Still can't find a job...become a financial advisor?

I think ops would be a better path rather than an FA

You may want to work with an FA doing basic research / money manager due diligence etc...That way you can get more focused and maybe pick up a skill that could lead to non-sales im jobs.

Definitely don’t be like your friends, not doing anything for a year is a very bad idea.

First, it depends on your financial situation. Can you live a normal life for the next year if you don’t have a job or have a low paying job? If yes, then this opens more options for you such as looking for unpaid internships.

I would not recommend working for a financial advisor unless you deal with high net worth individuals (and also the kind of work you’ll be doing, this is key). I don’t know where you live, but in Canada I’ve seen financial advisor gigs all over the place and most require only high school completion and CSC license (equivalent to Series 7 in USA I think). It is definitely not worth it after you spent years studying in university.

Seeing how you want to be in Finance, typical Financial Advisory job is NOT finance related – it is sales, and the kind of work you’ll be doing will most likely be admin, meaning you won’t be improving your analytical skills which is essential for Finance.

Have you considered CFA? If you register now, you have 2 full months to prepare for the June exam. If you don’t have a job or any other priorities and can force yourself to put in 8 hours a day into studying, you should be able to pass the first level.

Financial advisors are lowest of the low. Maybe if you work at a respected brokerage house say Merrill/GS/MS then it would be alright as a starting point. Honestly i would shoot for ops at this point then go on an MBA track.

lol, yes I know how much Financial Advising truly sucks. I figured since I wasn't hearing back from anyone I might as well start applying there. I've applied to ops at some places, but have yet to hear anything back. Are there any places in particular I should shoot for?

As for my financial situation, my mother has told me I'm free to live at home until I find something. She's not kicking me out, but I've got a pile of loans I have to start paying off. Therefore I'm going to need a little bit of money coming in sooner or later.

Are ops at banks even hiring? lol? Not from what Ive seen. I love how everyone here acts like boutiques and ops are still hiring. Things are absolutely brutal out there right now. Depending on your location and pedigree you could have a near impossible job finding any finance related job. I hate to sound doom and gloom but thats simply the reality of the situation.

I disagree with all of the comments except trades. At this point things are so bad that you should consider every opp out there. A FA gig is a very difficult lifestyle as you try to build a book and make contacts in your area. However, if you really are willing to pound the pavement you can make decent money. The turnover rate at these places is extremely high but something is better than nothing under current conditions.

trade4size and junkbondswap,

That's what I'm thinking. I'm still not hearing back from places, and even if ops at banks were hiring, I'm sure I wouldn't be the first one called in for an interview (just being honest with myself here). I'm willing to take anything I can get, but still... can't seem to find anything, lol. That's why I was wondering about being an FA for a little. Regardless of how much it sucks, it would be better than me sitting on my ass all day doing nothing.

One thing you need to think about when graduating right now is that its ok to not have a job right away (or for 6 months). Don't just take something/anything that comes along in order to have a paycheck. Remember, the job you take goes on your resume and you are branding yourself so if you take a piece of shit job then yes you can deflect it later by saying the economy sucked but there will be people out there that come through this time without shitty jobs on their resume so you will be competing with them.

Well I am in my sociology class atm and according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs you need to cover your physiological and safety needs life house, food, and college debt payments before moving on to self-actualization and esteem. So pretty much get any job you can take that's going to pay the bills. So if it has to come to becoming an FA then do it.

I second stk123. The retail/pwm side is defenitely not as "glamorous" as the institutional one. If you succeed in this business, you will probably find out that its the most rewarding in terms of finances/time/energy spent. You become your own boss, set your own schedules and do what you like...it really isnt as bad as some people think.

When you put it that way, yes becoming an FA doesn't seem too terrible, but the majority of the job is sales and that's just not for me. Right now I'm just looking at any jobs that are still recruiting that I may have a chance at and financial advisor is one of them. I'd much rather find something else but the options simply are not there.

