Posted in: Experienced, Qualifications & High Education 3 July 2008 18 answers
Anonymous

Question: Why locals with degrees in Cooking from the Nonsense University get jobs in Investment Banking and I don’t?

I was top of my class and I paid a very expensive MSc at Imperial College, however and besides the fact that I know people with much less qualifications working in Investment Banking, I can’t find a job and have to survive on 20k a year if I want to live in the UK?

Answers (18)

  1. get plastic surgery.

  2. Having read your recent questions and posts, the reason you havent secured an I-Bank position is you have a real attitude problem which im sure the interviewers will have picked up on. Either that or your just a moron with too much family money.

  4. The majority of people that I come across in Investment Banking have the inate ability to articulate and express themselves clearly and, having read your question, you don’t.

  6. Perhaps you should have done the CQF then…
    I’ve not seen the stuff that led DT to say those things, but attitude is an important thing in interviews. Although Imperial is a respectable enough place, you are trying to enter a game where by itself the MFE is nothing very special. As a headhunter, I see CVs that basically say “I went to SmartUni, did HardThings, worship me ye mortals”. The technical term used in my firm for these is “crap CVS”.
    Your CV is a sales pitch, grammar, layout, all the dull stuff really counts. If you got a proper job, you’d be paid more than the rent on the sort of home Madonna lives in. Do you think the estate agent who pitches at that market send out tatty, poorly written descriptions ?
    The market is not at its best, you need to work harder on it,

  7. Investment Banking requires more than a good degree. Please consult a career Coach.

  8. I have to say, your attitude is pretty bad. Interviewers, trained or not/male or female, will detect this. What I call ‘Naomi Cambell syndrome’!

  9. The fact you trash other qualified candidates as locals with cooking degree from nowhere instead of checking the problems on yourself after rejection is probably the reason.

  10. Your issue has stirred an unjustified ire on part of the previous moderators. Besides the maladroit phrasing that you have come up with, the answer is simple: investment banks have halted their recruitment due to heavy losses and a slow down in financial transactions.
    Hence the opportunities are very scarse, and the residual ones attributed to those who have amassed banking experience.
    You need to work on your strategy: internships, financial related positions and choices of market places. By seizing up, what may resemble “unattractive” propositions, you demonstrate to future IB employers your commitment to finance in instances of hardship.
    Once the financial sector ends its re-structuring (probably by 2010) your experience and valuable diploma from Imperial College will be regarded very positively.
    By the way, I find the comments expressed by other moderators as futile and impregnated with very poor writing skills.
    No class

  11. By gaining qualifications from a redbrick university shouldn’t mean you have a passport to investment banking. Others have to work really hard to be where they are… Change your attitude and try to get a job on your merits opposed to who you know or where you’ve studied.

  12. Could be a superiority complex. I worked in IT support with a guy who wore pinstripe suits, braces and carried a copy of the FT to work that he never read. He was as common as the rest of us but insisted he be called ‘James’ and not ‘Jim’. Turns out he wasn’t superior after all. The staff hated his guts as he refused to speak to them. He only lasted because he knew the line manager.

    These people are everywhere, especially since the boom started – when many actually believed they were ‘city types’ based on the fact that they had a job in the city!

  13. Don’t listen to your classmate, listen to those of us who have several years front office experience at tier one investment banks. Enough said.

  14. I can understand your frustration and won’t bother too much about other people’s comments as they probably themselves graduated from some third-class rubbish universities.
    I have seen several times in my current job, every year HR bringing in a bunch of idiots from rubbish universities with no real understanding of financial markets and no motivation who steal the jobs from better qualified people….. sack them all..

  15. Let’s not embark on another conspiracy theory; there are so many around, yours won’t go far. Be positive and have a chat with someone already involved in this sector and talk to them regarding what it takes to be an Investment Banker.

  16. I do not understand why people think that IB’s or any other employer has to hire “the best qualified”. An employers function in life is to maximize profits, ideally by not taking on high cost fixed costs, such as somebody from a excellent university, if they do not have to. Additionally, the fact that they hire people with cooking degrees would imply that the skill set you deem superior has probably been comoditized. Hence, anybody can do it. Now if someone can do it, and cook…..well that is special. Welcome to capitalism. If you are really as good as you say you are, you would embrace this period as a shaking out of the weak, start you own business, and prosper due to your superior credentials and intellect.

  17. “…start you own business, and prosper due to your superior credentials and intellect”

    Here, here….

  18. I hope you still check the answers. I have a couple of questions for you:
    1- What was your MSc in?
    2- What is your nationality?
    3- What are your recommendations to another Imperial MSc (will graduate at the end of 2009)?
    4- If you do not mind, I would like you to answer your own question. Thanks.