April 2012
1 post
1 tag
Think Before You Post!
Social Media is a tool that a growing number of employers and recruiters are using to evaluate and make informed decisions on whether or not to hire an individual. Below is a clip of a cool infographic that looks at different areas that affect possible employment.
This infographic was put together by Charles Vesley, David Lamb, Samantha Turner and Paul Murray for Professor Steven...
December 2011
19 posts
1 tag
Evernote Hello!
Remembering people is hard. Evernote Hello makes it easy. Whether you’re meeting someone for the first time, trying to remember a person’s name, or recalling important aspects of a previous encounter, Evernote Hello is there for you.
When you meet someone new, launch Evernote Hello and give them your phone. They’ll quickly create a short profile (name, email, phone number, and...
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Sleep is Awesome!
In preparation for an interview, make sure you’re well rested. The medical community agrees that an adult needs between 6 and 8 hours of sleep each night — less than that and sleep deprivation begins to starve the brain which could negatively impact the outcome of your interview.
About a year ago, New York Times bestselling author Julien Smith and FFunction teamed up to make this cool...
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Subscribe to Job Alerts.
Are you tired of going to job boards and manually searching for jobs? Maybe you should consider signing up for job alerts. By and large job aggregators and job boards offer job alert email services that will notify you of new jobs posted that match criteria (position, geography, etc.) that you specify.
Keeping abreast of new job openings will allow you to quickly apply for opportunities. Why...
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Job Postings on Wall Street.
In a festive mood, I created a fun infographic on the U.S. job postings at the large and mid-sized investment banks. I hope you enjoy!
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Make Yourself Heard.
Speaking at an industry conference is a great opportunity for you to raise your profile among peers, potential employers, and recruiters. Not only do you get exposure at the conference, but also afterwards as many conference organizers keep their conference speaker lists and biographies on their websites for months, if not years, following a conference. Many recruiters, including me, rely...
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Keep Organized through Evernote.
Do you find it challenging to keep track of your job search emails, phone numbers, research, and documents? Maybe the folks at Evernote have the solution for you. Once you have an account, you can access your data from anywhere you have access to the Internet, a smartphone or a mobile device. You can save your interview notes, job search details, and all of your job search documents to your...
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Video Biography.
In this highly competitive job market, maybe it’s time to consider doing a video to set yourself apart from the herd. We recruiters always enjoy something innovative from a candidate like an infographic, video, or a personal QR code. These tools definitely get our attention.
The folks at videoBIO provide video making services and web-based video communication systems that will allow you...
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Facebook De-Friending.
How many friends do you have on Facebook? Over the coming holiday week I recommend you find some time to review your connections and do some purging! Fortunately, de-friending on Facebook doesn’t notify the individual or post the action on your wall.
Many recruiters, including me, look for you on Facebook to see what we can find out about you. Sometimes we find a goldmine of data and...
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Job Seeker Badge.
How do you show a wide audience that you’re looking for a job? Maybe you should consider getting a ‘Job Seeker’ account on LinkedIn. With a premium account, the folks at LinkedIn claim that you will be 50% more likely to be found in search results and twice as likely to be contacted by recruiters and hiring managers about job opportunities.
How does it work? When you apply...
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Social Job Seekers.
The folks at mbaonline recently published a cool infographic about how social media is reshaping the job search. They talk about how this new breed of ‘social job seekers’ are utilizing social networks in ingenious ways to successfully find jobs. Check out the infographic below.
TODAY’S TIP:
Utilize social networks to help you in your job search.
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Training the Street.
If you’re out of a job or considering a job change, you might check out the courses or one-on-one coaching offered by Training The Street (TTS). TTS is the world’s leading provider of instructor-led courses in accounting, financial modeling and corporate valuation training to Wall Street investment banks, business schools, and top colleges. With offices in the financial hubs across the...
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Visiblity on BlueSteps.
To increase your visibility to top recruiting firms around the globe you might consider registering with BlueSteps, a confidential career management service of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC). The service will put you on the radar screen of more than 8,000 recruiters in over 75 countries.
