Can't land job in trading
It has been a while since i am trying to get a job in trading, but I can't get through.
I am a finance student with high GPA from a non-target University.
Banks don't even call me because of my non-target University (I am pretty convinced of that since they prefer to hire biology or philosophy graduates from top universities...)
Hedge Funds don't call me because I don't have experience in banks.
Prop shops are the only one that give me a chance, but they hire mainly math students and base their selection process in way to hire very quantitative people, which I am not since I come from finance and so I have trouble in doing well final rounds.
What should I do? I am starting to feel like I will never make it.
Banks- apply to middle and back office roles. They won’t care as much about your educational background. Network into trading later.
Or go do a masters in finance at a well known place, use on campus recruiting there.
Or learn math and programming. Compete on skill alone at prop shops.
I’ve had the luck of getting a few offers this season, but keep applying and networking. Oddly enough, the places I got offers at just stumbled upon me as opposed to places I networked for.
Really random sometimes. Networking usually just gets you an interview... which a blind web application can also do.
Trading what?
I can almost guarantee you can get a trading job tomorrow given the little you have posted.
Your issue is WHAT trading job you want. I can think of five or ten open slots right now looking for college grads.
First one I pulled up is $90k to $110k a year.
Maybe your looking in the wrong place?
I'm talking about Derivatives trading.
where do you find these trading jobs?
What do you mean? I go on the careers page of banks and funds.
Are you networking your a$$ off? Are you part of your schools investment fund? To your point regarding major, don't be bitter since people will sense it and to put it bluntly a finance major is not relevant to trading on any level quant or not.
How can I do networking? My school has no investment fund and no good companies come there recruiting.
I have tried to network very hardly on LinkedIn but it didn't help much. Maybe I am doing it in the wrong way. What's the best way to network online? (Since I have no way to do that in person)
That's some tough luck regarding school investment fund since most schools have them at this point. If you are a high gpa student my guess is you could get with a faculty member and try to get one started. If you are a senior you've started the process too late for trading at a bank but maybe you can get in a small shop like a mutual fund doing research and move from there. Similarly jobs at govt organizations like Federal Reserve/Fannie/Freddie have capital markets/trading jobs and a lot of those folks are high gpa that attended non-target.\
Regarding linkedin I had alumni that did trading but I was keen on commodity trading so I do feel you regarding who to reach out to. I had to do some cold-linkedin messages. Just gotta be persistent, below is my format for it. I had pretty good success with non-alumni and ended up getting some interviews as a result.
"Hi FIRST NAME OF PERSON REACHING OUT TO, I am a FRESH/SOPH/JUNIOR/SENIOR AREA OF STUDY major at SCHOOL. I am trying to learn more about the AREA THEY ARE WORKING IN space, and I was wondering if I could speak with you about your time in the industry?
Deleteeeee
Pariatur eaque aut quia molestiae aliquid nihil laborum occaecati. Praesentium nemo maxime nemo dolore dolor voluptas ex.
Nemo molestias modi porro et. Dolorem sunt animi doloribus possimus aut suscipit sit. Impedit tempora possimus vel et tempora mollitia minus. Illum et non est ad.
Temporibus voluptas nisi totam. Pariatur ratione hic quis distinctio quasi ut. Et quae minima qui nobis ab et inventore dolor. Sunt iste qui quam dolor quam ut non.
Nesciunt ipsam tempora eius quo recusandae impedit impedit. In ut eos sequi repellendus explicabo quas sed eveniet. Rerum natus sed ea et debitis quis harum nostrum.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...