Understanding the Labor Market
As many on this forum, I am struggling to get traction in the job search. Today's jobs reading was abysmal, and we saw even more revisions from past months. I continue to see economists / talking heads mentioning it is getting more challenging to find new roles. Is this true even in Finance, where the past 1-2 years have been so tepid.
Rates will be a huge deciding factor but are we really still going in the wrong direction? It has been so frustrating for me and many others trying to hold onto optimistic hope for a turnaround.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, the current labor market is indeed challenging, and this extends to the finance sector as well. Here are some key points to consider:
Labor Market Trends: The hot labor market is showing signs of cooling down. Increasing unemployment, initial claims, and sustained claims, along with plunging consumer sentiment, indicate cracks in the labor market. Employers are scaling back job postings and new hires due to fears of a pending recession or uncertain future operating environments (End to a Rough Quarter | The Daily Peel | 6/30/22).
Finance Job Market: The finance job market has been particularly tough. For instance, the post-MBA finance job market has been weak, with limited hiring outside of banking. Many graduates aiming for roles in investment management, private equity, hedge funds, and asset management are still struggling to find opportunities (The weak post-MBA finance job market | Wall Street Oasis).
Economic Factors: Inflation and economic uncertainty have impacted salaries and job availability in finance. Real salaries have declined significantly over the last 10-20 years due to inflation not keeping pace with nominal salary increases (Has finance culture become less “bougie”? | Wall Street Oasis).
Recession Fears: The fear of a recession is real, and it affects hiring practices. A bad economy leads to worse deal flow, making it harder to secure return offers and increasing competition for available roles (Anyone here terrified of a recession? | Wall Street Oasis).
Historical Context: During past economic downturns, such as the Great Financial Crisis, opportunities in finance became scarce, and competition for roles intensified. This historical context suggests that the current challenges may persist for some time (How to deal with a recession career-wise? A few lessons learned during the previous GFC | Wall Street Oasis).
In summary, the finance job market is indeed facing significant challenges, and the direction does seem to be concerning. It's important to stay informed and adaptable in these uncertain times.
Sources: How to deal with a recession career-wise? A few lessons learned during the previous GFC, Has finance culture become less “bougie”?, The weak post-MBA finance job market, Anyone else fed up with the banking/finance industy?, End to a Rough Quarter | The Daily Peel | 6/30/22
It's been super frustrating. Majority of people I've been networking with understand the brutal job market and aren't judging me for still searching 5-6 months post MBA. Have a few leads right now and a few for early January hiring. Even spoke with a MBA grad from my school who graduated during the GFC and recently had a ~9 month unemployment gap before getting his new role. He understood the frustration I had but did say there are definitely solid opportunities out there, unfortunately a lot of laid off employees are also qualified for these jobs. There's just too many applicants for each job opening nowadays. With rate cuts, all we can hope is companies have a stronger hiring appetite next year (and anecdotally, a few companies I'm networking with are hiring a lot more aggressively in Q1 vs. Q3 / Q4 of '24).
Also quietly, I'm losing a lot of hope and feel like my MBA degree was a waste despite occasionally getting desirable job interviews. Feeling really burnt out and am looking forward to taking time off for the holidays from recruiting.
Bump
Also graduated from an m7 MBA this year and job search was brutal. Only had 2 interviews from March - October off 200+ applications. And thats with 5 years solid experience at a BB. I still have quite a few classmates looking for a job, and others that just settled with what they could get.
Not sure what changed but had like 5 interviews in October alone, so maybe things are getting better. Curious to see if others are seeing improvements.
Interesting. Yeah, had 8 interviews since graduating (11 since March). Struck out at a dream off-campus opportunity right around graduation and haven't had many comparable interview processes. Majority of other processes are for 'boring' jobs with decent pay.
Hoping that Q1 job openings are far more exciting / interesting with budgets being set.
Good luck with everything!
In terms of now, I got an interview next week for the highest paying job I've interviewed at since striking out for on-campus processes. Things look like they're looking up. Have also been networking a lot with seed startups that are looking to grow. Just trying to find an opportunity where I can grow professionally more so than just a paycheck.
Late bump but curious, did you end up landing one of those October roles?
Hey, yea i ultimately ended up getting an offer. Although not necessarily a role that I was really excited about. Kind of just took what I could get and will recruit again in a year. Just needed some stability and to get my confidence back.
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