eFinancialCareers

Upon resuming my search activities after a two-week pause to review my strategy, I began receiving responses from some companies with whom I'd completed the interview process during the intensified financial market turmoil that began this September. In my past searches, in a normal job market environment I ended up with an offer, in most instances, when I completed all the rounds of interviews. This time around, I didn't receive... Read more

The data points I witnessed as a job-seeker during the first half of October became a trend. A number of companies went on to tell me their hiring process was on hold, regardless of the interview rounds I had completed or the number of people I had met in their offices. The economic turmoil has affected the hiring intentions of my entire spectrum of potential employers. It is my sense that... Read more

Throughout my job search I have been able to sustain a good activity level amid a fairly turbulent job market. I have managed to explore multiple alternatives and significantly expand my professional network. By the middle of October I expected a response from an interesting job opportunity. However, the sequence of negative events in the financial markets then brought employers to a complete halt as far as hiring in my... Read more

I am now at a point in my search where I am close to an opportunity that I find interesting and that I like as a career path. As I approach this stage, I realize that my daily activities and priorities need to gradually change emphasis. With a desirable job opportunity in sight, my reaction has been to gradually drop the "business development" component of my search – activities such... Read more

As my search continues, I've become aware of an important quality difference between meetings or interviews that I obtain through networking, and those that result from contact with a recruiter or responding to a job posting. With network-generated meetings, I'm always able to anticipate how the conversation will go and what I will get out of it. In contrast, when I interview through a recruiter or a job posting, my... Read more

The last couple of weeks have been a particularly challenging time for the financial services industry. While on one hand I wish I was managing a portfolio during this period, on the other hand I had the opportunity to gain a valuable lesson as a job seeker observing reactions from my prospective employers. Prospective employers' conversations with me exhibit some similary with the way institutional investors behave during a market dislocation.... Read more

As a product manager of my own job search, my pricing policy or desired compensation is a key tool in my employment marketing mix. When marketing products, a pricing policy can be designed either to sell many units at low prices or to sell fewer units at high prices. By analogy, if a candidate seeks compensation below market, she has a better shot at receiving multiple job offers. On the other... Read more

After working on my marketing mix for the last few weeks, it is now time to go out and try to close a sale. How do I close a sale in my job search? A very important rule I learned working with sales professionals is to always remember to ask for the business during a sales meeting. Applying this rule to my job search, it means I must ask a... Read more

As the marketing manager of my own job search, the more I go out networking and promoting myself, the more I realize that my profile positioning is at the core of everything that I do. How do I improve my product positioning - one of the four "P's" in my marketing mix? How do I improve the way I am perceived by prospective employers and by people I network with? What... Read more

In the last couple of weeks, I've challenged myself to create more structure around my search process by developing tools to increase the odds of a positive response from prospective employers or anyone I'm networking with. It's been helpful to think about myself as if I was a marketing manager responsible for a consumer good. My tool kit resembles the "marketing mix" - or the four Ps of marketing: my... Read more

I'm a portfolio manager recently let go by the hedge fund group at a bulge bracket investment bank in New York. Like many of my peers, I grew into the role through an apprentice process that included a lot of hard work and the luck of being in the right place at the right time. Indeed, at many points my physical location may have been the most important factor: It... Read more