A lifetime BlueStep membership costs $349 with additional premium services available...
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Political Posts & Tweets.
Do you ever post your political views on Facebook? Do you tweet them? Have you ever changed your opinion of a friend based on a political comment they posted on Facebook or Twitter?
The folks at market research firm Lab42 surveyed 500 social media users on politics and published an extensive infographic. Below is a piece of that infographic that focuses on posting and tweeting political...
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Job Postings on LinkedIn.
Earlier today I received an email from the folks at LinkedIn with some intriguing hiring intelligence on the United States (see the infographic below). As a job seeker, you might be intrigued to discover that 537,971 jobs in the United States have been posted on LinkedIn in 2011.
Currently there are around 57,000 job openings in the United States posted on LinkedIn. Check them out: U.S. JOBS
...
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Grammar Checker.
Any communication (e.g., resume, cover letter, email, etc.) with a potential employer should be double and triple checked for grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. If you need an extra set of eyes, I suggest you utilize an online grammar service like Grammarly.
Grammarly is a top proofreading tool that will help you instantly locate grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes as well as...
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Tipsy..Buzzed..Drunk.
Some Wall Street recruitment activities occur over drinks. What seems like a harmless activity can quickly go from good to bad to ugly. While there might be a big difference between being tipsy, buzzed, or outright drunk, my view is that you shouldn’t even roll the dice when it comes to your future. Celebrate after you land the job!
While you should generally avoid alcohol at a...
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Vizualize Your Resume.
The folks at vizualize.me believe that a “traditional text resume is boring, lengthy and long overdue for a makeover.” They’ve created an online resume format that is not only visually attractive, but also highly interactive.
While I’m not sure how many Wall Street recruiters or employers will visit your visualize.me resume, I do believe it’s a highly creative and...
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Performance Reviews.
If you’re actively looking for a job or contemplating a potential move, I recommend you get your hands on your most recent performance review and use it as a tool to self-reflect. Like any other assessment tool (Myers Briggs, Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, etc.), you don’t have to agree with or believe everything you read.
Many Wall Street employers employ 360 degree feedback systems for...
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Personal Business Card.
It can be socially awkward to whip out a resume at a business conference, dinner, or social event. It can also be awkward to hand a potential employer your current employer’s business card. One solution to these quandaries is to order custom personal business cards.
A number of companies offer inexpensive, custom business cards. Two of my favorites are FedEx Office and Vizibility. For...
November 2011
24 posts
1 tag
Job Search Tax Deductions.
If you’re a job seeker, you should keep track of your job-related expenses as they might be tax deductible. But, you can’t outright deduct your expenses. Your job-related expenses are added to other miscellanous itemized expenses and only the amount that exceeds 2% of your adjusted gross income will be allowed as a deduction.
To qualify for job-related deductions you MUST be looking for a new...
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Business Card App.
LinkedIn recently released an updated version of CardMunch, a free iPhone app that turns business cards into contacts you can easily add to your address book. It’s FREE, easy to use, and it’s backed by a 100% accuracy guarantee.
Over the last year I’ve downloaded several business card apps and been very disappointed. However, my disappointment changed to excitement recently...
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Industry Conferences.
No matter what area of Wall Street you work within, there are dozens, if not hundreds of industry conferences both domestically and globally you could attend throughout the year. These conferences are a great opportunity to gain visibility, network, and keep abreast of the market environment.
If you’re gainfully employed, your employer might pay some or all of your expenses to attend one...
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Top 10 Interview Mistakes.
There are a number of top interview mistakes, but here are my top 10 based on years of interviewing. In no specific order…
Top 10 Interview Mistakes:
Spending way too much time explaining why you lost your job.
Talking negative about your former colleagues, bosses and/or employer.
Inability to remember facts about your employment history.
Dodging questions about your historical...
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Show Some Gratitude!
Given today, November 24, is a celebratory day of thanksgiving here in the United States, I thought it would be fitting to post a blog about showing gratitude to those who help you with your job search.
A simple thank you note costs very little and will show your gratitude to someone who has assisted you in some way with your job search. A thank you note should be standard operating procedure. ...
