was wondering whether they are doing ok.
I’d agree, Daj. I felt pretty screwed before Lehman went down and some of the recent or possible mergers happened. Now I am straight up F’ed with all the new quality applicants out there. I remember last year my classmates could get a job at will with a big 4. I have tried myself now to no avail. Starting to think about a different industry now. As an introvert, I shudder at a sales role, but it may be the last type of promising area. To be honest though, I am clueless and have different thoughts daily. Rejection taking its toll. I feel like a bum sitting in my parents house all day looking and applying, but to be honest it has opened up my eyes somewhat. The Fall days are beautiful and I have really started to question whether 70+ hrs in a cubical is how I want to spend my life weekly. I would probably be singing a different tune if I was actually successful in getting a good job out of school, but obviously not the case. The more I think about it, the sooner I want to research the ins and outs of daytrading and try my hand in that. But I would need some capital before that could happen.
Look into non-human capital side of HR consulting. You basically get to grill PM’s all day once you get through the initial 2 years of performance analytics.
cjones65 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Look into non-human capital side of HR consulting. > You basically get to grill PM’s all day once you > get through the initial 2 years of performance > analytics. Rather work at SeaWorld with NH’s friend.
My company works in Telecom and we have seen the impact of the economy (mostly from the US, but to some extent Global picture) and it has required us to make significant cuts. A guy hired in Corporate finance to replace me came in 2.5 months ago and now is being let go. Sucks for him as he was doing fine. We have let go of a lot of operations and even some engineering guys, in addition to some IT and accounting, so cuts are happening all over. I heard in Dallas Deloitte Audit let go a good number of people, which when I was there never happened! Raises are coming in a lot lower as well and promotions are automatic.
Theo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’d agree, Daj. > Rejection taking its toll. it is bad. i just signed up for YMCA and am gonna start going to the gym for stress releif purposes. > > I feel like a bum sitting in my parents house all > day looking and applying, but to be honest it has > opened up my eyes somewhat. The Fall days are > beautiful and I have really started to question > whether 70+ hrs in a cubical is how I want to > spend my life weekly. Fall is lovely in the New England area!!!
Trying to break into a Wall Street/Financial Services gig right now is a dead end. I imagine it will be for a long time too. I thinking years, at least two. In the mean time I’m trying to think of other areas of finance, besides Corporate Finance, to get into to while I wait this thing out. I’m thinking Treasury. The last thing I want to do is stay in Corporate Finance. I should have been a graphic designer…
Gouman, I am going through campus interviews right now; graduating with MBA in May 2009. As you said, “Wall Street/Financial Services gig right now is a dead end”. I am from IT and I am doing MBA to change career from IT to finance (research -> money management). Only finance jobs left now are in Corporate Finance (budgeting or treasury; some companies add “M&A” or analysis for acquisitions). I was thinking to move into that thinking that it may make it easier (compared to IT) later to move into equity research/money management when the market gets better in a year (or few years) or so. Reading you post, you are bored of your job in Corporate Finance. What exactly do you do in your current role. Do you think treasury part of corporate finance would be a lot better than budgeting/forecasting side? I went through through an interview with RBC Capital Markets and it went very well, but at the end the interviewer said that IB would be boring for me as my current job is so much more exciting. I wish he would have left that to me to judge. I went through another interview with Citi for a back-office (Working Capital management for corporations) job, but I felt they were just practicing interviewing on us. Anyway, it is pretty depressing going through interviews and not seeing any light.
Hi Buddham, I am Gouman, but I currently work in corporate finance. I worked in the forecasting/budgeting area at first and I didnt love it. At least for us I found it too far removed from the operations to really understand a lot and I didnt see a lot of it being any more than just putting numbers together (not really value add). Even with company wide initiatives such as improving working capital, cash management, etc (the treasury function fell to us, although it is NOT advanced) left me too far removed. I then got promoted from working on special projects and am now in charge of finance for our Central America and Latin America region and I like it a LOT. I may well yet get bored down the road as I meet some key initiatives and maybe things become where I am needed less, but for now I like it. I work on some of hte same areas, budgeting (for the CALA countries), forecasting, cash management, monthly meetings to explain hte results to CFO/CEO, some local issues, and some accounting issues, but I am a lot closer to the action and better understand how the business operates, what these other countries do as typical for their business and accounting, and I feel I have the chance to learn a lot more. so I think corp finance can offer some good roles. I even interviewed at other companies I found interesting before getting promoted.