ZA
What employers want from you in an interview
It’s the most stressful part of the job seeking process: the interview. When you are fortunate enough to have your job search reach that level, there is at last a face to contend with. To help you succeed in the tete-a-tete, understanding what goes through the interviewer’s mind may help you land that next position. [...]
The misguided job search tactics of the alpha male
Being an alpha male can be a good thing. Alpha males are confident, natural leaders. They’re usually intelligent. They’re analytical and they’re doers. Lloyds is so keen to turn its employees into alpha males, it’s reportedly sent them on a course titled, ‘Hunter-Gatherers in the Corporate Jungle,’ where they’ve been equipped with alpha male traits. [...]
GUEST COMMENT: Advice for JP Morgan Scapegoats
First the good news: being fired from JP Morgan is far better than being fired from a less admired bank like Deutsche and if you’re one of the scapegoats for the $2 billion clusterfuss, I hope that places the advice I’m giving in the right context. Nietzsche is your friend This hasn’t destroyed you. If [...]
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 [...]
GUEST COMMENT: I passed all three levels of the CFA in 18 months. This is how I tackled Level III
I’ve already written about my tactics for passing CFA Levels I and II. Now I’d like to share my method of passing CFA Level III. As I’ve pointed out on previous occasions, I managed to pass all three levels in a period of 18 months. The big problem with Level III is complacency. You get [...]
How to ensure your CV is read by the robots
Recruiters report that due to the overwhelming supply of talent today, desperate job seekers are flooding every position—but that 50% or more of applicants are unqualified for the position to which they are applying. To save companies time and money, the hiring process has been almost entirely automated. Most large firms will now use software [...]
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 [...]
When to do an MBA if you want to work in banking in South Africa
It’s a dilemma faced by all new graduates in economics, finance or business administration: is it better to look for a job straight away and gain precious experience, or to go for a post-graduate degree and gain insight and depth of knowledge? In the South African financial services sector in particular, how important is it [...]
GUEST COMMENT: The final countdown to the CFA Programme June Examinations
(Or The Final Countdown (you have to hum the tune as you read this) 4 WEEKS TO GO… By now you should have finished your first reading of the CFA curriculum. If you haven’t then get a move on, time is ticking away. Make a plan for the critical phase that’s coming up: revision. There [...]
GUEST COMMENT: What happens when your investment banking CV sends the wrong message
Mixed messages in CVs usually derive from the writer’s own mind set and that rule applies to investment bankers, fund managers, private bankers, traders of any age or nationality. From my City experience I find there are usually two mind sets which create mixed messages: Superhero and scarecrow. What are these and how can they be [...]
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