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10 tips for getting hired when nobody seems to be hiring
For anyone who has been searching for a financial job for more than a few weeks, the dreary and continued drain on time, effort, energy and spirit make it sometimes difficult to stay with it. You begin to wonder if you’ll ever get a job. Is anyone even hiring? To break the spell, there are [...]
Goldman’s global head of growth markets succinctly explains how investment bankers can ensure they’re never without work in future
Goldman Sachs has been making videos and placing them on YouTube. They don’t appear particularly popular: some only have a handful of hits. Some appear to have none at all. However, this one, featuring J. Michael Evans, its global head of ‘Growth Markets’, deserves some attention. In it, J. Michael volunteers a perspective on what [...]
GUEST COMMENT: How to send out three hundred job applications for an equity trading job, and still get nowhere
I have a friend who was a junior equities trader. He joined the bank straight out of university, worked there for a few years and was made redundant. Four months into his redundancy, we spoke and he mentioned to me that he’d submitted more than 300 job applications. I didn’t totally believe this and asked [...]
The big picture: A look at 2011 bonuses for Hong Kong’s finance professionals
In this latest post, we examine the results of the recent eFinancialCareers bonus survey in Hong Kong. Here’s our take on the plausible reasons behind those figures, the trends and our predictions on post-bonus movement. To get the low-down, please click here to view the report.
Day in the Life: Investment banking analyst
Name: Carmen Chan Firm: UBS Title: Analyst Dept: Investment banking 7.30am – 9.00am It is always hard to describe a typical day at work because you never know when the markets or a transaction will take a sudden turn. That being said, I usually start my day around 7.30-8.00am from home. One of the first [...]
Nomura confirms it: M&A and capital markets businesses are just not very profitable. Macquarie pays head of risk twice head of M&A
If you work in M&A or capital markets (collectively known as IBD), you may be a loss leader. Don’t, therefore, expect to get paid anything like your colleagues in sales and trading roles. There have always been suspicions that M&A bankers aren’t great for the bottom line (RBS’s don’t appear to have been profitable, for [...]
The Junior: All I’m really doing as an analyst is PowerPoints, PowerPoints and more PowerPoints
Many young undergraduates harbour dreams of becoming an investment banker when they finish university, but few know what the job entails, except that it pays a lot of money and the words “investment banking” sound sexy and cool. Those who know the reality have probably done an internship in the sector, be it in ECM, [...]
Activities for the purpose of turning on recruiters in tough markets
You want a new job. As we noted on this morning, the first and hardest step nowadays appears to be putting yourself out there. The dynamic has changed. It’s not like it used to be: you won’t get a guarantee; you may be leaving a lot of stock. Assuming you do apply for a job and [...]
Employees are “products” – if you don’t invest in your personal brand, you will fail in the marketplace
I’ve spent quite a bit of time working in and consulting for consumer products companies. These businesses invest a great deal of capital – both human and dollar based – into the brand equity of their products. They want to associate their drink or snack with a good time and happy memories. If they have [...]
GUEST COMMENT: How I passed CFA Level II only four months after passing Level I
In January 2009 I passed the CFA Level 1 qualification, using the method I elaborated for you before. This gave me around four months to prepare for CFA Level II. Needless to say, CFA Level II is hard. In fact, it is very hard. To be frank, I thought I’d failed. I was mistaken. So, [...]
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