I am so frustrated because there are no financial jobs around. I had interviews but no responses afterwards. What should I do? I almost gave up. Should I just stop looking until market picks up again?
Dude, I am in the same boat as you are…The trouble is that I am currently jobless…Lookin for a job and Level II is kinda difficult…I have decided to take up an IT job for the time being…
AssetMgrWannabe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am so frustrated because there are no financial > jobs around. I had interviews but no responses > afterwards. What should I do? I almost gave up. > Should I just stop looking until market picks up > again? Pray Harder
at least you’re getting interviews. I think i’ll have to wager my life on a few stock selections and a few boxing fights.
I can’t even get internal “attention” within my firm.
trust me your not the only one
I am trying for IT (Finance) past 2 months, managed to get a couple of interviews, nailed both of them, but the positions went on a hold. I am talking Bulge Bracket here… So I have to be happy with what I have…
From a report on the S&P 500. Q4 2007 Earnings Growth – Sectors The Financials sector is reporting the weakest earnings growth rate of any sector at -124% (with 99% of the sector reporting). In aggregate, the sector is currently recording a loss of $13.5 billion (3) compared to earnings of $56.6 billion in Q4 2006. If the final growth rate is -124%, it will mark the second consecutive quarter of negative earnings growth for the sector. Once again, the Diversified Financials, Investment Bank & Brokerage and Thrift & Mortgage industries are the largest contributors to the earnings decline. These three industries combined are reporting earnings over $54 billion below year-ago levels. If the Financials sector is removed from the index, the Q4 2007 growth rate for the remaining nine sectors would be 11.9%. Finance is a terrible sector to get into right now. All you have to do is pick up the WSJ and ul see practically every financial firm is taking huge losses. Soon to come: writedowns on commercial properties. This is again going to hit financial firms. Lehman Brothers is one of these firms that is very concerned. Even Goldman Sachs, the firm that seems to have outwitted the market, may face writedowns. Goodluck man w/ LII and the job hunt man.
i guess this is the best time to improve one’s game. But the prospect of never given any gametime is saddening.
Analysts expect Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley to take further write-downs NEW YORK - Analysts in recent days have cut their fiscal first-quarter earnings estimates for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley because of an expected rise in various portfolio write-downs. Citi Investment Research analyst Prashant Bhatia wrote in a client note late Tuesday that the three investment banks will take write-downs on the value of their leverage lending, commercial mortgage and private equity portfolios during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Kenneth Worthington continued weakness in lending markets are likely to continue through the second half of the year and indicate continued problems with risk management. “We know it’s tough out there, but we believe large write-downs reflect failed risk management and business strategies and should negatively impact valuations,” Worthington wrote in a research note. Worthington said he still favors Goldman Sachs among investment banks but cut his fiscal 2008 earnings estimate to $18.07 per share from $21.91 per share due to expected further write-downs. Bhatia estimates Goldman Sachs will take a $2.7 billion write-down, with $1 billion coming from the declining value of leverage loans. Bhatia cut his fiscal first-quarter earnings estimate for Goldman Sachs to $3.70 per share from $6.70 per share. Shares of Goldman Sachs rose $3.65, or 2.1 percent, to $177.45 in Wednesday afternoon trading. Morgan Stanley is expected to take a $700 million write-down tied to its portfolios during the quarter, Bhatia wrote. Bhatia cut his earnings estimate for Morgan Stanley to $1.40 per share from $1.69. Analyst Mark Lane of William Blair & Co. estimates Morgan Stanley will take a $2 billion write-down during the quarter, prior to any hedging for its commercial mortgage-backed securities and leveraged loan holdings. Shares of Morgan Stanley rose $1.59, or 3.8 percent, to $43.08. Lehman Brothers is likely to take a $500 million write-down tied to leveraged loan and commercial real estate portfolios, Bhatia wrote. He reduced earnings projection to $1.50 per share from $1.78 per share. Worthington cut his full-year earnings estimate for Lehman Brothers by a 1 cent to $6.23 per share. Shares of Lehman Brothers rose $1.95, or 3.6 percent, to $55.52. Investment banks took billions of dollars in write-downs during the second half of 2007 due to bad bets on bonds backed by mortgages. Bhatia did say fixed-income operations, aside from mortgages, has been strong so far in the fiscal first quarter. “We expect the rates, currencies, and commodities-related businesses to be running at or close to record levels driven by robust client engagement,” Bhatia wrote in the note. Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley’s fiscal first quarters all end on Feb. 29.
