I am talking career wise. I work as a financial analyst (more of financial reporting) and although I am scared to leave my job I am even more scared of staying, I feel sort of numb. I have an MBA, B. Comm , Chartered Accountant and passed level 2 of the CFA. I was wondering what have you done to change your life aside from emigrating, have you re-trained, ‘seen the light’ so to speak and changed career direction entirely? Do you feel trapped in your job and unable to get out or are you in the process of making changes for a different career?
Look at the job listings you want, look at the requirements section, do the best you can to build yourself so your resume matches the listing. And grow a pair, there’s no scared in finance.
There’s plenty of scared in finance. The point is that you still need to take rational decisions even when you’re scared.
^ I am kinda looking for something more exciting, but the thought of starting all over again is also scary…
Black Swan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Look at the job listings you want, look at the > requirements section, do the best you can to build > yourself so your resume matches the listing. And > grow a pair, there’s no scared in finance. Huh, isn’t this so obvious?
Network with people who do what you want to be doing…
Lawyered up Hit the gym Deleted Facebook
Mzungu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am talking career wise. > > I was wondering what have you done to change your > life aside from emigrating, have you re-trained, > ‘seen the light’ so to speak and changed career > direction entirely? > > Do you feel trapped in your job and unable to get > out or are you in the process of making changes > for a different career? In the span of a year, I: -Told my boss I didn’t want to follow the career path that I was actually doing quite well on (sales) and wanted to move to research (different side of the company). Also revealed I had taken the first two levels of the CFA (though I was still awaiting results for L2). -Was essentially forced out of the company due to the above admission (not fun, I certainly would play this differently today if I could repeat it). -Interviewed for research jobs and got turned down repeatedly. Interviewed for sales jobs and got offers that I turned down because they weren’t at all what I wanted. (I had given myself a time deadline to find a position that I wanted and had plenty of savings to try and make this leap). -Found a well-performing fund manager who I liked and respected and convinced him to give me a chance as an intern (yes, an intern - unpaid like what a lot of us were doing in college, unfortunately) doing fundamental, basic due diligence for his company. -Got an offer which I accepted at the end of the internship and am now working my butt off/neglecting my level III studies in a buy-side research position. The above actions are probably the riskiest things I’ve ever done with respect to a career move, but I spent a long time and a lot of effort trying to minimize and understand the risks I was taking. In retrospect, I’m glad that I made this move, but I will say that it took a Herculean amount of effort, savings, humility, and luck to make this transition.
^ I didn’t go to the extremes like this, but my story is pretty funny. I was at a buy-side shop in asset mgmt, and the senior people messed it up and lost half the assets in a year. They decided to lay off 30% of the firm. Interestingly enough, they saved themselves and middle-mgmt and choose to fire junior analysts (because obviously it had to be all the junior people who messed it up, even though we don’t make any of the decisions, and don’t talk to clients) Interviewed for 5 months, mostly IB and AM interviews around 25 total, and only 2 ER. Had to go through hoops for the ER job, writing sample reports, building models, research exercises… and finally landed one of the research jobs. ER is really freaking hard to break into.
supersadface Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mzungu Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I am talking career wise. > > > > I was wondering what have you done to change > your > > life aside from emigrating, have you > re-trained, > > ‘seen the light’ so to speak and changed career > > direction entirely? > > > > Do you feel trapped in your job and unable to > get > > out or are you in the process of making changes > > for a different career? > > In the span of a year, I: > > -Told my boss I didn’t want to follow the career > path that I was actually doing quite well on > (sales) and wanted to move to research (different > side of the company). Also revealed I had taken > the first two levels of the CFA (though I was > still awaiting results for L2). > > -Was essentially forced out of the company due to > the above admission (not fun, I certainly would > play this differently today if I could repeat > it). > > -Interviewed for research jobs and got turned down > repeatedly. Interviewed for sales jobs and got > offers that I turned down because they weren’t at > all what I wanted. (I had given myself a time > deadline to find a position that I wanted and had > plenty of savings to try and make this leap). > > -Found a well-performing fund manager who I liked > and respected and convinced him to give me a > chance as an intern (yes, an intern - unpaid like > what a lot of us were doing in college, > unfortunately) doing fundamental, basic due > diligence for his company. > > -Got an offer which I accepted at the end of the > internship and am now working my butt > off/neglecting my level III studies in a buy-side > research position. > > The above actions are probably the riskiest things > I’ve ever done with respect to a career move, but > I spent a long time and a lot of effort trying to > minimize and understand the risks I was taking. > In retrospect, I’m glad that I made this move, but > I will say that it took a Herculean amount of > effort, savings, humility, and luck to make this > transition. Awesome.
ASSet_MANagement Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Lawyered up > Hit the gym > Deleted Facebook Hahaha nice.
I’m not sure I’ve done much to change my life but here’s what I’ve been able to think of off the top of my head. • moved to a different continent • changed my name • gender reassignment surgery
Good for you, I too have decided to become a women, getting the surgery done next week. Then whore myself out to hedge fund managers who may then offer me a job, they will ride me as I swing my CFA charter in the air. I believe this to be a much easier route, then getting an MBA, and applying myself, because gosh darn it im just too lazy… This is my long term plan!
pedpenny Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Good for you, I too have decided to become a > women, getting the surgery done next week. > Then whore myself out to hedge fund managers who > may then offer me a job, they will ride me as I > swing my CFA charter in the air. > > I believe this to be a much easier route, then > getting an MBA, and applying myself, because gosh > darn it im just too lazy… > > This is my long term plan! Does CFAI charge you to issue a new charter or do you have a gender-neutral first name?
Mzungu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am talking career wise. > > I was wondering what have you done to change your > life aside from emigrating, have you re-trained, > ‘seen the light’ so to speak and changed career > direction entirely? > Uh, got a new job. Um, taken exams. Er, sucked cck. And other stuff that helps with career enhancement. Sheesh.
-started on the CFA track (l2 candidate) -enrolled in a masters of finance program (graduate this June, so level 2 studying currently non-existent) -sent resumes out like crazy and interviewed as much as possible a few months later i got an offer to become a jr. structured products analyst, accepted, and quit my job doing business consulting for a financial IT firm (operations consulting at buy-side firms)
still doing the cfa thing because i believe it will add value down the road (talking the talk, etc.) been hitting the gym pretty hard, did a century ride a month ago and signed up for some silly 5k’s, killing it in the online dating arena, on a solid road to paying off debt, networking like a mofo (just took over my local alumni chapter and a few other things), started a blog, reading more better stuff (where’s philip roth been my whole life???), but haven’t quite been able to get rid of the junk food. maybe next week… oh, and being the best uncle i can be
mar350 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > killing it in the online dating arena, As long as you have a p*nis and a job, it’s easy to kill it.
former trader Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > mar350 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > killing it in the online dating arena, > > As long as you have a p*nis and a job, it’s easy > to kill it. yeah, and yet some people can’t figure it out.
mar350…you started a blog…but what about? Your day-to-day finance life? I’ve always wanted to start one, yet I doubt blogging about how I’m currently procrastinating at work makes for exciting reading…