Frank, actually everyone that was hired had no experience in finance. Two were engineering undergrads (they turned out to be excel whizzes), one was econ, the other I’m not sure about (she actually had a master’s but not in finance). I was econ as well. Honestly, getting Jr. level jobs is not about CFA’s, MBA’s, and other credentials. It’s about putting together a good resume and cover letter to get the interview and then shining in the interview. By shining, I mean having a good personality, being able to discuss your background, and being able to answer their techical q’s. The technical side is less important…if you are well spoken and can self your background and personality as someone who they think is capable and who they would want to spend 60 hours a week with then you will be in contention.
dirty Z…ok, i’m fine with that. But if i were to have an interview 2mr and they asked me to show them a model I did for RBC Royal Bank and give them an analysis of the financial sector and their future, i won’t be able to do it. i got the impression that is what you need for a junior role. i understand you need to know the basics, but putting together a model on the spot and talking about the companies in depth is something i won’t be able to do for at least 1 year. so for a junior role, would it be suffice just to understand everything in the CFA cirriculum and a general understanding of what is going on right now in the economy as opposed to being able to publish something within 2 months?
DirtyZ Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Frank, in my experience - Yes, the good firms will > grill you hard in the beginning. Keep in mind > this is for Equity Research, 70 hour a week, NYC, > 100K+ comp. They don’t want someone getting a job > there who will turn out to be a dud in 3 months. > However, I also got an offer once after 1 phone > interview, 2 visits to the office (each about 45 > min), and writing one sample research report (only > 3 pages). That’s the least I’ve had to do. > > My most brutal interview was actually in the first > consulting firm I worked for. They had me in for > 6 hours straight of group case interviews where > all the MD’s watched our decision making process > and how well we (about 8 potential candidates) > interacted in the process. Then we had to present > our findings to the MD’s as if they were our > clients. That was tough, but I wound up getting > the job - they also took someone from Dartmouth, > Cornell, RPI, and Swarthmore. Princeton and > Harvard didn’t make the cut! LOL Rigorous, yes. For my current group, 1st round - 4 interviews back to back, 1st interviewer starts with a curveball, brainteasers right off the bat. ~3 hours in total time. 2nd round - 3 more interviews back to back. ~2 hours. 3rd round - given 1 hour, read earnings release and write. 4th round - behavioral, to see if I was a good fit, that took place in a social setting. While the level of rigorousness depends from group to group or analyst to analyst, be prepared to be grilled. Dirtyz provided some pretty good insight, along with others. Best of luck. One advice, be ready to pitch a stock. I’ve had that asked a lot.
FrankArabia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > dirty Z…ok, i’m fine with that. But if i were > to have an interview 2mr and they asked me to show > them a model I did for RBC Royal Bank and give > them an analysis of the financial sector and their > future, i won’t be able to do it. > > i got the impression that is what you need for a > junior role. i understand you need to know the > basics, but putting together a model on the spot > and talking about the companies in depth is > something i won’t be able to do for at least 1 > year. > That also depends on the analyst. Some want an associate that can assimilate into the role from day 1 and start cranking. I didn’t have any modelling experience other than risk modeling, but I was able to demonstrate that I understood the financial principals that drove the model & that I was pretty good with excel and that I could pick it up quickly with a little bit of experience. > so for a junior role, would it be suffice just to > understand everything in the CFA cirriculum and a > general understanding of what is going on right > now in the economy as opposed to being able to > publish something within 2 months?
Frank Wrote: so for a junior role, would it be suffice just to understand everything in the CFA cirriculum and a general understanding of what is going on right now in the economy as opposed to being able to publish something within 2 months? Frank, if you understand the CFA curriculum, and can discuss what you’ve read in the latest edition of Barron’s/WSJ/Economist/BusinessWeek/Fortune then you should be fine in terms of “technical preparation”. Basic modeling is not rocket science. Buy a book or two (see Benninga, Damodaran, etc), and build a model that incorporates the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flows. Understand how the inputs are derived and how sensitive the outputs are to these inputs (sensitivity analysis). The books will spell it out for you. Bro, it won’t take a year…if it does then you aren’t cut out for this kind of work. Pretend you are in ER and need to pick up coverage of a company. You don’t have a year…time is of the essence. And you have about 1-12 hours TOPS after earnings releases to get your word out to the street.
very solid advice…indeed very informative…
Thanks for everyone’s input so far. You guys are great per usual. I have basic modeling skills so I figure I will just go into it and see what happens. I will let all of you know what goes down. Thanks again H. Cauffey Kupinkski