Fellow Monkeys,

Today is not a good day over in my neck of the woods. Long story short, but I was expecting to have a conversation saying that come March of next year I will officially be moved up in the company.

To give a brief, brief background...I was brought into a boutique ER shop as a sales assistant (this company likes to promote from within, so a move to ER or onto the sales desk is in my future). I have now been here over a year, and was expecting my bump up (as they've done with every other sales assistant in the past), however, that did not happen. Now there are a few possible reasons for this, but the one that is glaring at me is the fact that I would be the youngest person on the desk by at least 2 years.

So a friend of a friend of mine is trying something new. They have been looking for a month or so with not many bites.

They decided to put an add in the paper and say something to the effect of "3 years experience in the oil and gas sector, seeks analyst position" or something along those lines. Is this a good approach or a bad approach? Why?

Some of this common sense, but thought there was some good tips in here for you senior level monkeys

From US News 7 Questions a High-Level Executive Should Ask on a Job Hunt

[quote]
2. Why are companies so secretive about hiring execs?

Hi,

Does anyone know where could I apply to undergrads PWM positions. (IE, job boards, specific companies)

Thanks

So I'm a recent grad from a non-target state school. It's not a complete non-target -- the school sends 4 or 5 kids every year to BB IBD, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to how many kids there are in the undergrad b-school. I've been networking pretty heavily for about 8 months now and I've made major inroads with a former high-profile MD at UBS. Problem now is he is one of the guys who ditched that shithole last week for another firm. I'm pretty sure he doesn't start working for his new firm for a couple months because of non-compete agreements and whatnot, so I'm thinking he can't really pull any strings for me until he starts his new gig, and I'm not really willing to sit on my ass all summer pissing my parents off at home.

I just got offer from Cowen in Beijing where they cover business from chinese firms going public in US and Cross Border M&A deals. They said they have better training and project envolvement though not big enough than BB. My planned career path is like IB-MBA-buy side. Is this company worth going? ps I'm finance major undergradute from Peking University.

Hey everyone:
You must get a lot of these "what are my chances threads?" and are sick to death of them. I don't care, I just want someone to tell me what I should do.

I've applied to every legit prop trading firm and have yet to see any interest. I just got a rejection today after calling several times at a few firms, and that was only after being hounding someone for over a week, which I hate to do. And no, it was not because I was mean to HR or something, the process is just slow I guess.

But I see little interest from these firms in hiring me, and I don't know whether to just call it quits. I hung around Ceres for awhile; that went no where. I applied through my alma-mater (semi-target school) - that has lead to no results.

Hello,

I graduated in 2009 and have been working in consulting over the last year. I am now trying to transition into the banking or hedge fund industry and started looking for jobs three weeks ago. I actually have had some pretty good results, but haven't found what I've been looking for... unfortunately the process is VERY slow as it takes a week or two to hear back between rounds. I also contacted headhunters and they've set me up with some legit interviews in the coming weeks (solid funds and elite boutiques).

Looking at the pass rates of the three levels of the CFA, each in the low 30%'s, the exams seem to be extremely difficult and, admittedly, somewhat intimidating. This is compounded by taking into account who I hope is taking the tests. I would expect the level of effort to be a force that culls the weak from the herd and leaves only smart, motivated people left to actually attempt the certification. Taking this into account, 30% pass rate is a much more impactful statistic. Am I blowing this out of proportion? Or is this actually as difficult as everyone makes it out to be? I graduated from a good school with an Econ major and an accounting minor and a heavy focus on Finance through extra coursework and internships. Should I be worried?

Dinged - what now?

I'm a first year MBA at NYU, I had a decent recruiting season this year - I only recruited for Sales & Trading. I received first round interviews at most of the bulge bracket banks, and made it to the second round at two of them. After the second round interview i got told the same thing 'our class is 1/3 the size it was 2 years ago, we just can't hire that many people' - so ding.

So - I'm an MBA and I made the second round at Citi and DB, and have a very strong interest in the markets. Can anyone recommend a recruiting strategy for me now for summer internship?

I'm fine doing a capital raising position at a small hedge fund, although I'd be a little more inclined toward the quantitative - be it making VB macros, research, news filtering, strategy backtesting. I have a pitchbook of some trade ideas too (1 for each area, stat arb, global macro, long/short).

Hey Guys,

I have a n interview at Audax Group this coming Friday and I have no clue on how to prepare for a private equity interview. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about Audax Group and what the interviews for them are like. In addition, any tips on the finance interview process in general?

Particularly, why PE?

Background:
Junior at a target school w/ 3.86 concentrating in Finance and Accounting. Had a summer internship last summer at a boutique bank in NYC but did not do valuation/technical stuff.

Thanks a lot guys.