What does it take? - Advice/suggestions?

I am so frustrated with this job search. I don't know what it has to take in order to land a job with my qualification. I see so many ppl who barely have a bach. get jobs and its really depressing. I see a lot of experienced ppl here, so I was hoping to get some advice/suggestions about what I am doing wrong here.

I have a bach. in finance and then completing my MS Accounting and a level 2 candidate. I am trying to get into research (willing to try out either equity or fixed-income). And location is not a preference. Anywhere, as long as I get the experience. I have couple of internships (one as fixed-income analyst) and the one previous to that was in IT for a concumer bank.

I thought I would be in a good position once I get done with school, and have got thru interviews, and I thought I kicked ***, but never got offered any positions.

For those of you in the industry, what do you look for in candidates? I fail to understand HR ppl sometimes.

Your replies will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

2 Comments
 

I'm not a recruiter or anything, but I think there is a certain preoccupation in this industry with prestige. They don't care that you have a masters in accounting... they care that you either went to wharton or got a 4.0 in your finance degree.

As for juniors and seniors in college getting jobs, you have to remember that recruiting is TARGETED to take in kids at this level, particularly if they are at targets or have excelled at non-targets. Firms hire analysts by the dozens. I'm not sure how many people with master's degrees they take on, and if so, at what level.

This market doesn't hurt either. Research shouldn't really be affected as it's not really a division where big dollars can be made or lost, but there are plenty of qualified candidates who would have been shoe-ins a year ago getting rejected left and right. Many of them on this site.

 

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