Should I Take a Back Office Position?
Hi all,
I'm a recent graduate who hasn't found a job yet and found out through a friend about a back office position at a well known bank (not a BB though) that is looking for a non-permanent hire. Since I do not have a job at the moment, it seems obvious that I should take it, but since positions really start opening up around September/October in corporate finance (corporate finance, not i-banking necessarily, is really where I want to be), I was thinking about using the time until then to study for the GMAT and network while I wait till the hiring season begins again.
My question is, is it worth taking up this back office position or could it be wiser to wait a while and hope for something better? Here's the pros and cons of taking the job as I see it (again, keep in mind I'm mostly looking at corporate finance and not so much i-banking):
Pros of taking the job:
-Fills out my resume and gives me something somewhat finance-related to do in the meantime
-Pay isn't great, but it's well above minimum wage and I'd be living at home so I'd be able to bank away a good portion of it
-Gives me a F100 name on the resume, even if it isn't doing high-level/valuable work
-Gets me out of the house and interacting with people instead of rotting at home studying for the GMAT all day everyday (much needed for my sanity!)
Cons:
-Takes away from gmat preparation time. I am currently planning to take the GMAT in Sept and then apply for masters in accounting programs for the 2013-2014 year and this would get in the way of my preparation.
-Won't really learn skills needed for the roles I really want aside from manipulating data in Excel
I'm leaning toward going for this position, especially since the pros outnumber the cons, but I am still debating this because of how it could affect my GMAT performance (this is huge because then I'd only have the hours after work and weekends to prepare) and since the position itself has no exit opps plus it may not be the high level work I really need to be noticed for FA roles at companies I really want to work for.
If anyone has any advice regarding this, I'd really appreciate it.
Cheers!
Would be easier to get a corporate finance job if you were employed. Then you wouldn't even need a Masters of Accounting.
Well wouldn't I still need to get an MBA or something at some point as well? So the gmat preparation is still important to some extent (although it's obviously less important at this point if I'd only go for an MBA). The thing is, this isn't a permanent position (it's limited duration) and it's pretty basic stuff, so would it still help for corporate finance jobs? I can never figure out how corporate finance hiring works because it seems to be really regional (unless you go to a target school with a business program) and it's less structured than banking, so it's unclear as to what they are looking for in candidates, which is why I'm asking all these questions.
The Corp Fin hiring process isn't very difficult, you would just need to network. From my experience there is a ton of turnover, I get emails and calls from friends and posts from recruiting sites all the time for corp fin analyst style roles.
You don't need an MBA for any of that and the firm would likely pay for you to get one later on if it is a big enough firm.
This is all very true.
There is also always a possibility of the temporary role turning into a full-time role, even if they're not saying that right now. We (F500) have hired a few of our temps to be FAs over the past few years. We probably don't hire 80% of them and we don't usually intend to hire them full-time, but it is possible to stand out as a temp worker. Ultimately, if you're really good they'll want to keep you around, if possible.
It' sounds corny, but we legit have a finance VP who started in the mail room.
Thanks a lot for all the help so far. Perhaps I should really consider this position then. However, I was wondering if anyone has tips for networking into legit financial analyst positions at decent (doesn't just have to be Fortune 100 companies) firms because I seem to be having absolutely no luck at all, even though I have competitive stats. Part of the problem is that I'm from a smaller city on the west coast (I can reveal more info via PM, but I don't want to disclose too many details in public) and there are few opportunities in my region, but even when I apply to places online, I don't even get an interview. Additionally, I've set up informational interviews, reached out to various people, etc. for the few firms that are in my region, but it still ends up going nowhere. Are there websites in particular that are good for finding corporate finance positions?
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