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Career Resources
I didn't get laid off... but I've been working in BO for almost a year. My goal was to get out within a year... I just got an offer at a boutique/restructuring. I've been applying relentlessly for almost a year now. I tried everything from head hunters, job boards, and cold emailing. As luck would have it, I landed this job from cold emailing. The firm wasn't actively hiring but they ended up calling me in for an interview anyway.
More than anything else I think it was just sheer persistence and not getting discouraged.
Congrats Elan! Great news.
I think many banks in Asia and Europe are hiring...
I was laid off from my SA position so now I am applying to FT positions. The only places I am getting interviews are places where I have good contacts that are high up, and even then a lot of times they aren't in the division I want to be in. This market is rough but I think the key is persistence.
NEVER lose your BlackBerry www.conveniencesoftware.com
So I am guessing that you did not start the position and they took your offer away before you started? Sorry to hear.
[quote=Convenience Software]I was laid off from my SA position so now I am applying to FT positions. The only places I am getting interviews are places where I have good contacts that are high up, and even then a lot of times they aren't in the division I want to be in. This market is rough but I think the key is persistence.
NEVER lose your BlackBerry www.conveniencesoftware.com[/quote]
that sucks man, do you mean they rescinded the offer before your start date or you started the SA and THEN got laid off?
pretty harsh, good luck getting a FT gig.
Well I was a 3rd year Analyst at a middle market bank whose bonus cycle is in December. I got paid my full 2007 bonus and severance and some other goodies and then was laid-off. I am getting very discourage at this whole process as I now wish I would have interviewed last summer for PE or HF spots for this summer start. My job was going so well I expected to be promoted to Associate and then I was going to stay for another year or two and then leave and now I am lost and trying to figure things out...
I was laid off in May and I got an offer for almost twice the money 13 days later. I'm actually way better off than I was before.
BTW, I work in multifamily real estate finance.
FT recruiting is going to be a nightmare this year. I'm really dreading it.
Yea, JPM decided to buy Bear after I accepted my Bear offer, left all the interns waiting to hear anything at all for about a month (all this time I could have been reaching out to contacts and interviewing elsewhere) and THEN told us they were rescinding all of our offers and putting us in contact with non-profit organizations. I mean, at least they managed to get us another job, but not what I had in mind for the summer. So yea, now I go into full time with a good story, but no IB SA position. Sucks.
NEVER lose your BlackBerry www.conveniencesoftware.com
[quote=Convenience Software]Yea, JPM decided to buy Bear after I accepted my Bear offer, left all the interns waiting to hear anything at all for about a month (all this time I could have been reaching out to contacts and interviewing elsewhere) and THEN told us they were rescinding all of our offers and putting us in contact with non-profit organizations. I mean, at least they managed to get us another job, but not what I had in mind for the summer. So yea, now I go into full time with a good story, but no IB SA position. Sucks.
NEVER lose your BlackBerry www.conveniencesoftware.com[/quote]
Yep, had that happen to a friend of mine. He went on Spring Break out of the country with my roomates, had a FT offer starting for Bear in the summer... comes back and finds out he doesn't have a job.
Ouch...
Being flown out to Silicon Valley for an interview at a cleantech group boutique. Really excited for that.
Otherwise, the other day I sent a cold-email to a bank started by an ex-baller (think Moelis, Quattrone) and got a response from one of the top guys, who wants to set up an interview.
I know the market sucks, and coming from a non-target made it even more discouraging, but being persistent, sending out a bazillion personalized e-mails, and cold-calling alumni work. The resources on this site have been helpful.
You really cold-called alumni without emailing first? How was the reaction? I've thought about doing that, but I came to the conclusion that it would probably have a greater chance of pissing them off rather than helping.
What I've realized is that there are a handful of opportunities out there, but a lot of them are not advertised, and you have to have insider contacts. I was laid of in May and had 2 interviews lined up by the following day, and finalized offer by mid-June.