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Your Online Reputation.
The Internet has made it easy for anyone to easily research not only restaurants, hotels, and dentists, but also you! Unfortunately, a recruiter or potential employer might find a scandalous picture, a vulgar comment on Facebook, or something from your past that’s not relevant. Maybe reputation.com can come to your aid.
San Fransisco-based reputation.com is a pioneer in online reputation...
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Facebook 4.74 Degrees.
Six degrees of separation is the idea that everyone is on average around six steps away from everyone on Earth. Thanks to our friends at Facebook, who examined 721 million active Facebook users around the globe (Anatomy of Facebook), the number is actually 4.74. Facebook attributes the lower number to itself and other social networks that have allowed everyone in the last several years to become...
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QR Code for Job Seekers.
I recently went to the Talk to Me exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and within minutes I was downloading a free QR code reader on my iPhone. MoMA had put a unique QR code on everything in the exhibit to encourage visitors to interact and engage in discussion.
A Quick Response code (“QR”) is a matrix barcode that was originally created by Toyota to track vehicles in the...
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Access to Corporate Recruiters.
Sometimes getting a face-to-face meeting with a corporate recruiter at a Wall Street firm can seem as impossible as getting a backstage pass to hang out with Lady Gaga. Know what I mean?
Corporate recruiters on Wall Street are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of emails and phone calls from candidates seeking employment. When I was a corporate recruiter at Citigroup I looked forward to...
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Job Apps for Your iPhone.
It seems that there’s not one, but dozens, if not hundreds, of apps for almost anything you can imagine. For job seekers, the sea of job apps can seem overwhelming. By and large most of the job apps are free so you can easily download one app after another until you find the ones that work best for you. But, what a waste of time.
Over the last week I’ve diligently downloaded one...
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Is Nepotism Bad?
Nepotism has historically had a negative connotation on Wall Street. The practice of showing favoritism to a family member by either directly or indirectly getting them hired at a company often times brings up water cooler conversations about nepotism.
With the collapse of several Wall Street firms and the market capitulation, a number of talented people have found themselves either unemployed...
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Employee Resource Groups.
Corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives have resulted in the establishment of a growing number of employee resource groups across Wall Street. These groups offer employees ways to connect with other employees who share something in common. By and large most of these groups focus on diversity as it relates to gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. However, many companies have expanded...
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Virtual Business Card.
Want to share contact information with someone you just met? Just bump your phones together! Bump™ is an app that allows two smartphone users to bump their phones together and share contact information, calendar events, photos, music, apps and much more. Here are some ways you can utilize Bump in your job search:
SOCIAL NETWORKS: Bump allows you to easily and efficiently send connection...
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Values & Principles.
Yesterday I spent the day at one of the world’s leading sculpture parks, Storm King Art Center, which is a stone’s throw from The United States Military Academy at West Point. Passing by West Point just a day after watching the Veterans Day Parade here in Manhattan sparked a discussion among me and one of my friends about why I strategically target and recruit candidates with military...
1 tag
Psychometric Testing.
For some Wall Street firms, how you play and interact with others in the sand box matters a lot. It matters so much that they’ve turned to psychometric testing tools (Myers Briggs, Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument, etc.) to help them gain an understanding of things like your communication and thinking styles, motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.
Having spent the first 10 years of my career...
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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Are you an ESTJ, INFP, or ENTP? Or, maybe you’re one of the other 13 personality types as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment. Whatever you are, it’s important for you to understand how you perceive the world and make decisions. I believe taking the MBTI and reflecting on the results will help you in your job search.
Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs...
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Problems Synthesizing.
I recently received an 8 page resume from someone who graduated in 1999. While there’s no rule for resume length, it was abundantly clear as I read the resume that the candidate struggles with the ability to synthesize.
In the rapidly expanding information age, the ability to synthesize information is keenly important. Some researchers believe that the ability to synthesize information is...
1 tag
Solving Brain Teasers.
