Ok, I've been searching for a job for over 2 months now and no luck

[UNCjigga]

I'm starting to get frustrated. I live in the city with the nation's second largest financial services market (second only to NYC) and yet I STILL can't get a frickin entry-level financial analyst job!! Everyone out there is looking for 2+ years of experience in the industry, and all I've got is a cumulative total of 4 months experience (but I have four years of experience in the IT industry--don't even want a job there!) What the hell is going on? Sure, I graduated with a lame GPA but I did double-major and I did graduate from a top-25 school and I DID WORK ALL FOUR YEARS TO SUPPORT MYSELF!!!

My friends who aren't startin' grad school have already left for ATL, NYC or SFO to start their lucrative careers. My other college friends have been out enjoying their summer, before grad school starts. Yet I've been workin' on my job search from 8am to 10pm everyday. I've used MonsterTRAK, JobsDirect, WSJ's Career Center, local newspapers and recruiting agencies. I've gone to trade shows, networking seminars, career fairs and major metro cities looking for a job (DC, Philly, Atlanta.) I even made 3 rounds at a top M&A boutique until they hired a damned out-of-work dot-com-dropout MBA for what was supposed to be an entry-level position!!! Should I be blaming the economy or should I only be blaming myself? Maybe if I had realized earlier that I didn't really like computer science, physics and discrete math, I wouldn't have screwed my GPA all to hell.

My advice to those of you in college right now...if the job market continues like this don't even THINK about graduating with a sub-3.0 GPA. Take a semester off or switch your major to English or Philosophy if that's what it takes to boost your grades. Recruiters don't care about majors anymore, they just care about GPAs.

 

[Colt45]

whats a GPA?

 

[RaoulDuke]

it sounds like you are contradicting what you said.

"Everyone out there is looking for 2+ years of experience..."

"if the job market continues like this don't even THINK about graduating with a sub-3.0 GPA"

???? I don't know what to say man, keep looking, maybe move? i dunno, get to know people in the industry, ask profs, whatever it takes

 

[loup garou]

You know what's ironic? As I was reading your thread, the ad at the bottom of the page was titled: &quot;Looking for an entry-level <something I forgot> job?&quot; Maybe you should click on it.

In all seriousness, I guess all you can do is keep trying. Try to get one of your friends with the now-lucrative jobs to hook you up with an HR person in their firm or something. Good luck, my gf is going through the same thing right now (although she's looking for parts in shows in NY, not finance jobs).

 

[UNCjigga]

RaoulDuke, sorry for the confusion. Basically, if you graduated with a GPA above 3.0, you wouldn't even have to be looking for jobs right now. You would have probably found a job between the September-December recruiting phase at school. If you have a subpar GPA, recruiters will never even see your resume because it will be filtered out (there are literally thousands of applicants and only a few positions.) So if you miss the September-December recruiting phase (I didn't get any offers back then) you have to resort to finding a job without the university's help. That's where I'm stuck right now. Most companies don't hire college grads immediately after graduation--they would rather be hiring interns for the summer while candidates they chose during the university recruiting phase are expected to start work in July or August.

 

[UNCjigga]

Isn't it funny that the first three peeps to reply to my job-huntin thread had the pot-smokin' hippie avatar? I'm surprised none of you suggested to just 'stay in school' or 'join the Peace Corps'.

 

[UNCjigga]

Muffin, I double majored in Econ and Poli Sci!!! Of course, by the time I switched my GPA was already a 2.2. My poli major gpa was a 3.0 and my econ major gpa was a 2.7, but my overall never made it past 2.5!!

 

[holden j caufield]

all I can say is good luck. hope things turn around for you. you know an IT job isn't bad since ATOT makes the day go by sooo much faster good luck

 

[UNCjigga]

uncJIGGA went to unc-Chapel Hill.

 

[The Stigenator]

try dice.com for jobs.

oh by the way.. thanks for the GPA advice.. time to jump on my GPA>

 

[AaronP]

dude, until you get your CFA, you will be butkis in the world of financial analysts. CFA is one tough mother fu*ka to get too.

 

[UNCjigga]

AaronP, I wasn't planning on earning a CFA straight after graduation! I'm not even sure if I really want one...after 3 years of work I'll decide whether to get my CFA or go to business school. I don't care bout being butkis--I just want an entry-level job where they'll give me a few weeks of training at least!