It's awful to think that this time last year I was thinking (obviously unrealistically): decent job -> top MBA -> Profit. Now it's more like: Applebees -> Mom's Basement -> suicide

Why not do something cool like volunteer for a year? I'm not sure when the TFA deadline is, but something like that or peacecorps is interesting and looks good on a resume.

TFA passed, I looked into it. Peace Corps is intense, but it might be one of my only choices!

I may only speak for GS but having taken GS MO over UBS IBD and having 2 peers in GS Ops, I can say that GS Ops really gets a horrible reputation on here. Past 2 alums, one went to HBS and the other went to front office. Working in asset/wealth management is nice too and there are many different types of jobs besides IBD/Trading and ITE I'd rather not do either (working hard stressful hours for little/no bonuses).

Front office isn't to die for anymore, and I sure wouldn't take Citi/UBS for a well-paying and safe 2 year job and then a top MBA. Furthermore, most of these jobs already finished hiring (with Citi/UBS trying desperately to fill their backoffice roles).

I took a year off after college and worked for free at my high school helping in math and economics classes. Then applied for jobs the following year.

How'd that work out for you?

Look up finance related jobs on craigslist, monster, monstertrak etc. Your school careers services should be able to help you too. Remember, most of us looking for entry level jobs are not going to get into IBD. If you are still interested in doing something finance related, consider working as a financial analyst at any other strong company, maybe a tech company. Or, if you are inclined towards trading, maybe you could apply to some of the smaller prop trading firms.

I personally wouldn't want to work as a financial adviser, only because the recruiters I've met for companies like Northwestern Mutual come off as slimy liars. Anyway, just make sure you find something to do.

You need to be realistic and figure out what works for you. The fact of the matter is that your experience is not salable, that's why you don't have a job. Now, either you can hope and pray that you get lucky or do something to change your luck besides sending out resumes. I have about 18 months of experience, IB and HF, and I've been looking for a job for almost 3 months now with little headway. It's really bad out there so my advice would be to take what you can get.

Yeah I totally agree, this is no time to be picky. I'd be more than willing to take what I can get. The thing is, it seems I cannot get anything. I've tried 2 smaller prop trading firms, denied an interview at both, and larger companies, also denied. This is why I'm sort of looking at the bottom of the barrel. I'm just hoping to get something... I have C students in my class talking about landing jobs with Financial Advisors, and I'm there with better grades, and internship experience (although shitty experience), with no job.

Sorry for being a downer here, but people need to start realizing that taking what you can get does not mean:

-going MM instead of BB; or -operations instead of FO; or -small startup bank/fund/consulting firm etc.

Taking what you can get literally means just that, e.g.:

-finance/accounting dude in a fortune 5000 company (if your lucky) -bookkeeper for some small shitty accounting firm -secretary for some douche -janitor

It really is bad and will probably get worse. The unemployment rate is at 8.1% and economists are expecting up to 10%, and you have to remember that this is a very arbitrary statistic that the government adjusts for its own agenda. The real un(der)employment rate is creeping up to 20%.

Those who have landed positions in banking should feel extremely lucky and stop complaining about bonuses being so small.

Unfortunately, this sounds like the correct response, minus the janitor...hopefully, lol. But do I screw myself by taking a crappy job like bookkeeper? How can someone make the jump from these crappy jobs to something a little better? I was looking at Razume, for resume's of people with similar qualities to mine, and let's just say, I don't still want to be searching for that job that's going to make me $35-40k 4 years out of school...

^ Well spoken (or should I say written). I consider myself very lucky. Some of my peers who are just as experienced and have good GPA's got nothing or had to go with crappy IT consulting when their majors are finance.

I graduated engineering (top 5), went into FA for six months then got a job at regional boutique IB, where i've been working at for the past 3+ years. I was hired because of my degree and because I interview well. They didn't even look at the FA stuff.

