Wanted to share with the board that I recently switched jobs after about 2 years of looking to move from Corporate Finance to Investment management. I’m not trying to float my own boat or anything (ok maybe a little bit, it has been a long time coming and my dream of moving into the industry is finally being realized!
), I just wanted to share my experiences and provide a little insight and motivation for those currently looking to get into the field. For those who have been around for awhile, I used to post under the name fxguy1234. I went to a decent state school, got average grades and tool a job in Corp finance back in summer of 07. Started out doing SOX compliance work and then lucked out and had an opportunity to move to my company’s treasury department doing FX hedging and cash management. It was then that I started to study for the CFA and began to leverage contacts I was making on the sell side. I probably called every MD and VP that managed my companys account and told them I was looking to move out of corp fin. I had several informational interviews and even one of them materialized into a second round to move to institutional fx sales in NYC, I am in Silicon Valley fyi. Unfortunatley that did not pan out and needless to say I was getting frustrated after being in treasury going on 2 years. I was very wary of being labeled a Treasury type. After networking furiously and appplying to anything online I was getting pretty desperate. i reached out to recruiters and they had some good leads but nothing ever came to fruition. I became pretty dismayed with the CFA (L3 candidate by this point) and was wondering if this program would be worth it from the helping me to get a job standpoint. It definitley was from a pure knowledge standpoint. Cut to the present and I just signed an offer in IM/pwm that all in will be about 30% more than I am making currently. Considering I would have taken a 30% paycut to get into the field I was and still am estatic. I got my job from a contact that I already had a good relationship with prior to this. Now I wanted to pass on some of the learnings I had by going through this experience: 1. Probably the most important thing to do is to develop relationshops and nurture them. I would attend every sine conference I could and follow-up with everyone I met. Even friends of friends or random strangers I met at bars. I tried not to come off as a desperate try hard, but if you were in the industry and I talked to you, by the end of our conversation you knew where I had been and what I was looking to do. 2. Tell people what your intent is. If people don’t know what you’re looking for they won’t be able to help you if it ever comes up. 3. Dont listen to people who say CFA is worthless. At best it got me the interview for my job, at least it afforded me the knowledge to talk intelligently at my technical interview. When people who are interviewing you have it they dont even bother asking technical questions because they sort of recognize that is a moot point, your a candidate, thus you probably know your stuff… 4. I wouldn’t bother much with online listings. Didn’t do much for me. 5. When it finally came to salary negotiations I read some of numi’s posts on that subject and used basically his exact verbage. I got a raise of of 8% before I even started as well as coming on as an Associate instead of an analyst. Thanks numi! The bottom line is that it is fvcking brutal and depressing trying to break into to this industry. Hopefully my story will inspire some and light a fire under their ass to get after it. It is a tough time to be looking but it can be done. Cheers, Lanikai
great job and good luck in your new role
Congrats. That’s great that all your hard work paid off.
Congratulations! Is there a link to numi’s post on salary negotiation?
brazilatz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Congratulations! > Is there a link to numi’s post on salary > negotiation? congrats Lanikai/fxguy, I am interested in reading the numi’s salary negotiation post too.
Thanks everyone. @bjg- Anything every come up on the fx/ treasury side for you? Are you still looking to move? @brazil- run a search for those terms, there are more than a few good threads on salary negotiations. Numi usually chimes in on these.
> @bjg- Anything every come up on the fx/ treasury > side for you? Are you still looking to move? I am still looking to move, but admittedly, I haven’t been searching too hard yet. Just reaching out to alumni and trying to gather as much info as I can. I’m a little behind with my L3 prep, so once that’s over with I plan to focus on the job hunt more.
nice try numi.
Hi FXguy, I am in treasury as well with a role simlar to yours, I am also a level 2 candidate. I haven’t submitted my work exp yet, but I assume CFAI accepted your work experience?
@storko- this is definitley not numi, search fxguy1234 posts about treasury to prove it. @ks- havent submitted it as i only have 3yr exp, but yea it should, with the only caveat being that I will probably focus more on the cash investment and fx risk part of my role rather than the operational/accounting part
hahaha, iknow, i was just joking. i remember you posting before! i joke around too much.
Lanikai Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > @storko- this is definitley not numi, search > fxguy1234 posts about treasury to prove it. > > @ks- havent submitted it as i only have 3yr exp, > but yea it should, with the only caveat being that > I will probably focus more on the cash investment > and fx risk part of my role rather than the > operational/accounting part Ya I also do fuel hedging as well, so I guess I should be good.
What a great post. I’ve been seeing more online listings (not entirely worthless, I’ve had 3 interviews in the past 2 weeks by applying without any contacts) which leads me to believe that things are getting better. Keep us posted on your new job and it was very nice of you to lay your ‘how to’ regarding a job transition.
storko Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > nice try numi. funny guy, lol. congrats Lanikai!
dude congrats!!! What sort of position are you moving into? nice break from all the bank teller threads that are out there.
Congrats fxguy1234! You helped me a lot with those FX craziness in L2. Good luck with this new gig!
Congrats fxguy. It’s good to hear something positive around this forum. I’ll probably get in touch with numi soon but I’m not sure if he works with quants as well ?
fxguy - what was it you didn’t like about working in treasury? I’ve been considering a move to a treasury role and would be interested to hear what you found unappealing.
storko Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > nice try numi. Fn’ LOL. That’s a cool post, thanks for the inspiration and congrats !!!
Very inspiring, but this is exactly the reason i haven’t tried anything after passing all 3 levels