If I get laid off my BB ER job, I’m packing up and heading to Asia. I don’t own a home or wife, so the move for me would be a relatively easy process.
If you get back to Asia, you can own a couple of wives.
It says there are lots of opportunities in Asia right now. Are the qualities of jobs there high?
Asian market is on fire. Lots of jobs both good and bad. Most of BBs are expanding. I might make my move in a year or two after scoring the CFA in the bag.
pimp Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If I get laid off my BB ER job, I’m packing up and > heading to Asia. I don’t own a home or wife, so > the move for me would be a relatively easy > process. hahah omg, i love how you put it. “I don’t own a home or a wife…” no wonder they call you pimp
I agree that the job market is awful right now. It seems there are more opportunities for somebody with 0-2 years experience, as their salary requirements aren’t as high as a 4-5 year person. Most of the positions I’ve been looking at want specific experience (PE, for instance) for somebody coming it with my time out of college. I would tend to say MBA applications are in my future, but EVERYBODY is going to be doing that this fall. The admissions percentages are going to fall through the floor this year.
The program I’ve applied to this year has the most applications in at least 5 years. They’re running >20% above last years apps.
StuckinMinn Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The program I’ve applied to this year has the most > applications in at least 5 years. They’re running > >20% above last years apps. I believe it. Even if I go into the application process with great numbers, I’m still going to have some trouble getting into a top program.
I so feal your pain. I was working at Manulife and trying to get into an analyst job. Passed 2 levels so far, doubt I’ll bother with the 3rd now that I’m trading for myself. Funny story tho, that really ticks me off. Anyways, emailed the CEO, he got back to me and gave me a list of 3 ppl to contact about getting into the investment division from the insurance department gig I had. So I end up with a meeting with the CFO of the investments division. I have a private blog with stock picks and research reports, averaging over 20% a year. I was mainly in cash though at the time of the meeting last August. He was going to forward my resume to a couple portfolio managers, which was great but I wanted to cover all my bases. Asked about back office jobs which are directly under him, he says flat out if I can pick stocks like this, I shouldn’t even go for those jobs. Afterwards I hear nothing back and he won’t return my calls or emails. Whats really funny (or pathetic in a funny kinda way), I looked at my mock portfolio from mid February 07 when I sent out my CV to some managers to see how my performance compared. From my two screens (all US stocks) I was up 16% and 25%, but I had heavy cash levels in both. The cash was into foreign bonds since noway was I gonna hold US money market funds at that time. The basket of bonds was up 11% compared with a 8% drop in the S&P and Manulife’s 5 or so US funds, down 25-30% since Feb last year. They wouldn’t even let me work for free… All you can do is keep networking and plugging away.
I started looking for jobs in 2001 and getting a good job in financial markets felt virtually impossible if you weren’t “the full nine yards”. I just had to be more open-minded about my career path and I looked at other industries (my first job was as an energy trader for a utility). My advice is to forget the investment banker graduate trainee programme at Goldman Sachs. Even getting a back office job at an IB will be difficult. I would always recommend going for a better job at an unsexy company. My career path to end up in asset mgmt has been fairly convoluted but my interesting CV is what sets me apart from other candidates. When I left univeresity I too was impatient and it was demoralising having to send 10 CVs a week. I know it’s hard to believe now, but if you’re determined then you will end up in your dream job. It will probably take 5-10yrs to get there though. It’s a fallacy that most successful people working in financial markets today started their career on an IB graduate programme. Just be determined and open-minded and you will get your first lucky break sooner than you think.