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Graduated Rutgers (a while back)...job hunt still sucks

Joined
6/6/08
Messages
1,194
Points
58
Well...final GPA was 3.81. Hopefully that isn't garbage on the MS scale (some say A is average, B is bad, C is catastrophic, got all As except for one B+ and one B)

Anyhow, between then and now, I passed 2 Google phone screens, had the onsite invitation, then they missed 2Q earnings and canned my onsite, which sucked massively. Trying to network like crazy, looking outside the financial industry, still no dice whatsoever.

And now, I'm getting frightened of employers asking "So what've you been doing the past X months", and considering that all the jobs I come across say

"Requires 1+ years of experience" (read: GET MENTORED SOMEWHERE ELSE, @SS#0LE!), where exactly is someone supposed to get their foot in the door at this time?

Anyone know anyone who's hiring at this time?
 
Pray? To the nonexistent god I don't believe in?

Anyhow, yes, at the moment, I have a roof over my head. But considering I'm a guy with 2 quantitative degrees unable to find work being supported by a piano teaching mother, it makes me feel like my existence is no more than pointless.
 
You could consider taking actuarial exams. Sure its not as exciting as wall street, but its good money and easy to find a job, and you have a big comparative advantage at taking them.
 
Been there, done that, left said profession because it's got nothing to do with the exams at all. Otherwise I never would have left it in the first place.
 
I find it really hard to believe that you did well and still can't find a job. i think you need much better career guidance. Rutgers does post good numbers for jobs. i don't get it ? get in touch with some of your old classmates. A MFE from Rutgers is quite good.
 
stop looking for a dream job. just get anything. I was looking for a job when the job market was crap. ended up working in private equity industry as a financial modeler :)) (which for some would be a dream job :) )
did that for 2 years, while reading papers/books on q. finance on the side, then came back and got 2 offers within a month time.

just get any job for god's sake.
 
I find it really hard to believe that you did well and still can't find a job. i think you need much better career guidance. Rutgers does post good numbers for jobs. i don't get it ? get in touch with some of your old classmates. A MFE from Rutgers is quite good.

Don't have the MFE. Have the MS Stats, which actually has quite a bit of overlap with the MFE.

ThinkDifferent--trust me, I'm not looking for the dream job. I'm looking for a job that gets me quantitative/trading/analytical/modeling experience. Trust me, if I would have had a good offer by now, I would have jumped on it.
 
why don't you try to get a job while you keep looking for a job that gets you "quantitative/trading/analytical/modeling experience" (not your dream job)?

I think I have written similar responses to your posts in the past.
 
Apply to the 1 year + experience jobs. 1 year of experience is not actually a significant amount and they are looking for someone green that they can shape anyway. I don't see why you wouldn't. Don't reject yourself - let them reject you, so to say.
 
I would go with what Alain said.

Haven't you previously rejected job offers? I remember you saying previously you rejected a trader assistant job because it paid only 40K+ a year?

I would take whatever came my way and try to work from there if I was in your case.
 
Is it that difficult to find a junior quant job in NY? that's discouraging. $40k with two masters degree? But I would seriously consider not taking $40k job because the next employer will look at how much you were willing to work for and wouldn't offer a big jump.
 
I think how difficult to find the job in NY you can see right away from for how long you can receive unemployment benefits. Do not know for other states but in NY now it is 99 weeks...
 
I would advise to take the $40k job. A friend of mine took a sub-40k job right out of college. A few months later, at the next evaluation date, his compensation package was "re-evaluated" to a much higher number based on his contributions.
 
The $40k job gave me one week to consider, so I had to reject it, more or less. I thought I could do better, and so far, nearly did, but nearly doesn't quite cut it. The terms were that I'd be paid $42k a year with no benefits (so if I got sick, oops too bad) on 80 hour workweeks for the first two years, and then if they liked me afterwards, would allow me to take part in the company profit-sharing.

It was a sports betting shop in Freehold, NJ. Many people I asked at that time (mid-Spring) said things such as "In what country?!" to "They abolished slavery in 1865!"

So yeah. I'll continue to apply. But yeah, one master's degree (in statistics), and my main programming language is R and it seems that if you're not a C++/Java expert, you're toast. I can code in C++ and know the concepts and all, but it doesn't cut it when they can hire someone out of Stanford with a PhD.

I'm wondering where the firms are that would actually be willing to mentor someone. We don't come out of school as experts of the whole universe.
 
Have you considered starting off in an MO role and working your way into a role you want?
 
It seems like you think any job is not good enough for you. And also, quit comparing yourself to stanford PhDs and what not, and start proving your skills when you get an interview. I've met some people working in Wall Street for big firms (BarCap, BearStearns, Lehman) that got there with a master's degree from unkown universities. It you start believing in your capacities, you'll get there.
 
If C++/java expertise is important, why not try to contribute to an open source project in one of those language? That is another way to gain experience.
 
I remember my leadership professor said something along the lines of...

"You'll be prostitutes--but you'll be sophisticated prostitutes."

Apparently this girl is taking it too literally.
 
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