FA is a sales job and it's not for the faint of heart. You will develop sales skills, which is a valuable skill set to have. More valuable then modeling with excel or making pitch books. If you're bad at sales or don't want to do sales, then my advice is to not do i-banking as a career, or anything FO for that matter.

Working (any job) not only pays you money but also gives you perspective on life. A lot more so then say.. sitting around and imagining how things work in the real world. The real world is not as rosy as most people think it is. Personally, i think gaining perspective is more important than how your resume looks.

Maybe you could do FA just to get sponsorship for your Series 7/63/66 or other related exams.

Once you're licensed, you can take that whereever you go. (At least I think that's how it works...maybe someone else knows more than I do.)

My advice to you would be: take a month or so and throw everything at your job search to see what sticks, and when I say everything, I mean everything. Get in touch with Alumni, friends, relatives, send your resume to everyone you know. Apply for jobs on Monster, Careerbuilder, efinancialcareers.com, Doostang. Send emails/cold call firms in your region. If none of this works out, then you're gonna have to take the FA position.

I've had some friends go straight from school to retail financial advising and none stayed longer than 1-2 years. Particularly right now, people are more scared/paranoid/outraged than normal and will be hard pressed to give hard earned money to a 22 year old. Can be a great career if you've done something else finance-related to gain some credibility, then make the move in. Coming in pimple-faced just seems like asking for failure. Alternatively, if you're really interested for the long-haul, being an assistant or "analyst" to high-net worth PWM is an option that you can likely build off. Scour your alumni database.

If you find there is just nothing out there and you don't want to all-together waste your first year(s) out of undergrad, I came across this interesting new program from Duke Fuqua:

www.fuqua.duke.edu/programs/other_programs/mms_foundations_of_business/

Things have turned out well, but I would've been very interested in something like this coming out of ug. Obviously they have no track record of what you can actually go on to do from it, but worth looking into. Would also look into 1 year finance masters programs. While costly, this add'l education could only be more helpful in the end as you'll at the least solidify the academic knowledge and give yourself 1 more year to network/search/educate yourself.

A couple of people mentioned grabbing any finance related job for now and holding onto it until the next recruiting cycle. How would employers look at this when comparing you to graduating seniors?

I was thinking that the program at Fuqua would actually be my best bet, but once again I think they're looking for people out of my league. Especially since its their first year, I'm guessing they want very high caliber students, and I'm just not that stellar.

This article has some good insight on which industries are still hiring during the recession and which industries are not (http://www.gottamentor.com/viewMyLink.aspx?l=211). It may help to guide your search (or at least make you feel less bad when you see how much hiring in certain industries is down!)

So I've also been offered a position as a credit manager at a local bank. Obviously not the greatest job and salesy. Good or bad idea to take the position? I've decided I'll start studying for the CFA level I test while working. I just hope I'll be able to make the transition from crappy job and slowly move up.

I figured by working towards the CFA charter people would see I'm competent for a job in Finance. My real goal is a top MBA. I've been studying for the GMAT for a month and I'm currently scoring in the high 600's. I just am lacking any decent job opportunities for good work experience.

Does the bank you'd be "credit manager" for (what exactly is that, btw?) have an IB or AM branch you could network your way into?

The CFA isn't really about showing people you're competent enough to hold a job in finance. Finance-related work experience (even as a credit manager) and a top MBA program would be more than enough.

Honestly, though, a job's a job, and if you're diligent in your networking, it will pay off in the end.

Best of luck!

:-)

I was really hesitant in posting the following but I have decided to because it may be inspiration to others to continue to reach for their dreams.

I went from respectable T25 state school with crappy grades to no name university where I graduated. I really wanted to go back to trading desk and become an execution trader for the desk where I summered but I didnt get an offer.

Trading is my passion, I don't care what people say about you cant be passionate about finance I love the market its my drug. Since I was 17 I have wanted to do one thing only and that's trade. I interviewed at a couple top prop shops and a couple shady day trading shops. I received no offers. I live in the middle of nowhere... literally there are nothing but farms and fields.

