Volunteering?

Hi Everyone, Hope all is well. As the market is flooded with qualified candidates, I am currently feel lost. I am not sure what to do anymore. What are you laid off guys doing or planning to do? Some suggestions were to pursue a CFA, MBA, change careers, travel, volunteer. I do think the market will get better but it could be a long time. I want to stay in the game. What do you guys think of volunteering for financial firms if you can for a few months? Kinda like an internship/temp/consulting. Is that selling myself short? I just feel that for the few firms that have the buget to hire, they are really picky and would probably just chuck my resume in the trash. FYI, I spent 1 year in banking, 2+ years in sell side research and have gotten nothing. No call backs no nothing in the past 2 weeks. I am just frustrated.

Volunteering is better than doing nothing. If its something you can put on your resume, that even better.

out of curiosity, what kind of positions have you been applying for with your experience?

In fact, I hear that CEO’s of America’s major corporations are now doing it as volunteer work.

You could do Peace Corps then MBA (though that’s 4+ years of commitment altogether)

I’m beginning an unaid equity research internship in January. I’m a full time grad student, so its a little different than being out of the job. It makes sense. You put face time with people, and hope to make contacts. Plus, you actually learn something.

I disagree. You will not gain much volunteering for a large corp. They will chew you up and spit you out. Thanks for playing.

I volunteered for the Peace Corps after Bear back in June. Spent about 2 months before the Russians invaded and bombed, so Washington sent everyone home… Now I’m just in the same boat as everyone else looking for work. I still do volunteer in NYC, but during the holidays there is no shortage of volunteers, so I am searching job sites all day. Its getting pretty frustrating…