eFinancialCareers

We've said it before and we'll say it again: Boutique investment banks are hiring. This past summer, opportunistic hiring among mid-market advisory firms and other niche institutions generated a spate of headlines on eFinancialCareers and elsewhere. In recent weeks the financial and economic landscape has grown considerably darker. Yet boutique firms continue to expand, defying the credit crisis that has devastated larger institutions and plunged the U.S. and Europe into recession.... Read more

While attending job fairs and career expos, I have heard numerous speakers, career coaches, headhunters and other experts advise job candidates consistently to customize their resumes, cover letters, follow-up letters and pretty much everything else, for each particular job opportunity. This is excellent advice if you’re sending out two or three resumes a week. Most job seekers, however, are trying for a bit more coverage than that. To customize each document... Read more

All the interviews that I had recently seemed to be implicitly composed of two components – a "skills and experience" component and a "soft skills" component. A misstep in either area can cost you the job. According to author Vicky Oliver, the goal of these behavioral interviews is to give the interviewer the opportunity to assess your problem-solving skills, people skills and closure skills. Skills and Experience Component If you have done... Read more

As the marketing manager of my own job search, the more I go out networking and promoting myself, the more I realize that my profile positioning is at the core of everything that I do. How do I improve my product positioning - one of the four "P's" in my marketing mix? How do I improve the way I am perceived by prospective employers and by people I network with? What... Read more

As a candidate in a competitive job market, it is critical to distinguish your brand from that of your competition. I’ve known many managers and executives who cringe at the word, “marketing.” You have to get past this, and be a strong, passionate advocate for your personal brand and how it is positioned in the market. For each person you meet with, it is critical to understand what their needs... Read more

In the last couple of weeks, I've challenged myself to create more structure around my search process by developing tools to increase the odds of a positive response from prospective employers or anyone I'm networking with. It's been helpful to think about myself as if I was a marketing manager responsible for a consumer good. My tool kit resembles the "marketing mix" - or the four Ps of marketing: my... Read more

After speaking with a number of people about job search techniques, my observation is there doesn't seem to be a clear understanding of how to work with recruiters. Some traps seem easy to fall into: I have read a number of 'how to work with recruiters' articles and yet still made mistakes during this current job search. Retained Recruiters I have little first-hand knowledge in this area as I have only talked... Read more

I'm a portfolio manager recently let go by the hedge fund group at a bulge bracket investment bank in New York. Like many of my peers, I grew into the role through an apprentice process that included a lot of hard work and the luck of being in the right place at the right time. Indeed, at many points my physical location may have been the most important factor: It... Read more

Just to give some context to this column, I spent the last six years working at a major conglomerate before my job was eliminated in June. For the first four to five years, the company was insanely profitable (better margins than Goldman), but in 2007 the competitive landscape shifted. After six quarters of lagging revenues and budget cuts, the layoffs started. I've had a few people ask if I saw the... Read more

Recently, two sports stories caught my eye by showcasing opposite poles of an issue many financial services professionals grapple with every day: the perceived relationship between job performance and age. One story involves allegations that some of China's star female gymnasts overstated their ages to skirt a long-standing Olympic ban on athletes younger than 16. Toronto Globe and Mail reporter Rebecca Dube made that the jumping-off point for an article about... Read more

In my previous post, I explained why it's important to create a "Personal Career Vision" before you leap into a job search. Once you've done that, it's time to stop the daily mad rush, reflect on where you've been and where you are now, and assess where it is you want to end up. Step 1: Reflect In our lives, we face certain turning points, where we feel compelled to evaluate our... Read more

Humility helps. Haughtiness hurts. That's a message I'm hearing with increasing frequency when career experts discuss interviewing skills. "Too many people in interviews come off as a little too confident, a little bit arrogant," says one portfolio manager at an institutional asset management firm. Instead of telling an interviewer that "you should hire me because….," he reminds candidates, "in the end, the person is going to hire you because they... Read more

If you think you'll be happier in your career simply by switching companies, think again. To be successful and love your work, you'll need more than a job. Before you focus on resume writing, networking, and job hunting, you'll need what I call a "personal career vision" - a tangible blueprint of the direction you want your life to take. What's the value of this? Simple: It helps you gain a... Read more

Our topic sounds like old hat in the context of a job interview. But many tried-and-true rules of interview behavior are just as valid for other professional situations. Recently I attended a networking event where I met several new people, a few of whom worked within different wings of an organization I wished to learn more about. When I asked, one quickly launched into a description so brutally frank that it... Read more

Is it just us, or is there something fishy about Lehman’s 26 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in compensation expenses? Given the bank’s unlikely to be putting cash aside for generous 2008 bonuses, the increase announced last week is almost certainly down to redundancies. Officially, though, Lehman’s only announced cuts to 5 percent of staff in the past few months, although the bank's Q2 results show a 6.7 percent cut of... Read more

Recently we explained our philosophy of career planning and growth, which can be summed up as "active career management." Now, here are some techniques to help you maximize expected returns from the effort you put into your job search. Most of these tips below came from Ken Murray, president of Mercury Partners, a New York-based search firm focused on hedge funds and investment banks. Steer Away From the Crowd Seek out "undiscovered"... Read more

"Career path." That's a phrase often spoken by HR staffers eager to show young employees that management is meeting their need for professional growth. Does the phrase mean anything - or is it simply hot air? The question never occurred to me before I joined eFinancialCareers just over a year ago. Like many of you, perhaps, all of my career moves were driven by opportunism, more a string of chance events... Read more

Women who rise to the upper levels of business follow the same recipe for success as men as they combine vision, intellect, guts and hard work with their ability to influence others. They also add another ingredient: authenticity. That's the conclusion reached by Julie Wolf, Ph.D., managing director of RHR International, a corporate psychology firm based in Illinois. Wolf conducted in-depth interviews with some 100 female executives ranging from vice presidents... Read more

By Calvin Sun The ability to reach a prospective employer directly can be vital to your job-hunting efforts. Your prospects increase dramatically if you can talk to a person, instead of "Human Resources." What's wrong with just calling a company's main number and asking to be transferred to your desired party? Several things: First, you might be restricted to "normal business hours," usually 8:30 a.m. to 5 or 5:30 pm. That... Read more

Candidates imprisoned in the over-50 career ghetto might draw inspiration from an unusual source: the Rolling Stones. The legendary band has spawned an ocean of ink from reviewers awed by the sheer physical athleticism the 60-something performers - especially lead singer Mick Jagger - display in every live show. Although the Stones' latest tour concluded in 2007, the "ageless" theme permeates "Shine a Light," the current Martin Scorsese film based on... Read more