Interview brain teasers aren’t widely used across Wall Street. They’re primarily used in interviews for quantitative finance roles and candidates are generally well aware of the possibility of a brain teaser being posed during those types of interviews. However, I believe everyone should not only expect, but also prepare for that possibility.
My view is that a good interviewer will not be...
1 tag
Spikey Hair.
About six years ago I was sitting in an interview with another seasoned recruiter who couldn’t focus because the interviewee had extremely spikey hair that he found distracting. Personally, I thought the candidate’s hair was very cutting edge. The candidate looked like he had just wrapped up a GQ magazine photo shoot. I was candidly jealous, not only because the guy had great hair but also...
1 tag
First Impressions
In an interview, your appearance and first impression matters a lot. Over the last several months I have posted several blogs on interview attire which you should review. In today’s blog I will focus on grooming.
Some career advisors might tell you that if you aren’t perfectly groomed then a prospective employer might think you don’t pay attention to details. I’m not...
1 tag
Relocation Expenses.
Landing a new job might require you to relocate. If you’re fortunate enough, your new employer will either give you a signing bonus or directly pay for your relocation expenses. Instead of waiting for a formal offer, you should do some planning so that you are well prepared to negotiate for your relocation needs.
I recommend you create a detailed spreadsheet that breaks out each...
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60 Minutes...ticktock...
There’s no standard interview length, but many interviews are for one hour or less. That means you have less than 60 minutes to not only answer questions, but also ask questions. Unfortunately this might be your one and only chance to impress the interviewer so you need to make the 60 minutes work for you.
You need to let the interviewer control the interview, but you can take some steps...
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Font Point Size.
I recently wrote a blog about the importance of selecting a crisp, easy to read font for your resume. In the post titled Fellow Typography Geeks I recommended you use a Sans Serif font like Arial, Tahoma, or Verdana. Once you select your font you need to determine what font point size to use.
Typefaces have different weights and sizes making it difficult for me to broadly recommend the...
1 tag
Legal Advice.
By and large employment contracts on Wall Street have become complex over the last several years as firms have taken steps to protect their interests, not yours. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with their approach simply because they’ve sought legal counsel to craft their employment contracts. But, why don’t you have a lawyer review your employment contract to make sure your interests...
October 2011
27 posts
1 tag
Go West, Investment Banker.
In Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal (25 October 2011), Matt Wirz wrote an interesting article titled Go West, Investment Banker in which he talks about how regional banks have been able to successfully recruit banking talent in the market downturn.
I’ve been beating this drum for some time. In fact, I’ve posted several blogs in the last several months about the regional banks...
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Personal SWOT Analysis.
While in business school, you might have put together a SWOT analysis to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business project or venture. In today’s blog I challenge you to create your own “Personal” SWOT analysis.
The SWOT analysis is a simple, yet very effective tool that you can easily leverage to help you frame your personal strengths and weaknesses as well as...
1 tag
Men's Neck Ties.
The presidential hopefuls are often picked apart by the media for their wardrobe selections on debate nights. The media seems particularly obsessed with the neck tie selections. The discussion often centers around what statement each candidate is making by not only the color of the tie, but also the type of knot they use to tie it. I am sure image consultants spend hours selecting the perfect...
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Fellow Typography Geeks.
Did you know that The Wall Street Journal commissioned a special font (Retina) for its financial tables to not only increase legibility, but also condense the letters to save valuable space? The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) purchased the Retina font in early 2011 along with 22 other digital typefaces for its Architecture and Design Collection. It is a fascinating exhibit that I highly recommend...
4 tags
Know Your Strengths.
Despite what you might read or hear from some publications or career advisors, the strength interview question is by and large not the mark of an unsophisticated interviewer. Perhaps some interviewers who infrequently interview ask the strength question and don’t understand how to engage with the interviewee on the question. However, many interviewers ask the strength question with great...
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Cologne & Perfume.
Fragrances can easily create a good or bad first impression in an interview. If you smell bad, then it is possible the interviewer will walk away with a negative impression. If you smell good, then the interviewer might not even notice. However, if you put on an overwhelming amount and/or an overpowering fragrance then it is almost as bad as being stinky.
While a strong scented cologne or...
