What can I expect in the finance job recruiting process?
The recruiting process can seem daunting when you're not sure what you're going up against. While it varies from firm to firm and industry to industry, there are some basic steps that everyone goes through when recruiting for careers in finance. We've listed these steps out for you below.
1) Create Resume / Cover Letter: You want to start by getting these two basic things together and ready to go. You never know when you'll need to email your resume to someone. Make sure you are ready.
2) Interview Preparation: Answering interview questions gets much easier the more you practice them. It also helps you to look and feel more natural while you're answering the questions. Nobody likes hearing a canned response, and practice is how you prevent that.
3) Networking: Once you've got your resume set and you've started practicing for interviews, you should start networking. Ideally, this is something you're doing all day every day, but in reality that's not the case. Try and meet as many people as possible, you will learn a lot and be in a lot better position when recruiting season comes around.
4) Applications: Fill out applications for all the companies you'd like to apply to. This can be time consuming so try and get a head start on it!
5) Interviews: If you make it past the resume selection phase you'll be invited to interviews with firm employees.
Keep in mind this is just a general outline of the process. Some candidates may rearrange it a bit (whether it's networking first or interview prep, etc) and some companies might have extra layers to their recruiting depending on their needs.
Additional Resources:
- Relevant WSO Guides: A Look Behind the Wall, WSO Internship Guide,WSO Networking Guide, WSO Technical Interview Guide and Behavioral Interview Guide
- Relevant WSO Services: Wall Street Mentors and WSO Mock Interview Library
- Relevant WSO Forums: Wall Street Mentors, Public Resume Review and Get a Job
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