I recently applied to bank of America as a collections agent (didn't want the job but a job > no job) and was dinged at the final round. I was relieved because i didn't want to work there but at the same time felt horrible because i couldn't even get a collections job. I have applied to over 100 jobs online and received zero interviews.

I was beginning to run out of options until a couple weeks ago when I told a friend that runs a small hedge fund my story asking for advice. He agreed to back me. I trade in a sub account for his hedge fund. I am getting my chance to prove myself. As he said to me "now the ball is in your court to make it work" That is my story, my journey.

The moral of the story is there are going to be many major setbacks in life. I get on average about 3PMs a week with questions on trading from people in similar situations. I always feel bad because I know they are simply looking for someone that can point them in the right direction or perhaps provide the lucky break that they need. Unfortunately I can't do that. Its tough out there and the best advice I can give is to continue looking for the best possible job and to stay positive. If it is truly meant to be something will work out.

Top financial advisors have the life. The one I worked for was making 750k=1 million a year in one of the cheapest cities to live in. He did whatever he wanted and probably worked less than 40 hours a week.

trade4size,

Awesome post. Thanks a lot, it really gives me hope. I feel like such a waste and piece of crap right now, and I'm just hoping stuff shapes up!

Pathus21,

I agree the top advisors do. I just don't have the personality to become a top advisor, and I'm well aware of it. My bosses were in their mid-20's driving luxury cars. I also watched they way they worked, and I just didn't have the same skills they had.

trade4size, you seem like a very admirable guy. I bet the hardship made the eventual HF job extra sweet.

I dont want to mislead anyone. I am a prop trader that's backed by a small hedge fund. For now just day and swing trading until I build up a pnl that lets me take on more size.

Check this out (http://www.gottamentor.com/viewAdvice.aspx?a=342). It has some very relevant advice for those who haven't yet secured summer internships about pursuing non-traditional paths. In short, the advice would suggest that you go for it and pursue becoming a financial adviser.

Well I definitely will not be taking the credit manager position, so back to the drawing board...

Just thought this was a funny little kick in the nutsack that I could add to this thread. I figured out what my GPA will be on graduation day; .003 from picking up my grades to honors.

I'm still all ears for any recommendations in my job search.

Thanks guys.

Join the Army!!!

Good to know you landed on your feet my friend. Much respect and congrats. That's great stuff. Keep it up and you'll be on the floor at DE Shaw or Citadel in no time, haha. Best of luck.

MessedUp:

Like the post below me, I'll be graduating shortly, and i'm jobless. Just another minority trying to put food on the table. I'm an econ major with an average GPA. I have friends who graduated last year still sitting around not doing anything, and I can't let that happen to me. I also want decent work experience, so that I can hopefully get a good MBA and go from there. Is my best bet to go for a financial advising gig since I'm not hearing back from anything else? Ultimately I'd like to work in finance, but I just don't have the skills to land a decent job out of school. I'm running low on options for experience, so i'm all ears. Thanks.

A career as an FA is not only a great option right out of college but it can also be lucrative and rewarding. There is a great sense of satisfaction that comes from helping people plan for the future they want. Edward Jones offers a great opportunity for those that want to get into this field. I suggest you do some research on their website: http://jobs.edwardjones.com/ Good luck.

MessedUp:

Like the post below me, I'll be graduating shortly, and i'm jobless. Just another minority trying to put food on the table. I'm an econ major with an average GPA. I have friends who graduated last year still sitting around not doing anything, and I can't let that happen to me. I also want decent work experience, so that I can hopefully get a good MBA and go from there. Is my best bet to go for a financial advising gig since I'm not hearing back from anything else? Ultimately I'd like to work in finance, but I just don't have the skills to land a decent job out of school. I'm running low on options for experience, so i'm all ears. Thanks.

What about working at a company for a few years and then trying to leverage that experience into something finance related? Seems like a better career path to me than financial advisory, but that's just my preference.