How to improve my approach?

Hey folks,

I graduated a year ago in econ and finance. It was very tough for me to break in the Canadian industry without experience, so I decided to take a risk.

I went to work in financial management (hospitality) at one of the locations of a multinational. The good thing where I worked at is that the tasks required to run entire departments were concentrated amongst a small number of people, plus I worked 6 days a week and was also expected to socialize with the clients after work, so my days were starting at 9am and finishing at 11pm (yes, there were no labor laws applicable to me).

My boss and I got along super well, and she really cared about me, she gave me a fuck load of responsibilities and complicated analyses to do, and she gave me the green light for any initiatives I wanted to take. I was very lucky to work with someone like her.

At some point, our sales manager was fired, so the department was transferred to finance. My boss was already busy handling our department, so she put me in charge of sales and its 7 divisions without any interference from her, while only asking me to give her a weekly report she could send to our business unit. I made structural changes in our businesses, negotiated with other departments on the behalf of my profit centers, set up statistical analyses to help their managers guide their decisions… all that while handling my own departmental responsibilities: financial reporting, treasury management, handling relationships with suppliers, making cross-departmental analyses, audits, reconciliations…

I got to do a lot of stuff for a 23 years old guy, and this is the story I am trying to sell:

1. I graduated in econ/finance from a target school, so I got the basics.

2. Two months into my first job, I was handed 7 divisions to manage by my own while attending to my full-time job. So I am capable of getting out of my comfort zone and withstanding major pressure. (Imagine, my boss went on a 3-week on a vacay, which left me managing two departments at the same time, including the crazy emergencies she had to deal with)

3. I bought and studied most of the WSO elite modeling package to ensure I would stay sharp in corporate finance. So I am not coming empty handed.

So far, I have been targeting jobs in M&A due diligence/ Valuation consulting/ Equity analysis positions for going by the following process:

1. Shoot an InMail to people (mostly alumni) working in the department I want.
2. Get a referral over a quick Teams call.
3. Apply online.

The farthest I got to was a 1st round application with HR for an accounting firm advising on mergers and acquisitions. HR said she would offer my profile to the director for him to decide if he wanted to proceed with a second interview. I received a rejection letter, despite having been referred by an alum working in the position I was applying for. I had counted on my comrade’s voice adding weight and credibility to my application.

That’s my main challenge, getting the ear of someone who actually matters in the hiring decision. Should I just ask my alum to directly send my application to their boss next time?

Obviously, there is a communication barrier. My work experience has nothing to do with valuation, which can breed skepticism as to my ability to do the job.

However:

1.The messy analyses I carried out were quite similar to what you would do when adjusting P&L/balance sheet metrics.

2.I enjoyed my finance classes in uni and actually valued options and publicly traded firms when I was bored (everybody left town in summer)

3.My former boss is more than happy to attest to my skills and achievements, but I never got that far in the interview process for the recruiters to hear her praising the shit out of me the way she did to our upper management.

So how would you advise me to proceed? I am willing to share more info in private if you feel like helping a guy get on the right path.

Thanks for your time!