My mistake. I did cold-email first, but only to ask for a phone call. I know some people think cold-emailing questions is a good idea, but I think that's retarded. It shows you're too scared to talk on the phone and ask intelligent questions.
Okay, that makes sense. I agree, emailing questions is weak and frankly just a waste of time because you're not going to develop a rapport with someone via emails. The goal of any initial email with an alum or potential networking associate should be to set-up a phone call.
The problem with phone interviews:
1- the biggest issue is that it will be rescheduled prob 3 or more times 2- many times, they are embarrassed to keep rescheduling over and over so what ends up happening is instead of the 30 minute chat you were scheduled to have, it gets squeezed to the 10-15 minute window between the 3 o'clock meeting that usually is out by 3:45 and the 4 o'clock call... you can imagine the level of undivided attention you get at this time 3- even if its not rescheduled, most likely the person is doing 2 or 3 different things while talking to you 4- you can't leave much of an impression over the phoneAt least via e-mail they can take their time replying to you at their convenience and give your questions serious thought instead of trying to get off the phone because they just remembered something that needs to be dealt with before the next call they'll be on.
I've networked with everyone from IB Analysts at my BB to the global head of a wing of the IB. One of the analyst rescheduled our phone appointment 7 times. The global head rescheduled 3 times but still needed to excuse himself here and there for a phone call, email, or someone stopping by to ask a quick question. If that was a phone convo, you'd prob just be put on mute, while you're telling him about when you had the revelation that finance was your true calling, he's talking to someone else who actually has his attention because they are physically standing in front of him.
With your point there. Yes, everything you are saying is true: those still in IBD and even PE are often busy and have to reschedule, but from my experience, letting them know you've got no misconceptions about how busy they are helps alot too: if you tell them that you know they are busy and changes happen, it takes the embarrassment out for them. I had another contact who ended up helping me alot more because I kept following up, even if he wouldn't get back to me for weeks. He didn't find it annoying because he knew he had set up a phone call before, and when we talked, I think he was willing to help alot more because 1. He saw I was persistent, and since bankers use proxies for character/attitude all the time, imagined I wanted IBD badly, and 2. perhaps some might feel they can easily make it up to you by getting you in touch with their closer contacts.
Again, this is in no way hard-ground fact, just opinion from my experiences.
hey elan, congrats. considering some of the questions you've asked that i felt demonstrated a real interest in banking or PE, i was actually surprised to find out that you were in the back office. anyway, this is great news. how did you find your new position, and with what type of firm is it? what did they hire you as?
why is none of the laid-off bankers considering to go to M/B/B likes in their corporate finance practice for 2yrs and rejoin IBD later...
why do these laid off people still have the focus on ibd jobs in this market?
They all willing to move to no name boutiques, 2nd, 3rd, 4th tier banks...
Is consulting that bad in their opinion?
A lot of questions/discussions from this forum actually helped me a lot during interviews and networking. It definitely gives you a more sophisticated way of looking at things to get input from ppl who are actually in IB doing deals etc... even if they're 1st and 2nd year analysts.
Yeah, it was a pretty brutal process. I was basically just trying every avenue possible. This opportunity came from one of the many off the wall maneuvers. I got a list of about 2500 financial service firms and narrowed them down to about 200-300 companies I would want to work for and contacted them one by one whether they were hiring or not. After several interviews and meeting a bunch of people at the firm they extended me an offer. They hired me as an analyst, they're one of the "not big on titles" places and don't have a formal analyst-assoc-VP program but everyone at the first is very well accomplished and they have all been there for a while, which I take as a good sign... especially with the turnover in this field.
I'm def excited to finally weasel my way in and to see all my hard work and the abuse I underwent pay off. I guess that entitles me to even more hard work and abuse. :)
Thanks to all the ppl on WSO who really helped along the way esp Dosk, GameTheory and Numi. I was actually very successful in negotiating everything I wanted in my contract/offer with the help of some of the members on WSO.
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